So today concluded my last day at the Gasworks Community Center. I would have to say that from a personal standpoint this had to be one of the more relaxing days that I have had here in Northern Ireland. Today was a big day as the community gathered to honor those in the community who volunteer their, mostly with no recognition and definitely no pay for the service that they provide to the community. The new mayor of Derry came ( Gerald Diver, SDLP) and gave a speech to the group applauding the work that they do for the community and thanking them for all of the effort they put in. What this day was about was to (pamper) the men and women who volunteer. They received a free lunch at the café and then there were massage therapists, nurses to check blood sugar cholesterol and blood pressure, waxing for women, people to check BMI as well as eye exams, all at no cost for the volunteers.
I spent my afternoon with a couple of older guys who looked like they had been through some serious times during The Troubles, but I did not ask about those times, instead I talked to them about the work that they currently do in the community. Charlie McMullen was my closests companion at the table. Charlie works for an organization called Cunmah, which is a group located on Bishop Street and works at the interface between Bishop Street and the Fountain ( a Protestant community in the Catholic area). He also lives on Bishop street. I talked with Charlie about the work he was doing and some of the issues that he was dealing with in particular. What he told me was that when something happened at the Interface, he is the guy who goes out on the street addressing the issues and getting people talk if necessary. A lot of what goes on tends to involve kids throwing stones or bricks at one another because their parents cannot control or as Charlie phrased it they won’t. A recent incident that he described to me was that some kids from the Fountain were running around with masks on throwing stones. When Charlie heard and called the police, they told him that they were watching them on CCTV, but where not going to do anything about because they did not think they were causing too much of a problem. This is the kind of stuff that he deals with on a regular basis, which leads to his new plan of action. He told me, he was in the process of putting together a letter so that he along with the police couldl go and knock on every door in the Fountain explaining that people have to address the issues surrounding their children. He went on to explain the problem he sees is that there are about 14 different sub groups in the Fountain so it hard to get everyone together to work out solutions because every group is so divided and works on its own. Then Charlie gave his own reasoning for why the people won’t work out a solution- which is that everyone in the Fountain likes to play a victim card because it gives them a sense of identity as an embattled group. Becasue of this they won’t comprise lest they have to break from this identity.
My talk with Charlie might have been the most informative about the conflict within the community. I found it really interesting and a change of pace from social (non-conflict) issues that I had been hearing about for the last couple weeks during placement at theGasworks and more about what I had heard about in lectures. In my opinion, its people who are out in the community making people talk past their differences that are the one who are doing the most important work . They are at the grassroots level as opposed to politicians that seem to have a disconnect from the people ( the impression that I have gotten in my time here.) I think that Charlie had a lot toteach me and I really wish that I could have spent more time with him. This may have been the most relaxing day but it was the most informative day also.
