Schools as agents of community recovery in Northern Ireland

Las escuelas como agentes de recuperación comunitaria en Irlanda del Norte

Denial was a major form of coping during the worst years of the "Troubles" in Northern Ireland. Consequently, the traumas of young people, and the role of schools as agents of community healing, were denied by the majority. When I was first invited to train teachers and social workers in 1994, I was shocked to discover that this was the first input on trauma that many had received. I have continued working in the Province, first in a long-term project in schools serving deprived areas of Derry such as the Bogside, the scene of the Bloody Sunday shootings of 1972, and then for 2 years with the Education Boards and schools affected by the Omagh bomb of 1998. This was the worst single terrorist incident of the "Troubles" and came 4 months after the Peace Agreement. However, the Peace meant that for the first time community trauma services could be openly provided.

This paper outlines the progress of attempts to put the role of community approaches on the public agenda, especially in schools, and defines the issues that prevent and promote this happening. Work in the aftermath of the London Docklands and Manchester IRA bombs of 1996 allow comparisons to be made with incidents occurring in communities without the backdrop of on-going conflict.

In particular I shall draw on the experience of working in a small rural school with multiple bereavements and trauma experiences. This provides a microcosm of the wider situation - how the specific situation of an individual person or school is interconnected with the wider context of an uneasy Peace, the loss of hope, and the seemingly intractable divisions (religious, gender, class) in society. This was the complex social, political and economic context in which we had to work and engage with individuals, groups, community organisations and the Education system.

At the same time, our philosophy and practice, grounded in community approaches, had to operate alongside a dominant culture in established services of individual pathology and treatment and keep an eye on opportunities to change attitudes and systems for the future.

Our practice integrated Action Research methods using first, second and third person enquiry to create knowledge, which informed and developed our work and aimed to empower the people and organisations we served.