1.2 How others see you
It can be hard sometimes to separate who you think you are personally and your values and beliefs from how other people see you and your community, as you will explore next.
Activity 3: Welcome to the Shankill
Timing: 15 minutes
Now watch Video 2, a short film with Matty and Dylan about their community, the Shankill.
Download this video clip.Video player: Video 2:
Transcript: Video 2: Welcome to the Shankill
DYLAN
Anything that’s ever been put on the news about the Shankill is about murders or shootings or anything. They never point out the good stuff.
MATTY
We’re very misunderstood, the Loyalist community. Especially the Shankill. People think we’re thugs.
DYLAN
The Shankill’s not what people think it is.
MATTY
They don’t see certain things like this going on, young people like myself doing courses, doing documentaries as a way of getting our voice heard.
[TEXT ON SCREEN]
Welcome to the Shankill
DYLAN
People look at the Shankill and think about shootings and bombings and rioting...
DYLAN
There’s loads of stuff scattered over the Shankill, like memorials and stuff that’s dedicated to buildings that’s been blown up or people that’s been killed.
[TEXT ON SCREEN]
The Shankill is a proudly Protestant Unionist Loyalist area, in West/North Belfast, Northern Ireland.
[TEXT ON SCREEN]
It is one of many communities deeply affected by almost 30 years of violent conflict, between 1969 and 1998.]
[TEXT ON SCREEN]
Today the past still overshadows the present...
DYLAN
If you went to someone over in England or Scotland and said, ‘What do you think about this young lad from the Shankill?’ and showed a picture, they would explain violence, petrol bombs, bricks. Just the bad stuff. It’s just all about violence, people think, so it is. Not going and playing football or going and having a laugh or going to the youth club.
MATTY
I go to a very successful school in the Greater Shankill, in Ballysillan, Boys Model.
I play for a very successful football team from the Shankill, Shankill United. Especially at my age group, under 18. We’re a very successful club, we’ve won numerous trophies around the country, over in England, over in Scotland.
DYLAN
It’s peaceful. People just go about their day-to-day life, shopping, going to the park, going to the swimmers, just doing what normal people do.
MATTY
But it’s regarding young people. There’s not many, there’s not many things to do for young people.
DYLAN
There’s things to do and there’s not that much things to do. There’s a lot for people who want to come and look at the Shankill and look at the past on it.
DYLAN
Definitely. It’s a tourist destination alright like, especially the peace wall.
I live at the peace wall, and thousands of people up and down there every day, and black taxis and buses and all, so there is.
DYLAN
I just think they are mad because it’s a wall. They go to draw their name on it and then drive away again, so they do. But for the people who live here, there’s not much things to do, so there’s not.
MATTY
People want youth clubs etc. to go to, especially young people like myself.
MATTY
If you drive up the Shankill, you see a whole lot of waste ground. There’s about 13 waste grounds that you could easily build houses, youth clubs, football pitches on, because they’re doing it in the Nationalist communities so I don’t understand why they can’t do it in the Loyalist community.
DYLAN
I feel like young people nowadays just don’t really know what to do with themselves because there is nothing to do. If there is something wrong, who do they go to? If there’s anything happening, if there’s fighting or anything, do you ring the police or are they going to come and harass you? Are they going to treat you differently?
MATTY
Before the riots, we peacefully protested. It just wasn’t working.
MATTY
I wouldn’t use violence, but I can understand why someone would use violence if they are being treated differently and their voice isn’t being heard
DYLAN
It’s not like everyone gets this opportunity to speak.
MATTY
I want to study politics at university because I’m already doing politics for GCSE in school.
MATTY
Have a family, raise my family on the Shankill, where I’ve been brought up.
DYLAN
I want to help out in the community, so I do. I want to maybe run a youth club or anything for young people to do to get them out of trouble. Or to just stop people from thinking that it’s only violence.
I would like people to actually see what it’s like to live on a day on the Shankill, so I would. Just to see that it is normal.
MATTY
There’s some people look at the Shankill and just think we’re all wee thugs, we’re all wee hoods, we’re all wee sectarian rioters, but that’s far from the case.
[TEXT ON SCREEN]
This film was made with young people from the Boys’ Model Initiative with ACT project.
Video 2: Welcome to the Shankill
Interactive feature not available in single page view (see it in standard view).
Take a few minutes to write your thoughts in the box below:
- How do Matty and Dylan see themselves and their community?
- How does this compare to how others see them and their community?
- Can you list three things that are important to them personally or they want to change?
Interactive feature not available in single page view (see it in standard view).
Discussion
From listening to Matty and Dylan, you might have noticed how the recent conflict in and about Northern Ireland (1969-1998) dominates how other people and the media sees them and their community in the Shankill, and why tourists come to their area. While the past is still part of life in the Shankill today, the things they value most are not related to the conflict. Matty for example talks about football and school. Dylan talks about the people of the Shankill and just the normal things in life. In terms of what they want to change, they talk about the need to have their voices heard, the need for more opportunities and things to do for young people such as sports facilities, and they talk about their hopes for their future and for a better future for their community too.