Northern Ireland Community Relations Council - Marking Anniversaries

Case Studies

We wish to receive and develop more short case studies on commemoration and the decade of anniversaries. The format for the case studies uses the following headings.

Organisations involved
Background to the Project
Development and Implementation
Reflection and Learning
Contact Details

We are keen to develop or host more case studies in the hope that these will support the design of projects and programmes that actively involve and enthuse participants.

Click on the links below to access case studies and contact details

My Roots Workshops

Recognising that we all have a story to tell, the Ulster Historical Foundation, organised and ran a series of workshops in 2006–08 aimed at local communities and individuals to help them find out more about their family, local or community histories. The scheme, titled ‘My Roots’, proved most successful with workshops on topics such as, ‘Getting Started in Genealogy’, Church Records, Civil Registration, Census Records and ‘Using the Internet for Genealogy’.

Ethical and Shared Remembering: Commemoration in a new Context

Since 2011 the Junction in partnership with ISE has engaged over 1700 people from diverse backgrounds; statutory, institutional, education, faith, community and voluntary sector, victims and survivors, ex-prisoners. An important element of the project is the engagement with key stakeholders who are directly engaged with planning and implementation of key centennial events in the upcoming decade. The project has also assisted in influencing and shaping policy.

We Were Brothers

The project – which encompasses a play, a book, a DVD, an interactive website as well as school and community outreach programmes – focused on the shared history of nationalists and unionists who fought together under the British uniform during WW1. Based on an in-depth historical research, it related the story of soldiers from the North West, Irish Volunteers and Ulster Battalions, fighting as a combined force during the battle of Messines (Belgium) in 1917. The play was selected as the UK’s Best Heritage project by the 2011 Lottery Awards.

'Military History from the Street': Five Steps for Schools, Prof Richard Grayson (Goldsmiths, University of London)

This briefing sets out five steps which history teachers could use or adapt to help students understand how the military history of the First World War
relates to their area. It draws on methods I used for my book Belfast Boys: How Unionists and Nationalists Fought and Died Together in the First World
War (Continuum, 2009). I describe these as 'military history from the street' because the starting point is the streets of the communities from which men
came, rather than which parts of the military they served in.

Celebrating 15 Year of Peace Building & Provision of Family Services to the Community

Thisproject managed by Cavan Family Resource Centre aims to educate local people on the key events that occurred 100 years ago that shaped the lives we live in our various communities; and examine ways in which we may bring individuals & communities together around these key events such as the Ulster Covenant, 1916 Rising, in a non-threatening way; with opportunities for dialogue provided.