Tag: Good Relations
The Secret’s Out
The emergence of gay rights in NI
“I suppose I knew I was gay or that something was up so to speak, I was about 14-15 and fought against it for a while. I just knew it was wrong even though I read about it and tried to learn about it. I did tell my mo...
May Blood
Talking with Baroness Blood
May was born during World War Two and grew up in Roden Street, a mixed area of Belfast with her mother and sister. He family was separated due to the evacuations during the war. “For the first six years of my life I t...
Joe Baker
Memories of New Lodge
Joe grew up on the New Lodge estate in north Belfast. “When we moved into it, it was a construction site, everything was brand new and spic and span. It was a lot of adventure and a lot of fun playing on the buildi...
Roisin McGlone
Life as a Falls community worker
“The Troubles began at the time we moved up to Andersonstown from the Falls Road. My lasting memory is the raids, whenever the army and police came. This would be before Ulsterisation. They closed off streets and sea...
Joseph Ricketts
To Belfast from Jamaica
Born and raised in Jamaica, Joseph’s father was a contractor who believed his sons should be responsible for their own land and be able to manage work on a farm. When they came of age, Joseph and his three brothers ha...
Darren Ferguson
Aid worker and music fan
Darren grew up in Glengormley. He recalls a time when bomb scares were common. “Me and my brother were fascinated when they brought out the robots to defuse these bombs. I have very clear memories of the police com...
WRDA Lectures – Baroness May Blood
Factory floor to the House of Lords
The inaugural lecture of the Anna Eggert lecture series, organised by the WRDA. Baroness May Blood was the speaker for the afternoon and delivered a biographical lecture entitled “From the factory floor to the House ...
Tura Arutura
Talking with the founder of Artfrique
Tura grew up in Chitungwiza in Zimbabwe during the pre-war period. He recalls it as being a “very colourful beautiful country. Very warm, very hot, it also reflects the nature of the people as well. They wear their he...
Kathleen Kelly
Teaching and community development
The ten years, Kathleen spent as a teacher in the primary school in North Queen Street, brought home to her the poverty in which the children she taught, lived. Originally from east Belfast, where her father was a ...
Eileen Bell
Politics, community work and peace activism
Eileen has worked extensively in Northern Ireland politics, community work and peace activism. “I was brought up to believe that everybody was the same, that there were no differences…” Born in Dromara at the en...
Anne McVicker
Women's Tec in Northern Ireland
Anne was born into a large family, being one of 9 children born in South Belfast. Anne spent most of her childhood growing up in the Cliftonville area in north Belfast. During her youth Anne recalls a lack of youth pr...
Alfred Abolarin
Race relations in NI
Born in northern Nigeria, in Zaria, where he grew up, Alfred has lived in Northern Ireland for twenty years. It was the offer of a job, which brought Alfred to Belfast in the early 1990s. “I was offered a job in Ph...