A group of Carrickfergus women have been learning about the history of Northern Ireland and the peace process during a six-week course supported by Clanmil Housing.
The Exploring Our Identity project was funded by the Department for Communities and the NI Housing Executive as part of a Good Relations plan for the new ‘Housing For All’ shared housing development on Belfast Road, Carrickfergus.
The Exploring Our Identity project was funded by the Department for Communities and the NI Housing Executive as part of a Good Relations plan for the new ‘Housing For All’ shared housing development on Belfast Road, Carrickfergus.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 [Music]
00:19 I had previously done stuff with the Forum and it was all around culture and identity
00:24 and I said I'd like to grow that a bit and explore that a wee bit more
00:28 because there's so many cultures coming to Northern Ireland that we're not aware of
00:32 and we can't really learn about other cultures until we discover our own
00:37 and I've grew up in one culture that I know nothing about the other side, as they call it here
00:43 and it would be good to explore that and that's how it kind of came around.
00:47 It blew my mind off this course because I didn't realise what happened years ago,
00:53 how the flags all came about.
00:55 So much went on to be honest, I nearly would need a second course to really intake it.
01:01 I would really like to educate myself further because I didn't know nothing
01:07 but I really enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to the next one.
01:11 There was bits in it I never knew, we didn't learn in school
01:14 and schools should definitely be teaching it.
01:17 You know even in talking, I grew up in a Protestant home and it was talked about
01:23 but not the real original story of it.
01:27 What was really interesting was going to the theatre and seeing the story of David Irvine
01:33 and it was fascinating.
01:35 Well I'd just seen him as being from a Protestant party
01:38 but to realise he's seen both sides to the conflict.
01:43 I would like to do the next course and learn about other religions.
01:46 We need to learn to respect everybody's different religions
01:50 but we need to learn about them to understand where they're coming from.
01:54 The women came together after COVID, working out of isolation.
02:03 They were looking for a bit of comfort.
02:05 Some weeks we have 30 women in the room.
02:08 They come together every Tuesday and when we don't have projects running
02:12 they'll do craft classes.
02:14 They've built relationships but most for me as the coordinator of the forum
02:19 is the support that they give each other and the friendship that they've built
02:24 and the support is amazing to see.
02:27 This is a lifesaver, this group.
02:30 It gets people out, it gets us all together, different ages but we're all one.
02:36 We all stand up for each other.
02:38 [Music plays]