Hello from Belfast! It’s been quite a while since many of you have heard from me, especially those from the Appleton Rotary who I briefly spoke to before my departure in early September. It has now been about 5 months since I arrived and an update is long overdue.
For those of you who do not remember or are unfamiliar, I moved to Belfast to start my Master’s degree at Queen’s University with the support of the Appleton and Belfast Rotary Clubs. Rotary activities here have certainly kept me busy. I attend lunchtime meetings at the Belfast Rotary Club about once a month. The club meetings are held at the beautiful and famous Europa Hotel. Alongside a delicious lunch buffet, at the meetings, I have enjoyed a variety of talks on topics ranging from local Judicial decisions, Brexit and the future of local business, and the impact of Northern Irish Presbyterians on the American Revolution and democracy. I even managed to say a few words myself at the September club meeting. I also briefly spoke about myself, the Appleton club, and the scholarship at the 2019 Rotary Ireland Conference, where also I learned that I am the only Global Scholar in Ireland this year (apparently, a rare occurrence).
Equally, if not more special are the connections I’ve made through the club. My primary contact Bryan is nothing but hospitable, having collected me from the airport, been my personal tour guide around the city, and accompanied me to the Rotary Ireland Conference. He is currently working to arrange a personal meeting for me with Cooperation Ireland, a community organisation that works in conflict resolution to promote positive relationships across the community. Through the club and conference, I’ve had the chance to meet many others including the district governor and local leaders working in areas related to youth/community development and conflict transformation.
Sticking to the topic of Rotary, one of my more recent escapades has been helping to revive the Belfast Rotaract club. A couple months ago I was contacted by other young people involved in Rotary who are trying to re-establish what was once a thriving Rotaract club. As of this week, I have been elected acting secretary of the club! While we have a large handful of committed people we are hoping to recruit more and become an official society (read: club) through the University. For Christmas, a handful of members (unfortunately, myself not included) attended charity events held by the Belfast and Lisburn Rotary clubs (a nearby town). We are working on social and educational events this coming week, including a historic themed day trip to Derry-Londonderry.
Volunteering is high on my agenda for my year and is also a requirement of the Global Scholarship. As life often does, my attempts to establish a regular volunteer position have not gone to plan. I have had plenty of help in identifying interesting potential organisations to work with and connecting with them. However, one that I was particularly interested in and literally spent months pursuing ultimately fell through due to scheduling issues. Such is the reality of life. Luckily, I just applied to another volunteer position through St. Peter’s Immaculata and Queen’s University which co-run a youth group for young people from an economically disadvantaged neighbourhood that is associated with the past conflict in Northern Ireland. This opportunity seems like a better fit and has opportunities for more engagement with other programmes run by St. Peter’s Immaculata. After months of searching and emailing, hopefully the hard work will pay off shortly. I’m optimistic that I’ll have lots to share on the volunteering front soon.
School, of course, cannot go without mention and there is certainly much to say. Between my classes as well as master classes and guest speakers organised by the Mitchell Institute I feel as if my schedule is non-stop. Last semester, I took three classes ‘Global concepts and practices of conflict transformation and social justice’, ‘The legacy of conflict’ and ‘Approaches to research design’. These courses formed a solid base for my learning and introduction to the field of peace and conflict studies. In the next semester in addition to thinking more about my dissertation, I will be taking ‘Gender and politics’, ‘The anthropology of conflict’, and ‘conflict mediation’. Since we were able to pick these classes and they are less cut and dry methodological based, I am incredibly excited about what’s coming next. They are sure to help me prepare for my ideal future career in non-profit work.
Talks by guest speakers were another highlight of my learning over the past few months. Of particular interests was a small group discussion and poetry reading with Damian Gorman. Gorman is a Northern Irish poet and playwright much of whose work is related to his and other’s experiences during the Troubles. A long-time poetry lover, I found myself inspired and deeply touched by his work. I’ve shared one of his poems below at the end of this post.
Another guest speaker and leader of our first-semester master class, Professor Michael Maguire, also held a fascinating conversation with my course. Professor Maguire is a former Police Ombudsman, a completely independent position that handled misconduct and criminal investigations involving police officers. He discussed the requirements of his job and the challenges associated with lingering issues from the Troubles in which the police were heavily involved and often stirred controversy. Our conversation with Professor Maguire demonstrated above all the need for efforts of ‘deal with the past’ and restore a sense of justice even in societies that are considered ‘post-conflict’.
Before starting the next semester and after finishing many essays post-holidays I have a few days off. With an unfamiliar excess of time on my hands, I managed to dodge the rain and winds to partake in my favourite activity, getting out into nature. A couple of friends and I drove to a national trust site in Newcastle, about an hour south of Belfast. There we spent time walking along the coast in close view of the Mourne mountains on a rare, but gorgeous sunny day. Over the coming weekend, I hope to go up north to the stunning causeway coast for another little city break before hunkering down for the next semester. I also want to spend a little time catching up on the local politics because the Northern Irish parliament is trying to get up and running after a three-year hiatus. New and controversial legislation is on the table making for complicated and exciting times here in the North!
That’s all for now. Thank you for reading, especially if you’ve made it this far. For more pictures scroll to the bottom of the page. Otherwise, enjoy the poem previously mentioned.
Hope you are all well and had a lovely holiday season. All the best. Cheers!
A poem for the Poetry Jukebox, to mark 20 years of the Good Friday Agreement, by Damian Gorman. Sourced from the Belfast Telegraph.
Especially in a broken home like ours,
Where broken floors and windows feed the cold,
Each generation has a sacred task –
To tell a better story than it was told.
For we are reared by stories in such places,
Clawing through the bitter draughts of these
For something we can truly get a hold of
That seems to help us off our shattered knees.
The kind of myth my generation supped
Was, “We have better heroes than they’ve got.
For ours are much more decent – to a fault,
And if we’ve a rotten apple, they’ve the Rot”.
Our steps are now, at best, precise and formal
Like dressage horses going nowhere well;
Our peace a thing we part-baked in the 90s
And left to prove, and got used to the smell.
Yet even in this half-peace we are living
Where death is only half-dead, I am sure
That we could learn to change our tunes completely,
But if I was us, I wouldn’t start from here.
If I was us I wouldn’t start from here
For here’s a swamp we’ve stood in for too long.
We haven’t kept our heads above the water,
And haven’t seen a thing where we have gone
And we should fly now – frightened for our children –
Kick off the bottom, rush towards the air,
And break the water into different daylight
And gasp, and say what we can see from there.
For especially in a broken home like ours,
Where broken floors and windows feed the cold,
Each generation has a sacred task –
To tell a better story than it was told:
A story made, as honey is in bees,
From things that we have found outside ourselves.
Global Scholar 