In Northern Ireland, we coordinated several studio days in different locations around the country. We wanted to hear stories of healing in the wake of their sectarian violence known as the Troubles. As we often do, we partnered with existing groups who are already doing good work on the ground in an effort to amplify voices of hope and healing.
We partnered with the Women of Clonduff, a group who have gathered to forge bonds, links, and friendships between women in borderland communities. We asked, “What gives you hope?” or “When have you bridged a divide?” Here’s a look at what the process looks like.
And we spent time at Black Mountain Shared Space in Belfast. It’s a community center that opened a year ago on the site of a former peace barrier that kept Protestant and Catholic communities apart since the Troubles. Now, Black Mountain Shared Space works to bring people together, healing wounds and building relationships in the wake of the conflict. Sometimes building trust is as simple as finding ways to bring people together and help them get to know one another better.
At the end of our studio days in Belfast, we led a public program at Black Mountain Shared Space and projected some of the images on the exterior of the building, a symbolic space where everyone could be seen and heard in a creative and powerful way.
Here’s a press release about our work with Black Mountain Shared Space that got some press in Belfast LIve and The Irish News.
Beyond the Bricks: Communities Heal Divides with Storytelling Project
Communities in West Belfast have bridged the divides of the Million Brick Peace Wall in a storytelling initiative that works to promote healing through conversations about conflict resolution, civic responsibility, and social change.
Black Mountain Shared Space (BMSS), which is funded through the International Fund for Ireland’s Peace Barriers Programme (PBP), worked with award winning American photographer John Noltner and his ‘A Peace of My Mind Project.’
The multimedia arts initiative uses a mix of portrait photography, personal stories, interviews, and workshops to examine the challenges that still divide communities today. It culminated with a powerful public projection on the building’s exterior with images of residents and their shared experiences.
The Black Mountain Shared Space hub, on the former Finlay’s factory site, has become a prominent symbol of hope for interface communities, empowering residents to see what possible beyond physical barriers through transformation, investment and regeneration.
BMSS Project Manager Seamus Corr shared: “For years, these communities struggled in silence. This project offered a vital space for people to reconnect, share their stories, and be heard—bringing voices together around common ground and the issues that truly matter to them.”
A Peace of My Mind has been successfully running for 15 years using portraits and personal stories to bridge divides and encourage dialogue around important issues. In a divided world, storytelling is used to discover what connects people and communities.
John Noltner talks about his time in Belfast: “The Project works with people who are finding creative solutions to some of our most challenging issues, and we aim to amplify those voices so that we can reimagine the ways we can live better together.
He added, “A Peace of My Mind came to Northern Ireland to learn, to understand what has happened, the healing that has begun, and the work that remains.
“It’s no secret that the United States has challenges around race, gender, faith, class, we experience our own separation, and the divides just keep growing deeper. I see parallels between the path we are on and the Troubles that Northern Ireland has navigated, and that worries me. I find it encouraging to see how many people in Northern Ireland are engaged in the hard work of rebuilding social trust in communities that have been fractured.”
The project plans several international trips, beginning with this visit to Belfast, to examine how other societies have navigated conflict.
Local resident Lily Brannon adds; “This programme was excellent. I worked on the old Finlays Site for over 20 years, before it closed, and the security barriers were put up. Now the barriers are down, and we are making new friends again. I never thought I would see the day where both communities would come together again.”
_____
Below, you’ll find the responses of the people we photographed at both locations. I’ve come away with a new understanding of how easily social trust can be broken and how long it takes to rebuild again. And how ordinary people will step up to do the hard work of creating healing and hope in a hopeless world.
And finally, here’s a video that includes the stories above as well as some we gathered from Corrymeela last year.