On a beautiful sunny day at the end of February pupils of Lurgan College and St Ronan’s College met at the Jethro Centre to travel to Londonderry/Derry as part of the Shared Education Project taking place between our two schools. The visit had been facilitated by Olive Hobson at the Jethro Centre and was funded by Circle of Learning. The activities during the day were organised by the Playhouse Theatre in Derry/Londonderry.
We had a comfortable coach journey up to the “Maiden City” and arrived at around 11:30. From there we were given a tour of the murals in the Bogside by two local artists. By gaining an understanding of what the murals stood for, the pupils also gained by developing a deeper appreciation of the issues which affected the people of Londonderry/Derry and particularly the people of the Bogside in the early years of the Troubles.
After the Bogside, we had a tour of the walls of the city and found out some interesting stories about the city, such as the origins of the phrases “catwalk” and “copywright”, both of which originated in Derry/Londonderry. We also learned much about the experiences of the people of the city during the Siege of Derry in 1689. There were some disturbing revelations about the suffering of the people living under siege at that time.
We then moved on to the Playhouse Theatre and had a very tasty lunch, which was followed by workshops. One of these workshops involved hearing the story of a lady whose husband was murdered by the IRA after being forced to drive a car bomb to an army checkpoint. Nothing spoke of the horrors and despair of the Troubles like this lady’s story and we were deeply moved. The other workshop was more light-hearted as Fionnbarr from the Playhouse showed us how to produce drum beats and drum music together.
We went home at 3 o’clock after a very interesting and rewarding day. We were however, struck by the polite but distant approach of the pupils of each school towards one another and once again we were made aware that we still have much to do to build a harmonious society in this country.
Fin Lappin (Lurgan College)