Q Q Q Q Q Q Q connect 2019 • 44 DERRY PLAYHOUSE (Max) The thing that really solidified our funding for two years and enabled us to really deliver the project was The Ireland Funds’ Flagship support. It was a pilot project, and that two years of funding allowed us to prove that what we did works. It engages with the right young people, and it enables them to think about crime, justice and their community in a dif- ferent way. From that two years of investment, we’ve now accessed money through the government’s Fresh Start Agreement, and that has a strand of money which is for tackling paramilitarism. We are now working in eight of the areas that are identified through that Agreement as being high-risk. Several of them are in and around the greater Belfast region, and one is here in Derry. So the Street Talk program has snowballed in a very good way. (Elaine) One of the things that Street Talk does which is probably quite unique for young people, is that we create a safe, non-judgmental space for young people to talk about crime and to talk about their relationship with the police. Very often that relationship is not very good, as you can imagine, but we challenge that subtly and slowly, and we use artists who are role models for those young people. We create a space where a group of young people begin to self-govern. Very often in those group workshops the answers start to bubble to the surface. (Elaine): Paramilitary activity has increased here, so that is a very sharp jump back into the past. Last year there was a massive increase in Derry and in Belfast of paramilitary-style shootings, so we made a short film with our teens called “Recruited,” which talked about and underscored these kind of issues. It was fictional, but picked up threads of stories that young people had told us. The children talk about paramilitaries in the street. The lights go out, and it is almost like ghosts at work in their community. So that’s very much at the moment something in our community that we’re trying to address. (Elaine) I’ve had discussions around that with lots of different people. I don’t know if Brexit has had indirect impact on that? There is a height- ened threat of that kind of hard border coming back into Northern Ireland. That ties into people’s relationships and their perception of the police and who governs communities. Very often when we ask young people, ‘who do you see as being your police?’ Who deals with issues of law and justice?’ They would say, ‘the paramilitaries.’ (Caroline) So we may be short on jobs and investments and prospects for the future, but one thing we are never short of is a huge generation of young people. We have one of the biggest and youngest populations of young people in Western Europe. There is always a new generation coming up. The 10 to 12-year-olds here still feel the legacy of the trauma, and the legacy of the violence of the Troubles. (Elaine) Many of these children look up to the paramilitaries and gangs. They represent power to them. Through the new work that we are doing in Belfast and Derry, we are working with very vulnerable young people to address those issues. (Pauline) Yes, it’s something that we worry about. If we didn’t worry about it, our register would not be complete. Yet we think risks are worth taking for peace and for this younger generation coming up. (Elaine) There’s always that threat. Some of the young people here have parents who are active paramilitary, or their brothers and sisters have been involved. We always ensure that we’re very honest with the parents or guardians about what we are doing, and there is an opt in/opt out for their young person to be part of the discussions. We ensure that we do every- thing with transparency, because those issues are very difficult. (Pauline) The suicide rate here is getting higher. (Caroline) More young people have died since the Troubles, from suicide, then actually died during the Troubles. There is a culture, particu- larly with young men, they don’t like to speak about it. Its the social and economic circumstances and the legacy of the conflict. We need to offer hope. Without hope, people die. (Max) There is less investment in mental health in Northern Ireland than there is in England, Scotland or Wales. And the current lack of government does not help. So it’s the community, the voluntary sector that tries to pick up and fill the gaps. (Max) It’s about survival at the moment, because our core funding is under threat from our Arts Council. And again, the lack of government does not help that. We are uncovering the unspoken stories from the Trou- bles, very raw and painful stories that some people have kept locked up. And just unlocking those on stage, using theater to tell the story, to try and provoke empathy and understanding, it’s very difficult work. (Elaine) There is a need and a purpose and I think there always will be. While we see that, we will continue to make it work. (Pauline) We live in a segregated province: segregated social housing, segregated schools, people don’t get the opportunity to meet the other community, and through the Playhouse and through our work across Northern Ireland, people meet.