Our final profile focusing on individuals from Fermanagh is from Janet McCusker. Janet coordinated 2 groups through the core program and also was Programme Coordinator for EXPLORE. She worked for the TOGETHER schools program, along with Peter McNiece Jonathan Donnelly Maeve Grimleyand Liam Michael McCusker, and played a major role in shaping and building it. My name is Janet Mc Cusker, I originally from Fermanagh but I live in Belfast now. I got involved with SOE in 2007, through a friend who was a member of Future Voices. My first workshop really hooked me, I loved to hear other people’s opinions, share my own and be challenged. After that I was asked to facilitate a schools day for the TOGETHER programme in BRA in North Belfast, the day was so difficult, I wasn’t that sure what a ‘facilitator’ did but it was so interesting to hear people from a completely different background to me talk about their lives and how they dealt with different people. The interest kept me going, I could see that SOE was something so important in NI, within a day people would talk honestly and openly about issues they would never normally talk even in their own school. So I was pretty much hooked and when I was asked to coordinate an Explore group of course I said yes. I was also so lucky to be involved in the Explore Programme as a co-ordinator especially as I had never been away on the programme as a participant. There was a steep learning curve but John Hastings and Ross Irvine were very generous to me and supported me every step of the way. It was truly a privilege to meet the young people I met through Explore. It was something so worthwhile and important to allow young people to meet, listen to and work with people who were different to them. I dont fully know how to explain what I got from SOE. I think everyone involved took something different and no matter what it was it was meaningful. I learned more about myself than at any other time in my life. Coordinating is the best and hardest thing I have ever done. In 2009 I remember arriving in Penobscot ( Maine USA) and seeing the SOE room and being overwhelmed. SOE had been traveling to Penobscot for 10 years before we arrived. Every group had completed a mural and it was amazing to be part of that. To understand that this was our turn to add to this and I was hit with the weight of this expectation. It was all a bit to much, we all were part of a legacy. It started with Gordon Wilson and we had a duty to continue to try to make NI a better place, one where no family would have to go through what the Wilson family and far too many families when through. I coordinated again in 2010 and went to Cyprus. We worked with Greek Cypriots and Turkish cypriots, we learned about their conflict and they learned about NI. Naturally when I was asked to work in the office after I explained to Chuck Richardson that I was probably not the best person for the job, I said yes. I never really liked school, my school was a large all girls catholic grammar school and it was very easy to get lost in it. SOE for me was a day where young people stood on an even playing field, no matter what your background, school, if you were academic, sporty or alternative, we tried to make the work accessible. My favourite part of schools work was Year 11 Citizenship work because we would work with all of the Year group, it truly was were we had to work to include as many people as possible. This work was usually done in partnership between schools for different backgrounds (Religious and academic) within the area. In this work you really could see how divided areas are, neighbours would sit for the first time together in a classroom and be surprised when it was a good experience. It is a sad reflection of our school system that it takes groups like SOE to do this. All of these experiences forced me to face the true nature of our society, a divided society. We learned more about our neighbours by explaining our stories to strangers that we had ever at home or in our own school. This is the strength of all of the work of the trust and this was the true legacy of the words of Marie and Gordon on that Sunday in Enniskillen. Northern Ireland is not the same place it was in 1987 thankfully but we have much more work to do. I worked in SOE for 4 years and I found myself constantly explaining that NI was a transition society. We are on a road to a shared future from a divided past but we can not expect that to happen by itself or for others to do the work. I learned that we all have to stand up every day in how we treat each other, what questions we ask of those around us and how we work with those who we do not agree with. This was what all the programmes asked you to do, to see a person and ask a question rather than shy away and aggressively cling to our preconceptions. SOE was built out of human tragedy, that hurt ripples out and can so easily turn to fear and hate. The Enniskillen Bomb became a symbol of hope and humanity, of forgiveness and that should never be forgotten and hopefully the work of SOE and the people it impacted will play a part in that.
Posted on: Mon, 17 Nov 2014 14:40:28 +0000
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