How peace initiative is bringing Belfast kids together

PEACE comes dropping slow, but there is a sense that — even just one week on from members of East Belfast GAA being told to check underneath their vehicles for suspect devices — we are getting there.

The evidence was there in Croke Park yesterday when Gareth Harper delivered a talk about the work of Peace Players International as part of the annual GAA Museum Summer School. The theme this year is around ‘Sport, Peace, and Reconciliation’.

Peace Players International have been working over the last two decades, breaking down misconceptions and barriers in Belfast, but their story began with brothers Brendan and Sean Tuohey, two basketball fanatics from the salubrious Shepherd Park area of Washington DC.

Their Jesuit education led to them forming the non-profit charity that now operates in corners of the globe as far as South Africa, the Middle East, inner-city America and here.

Brendan explained: “Sport is so underutilised as a tool for development. When you mix kids up and give them opportunities to compete, the barriers disappear pretty quickly. It becomes about, ‘Can this person play? If so, I’m good with them’.

“You see the progression from being okay with somebody on the court to starting to be friends and having a relationship, to even parents being part of it and coming to each other’s houses for dinner or rooting together.”

Harper’s involvement with the Peace Players stretches back to 2009. By that stage, they had already been concentrating on working with the pupils of Holy Cross and Wheatfield Primary schools that sit adjacent to each other in north Belfast.

The area had been suffering the desperate effects of the Holy Cross dispute in 2001 and 2002. The Peace Players began to take down the walls brick by brick, by introducing the schoolchildren to each other through basketball.

Harper explained: “In Northern Ireland, the reason it works so well is that basketball is not one of the big sports — it is not one of the big three of Gaelic football, rugby or soccer.

“The reason it works in the schools is the American factors. The kids love the high fives, the American ‘can do’ attitude, the big tall Americans coming over and getting involved and engaging with the programme.”

The children were mixed together to form teams, rather than pitting one school against another. In order to be successful, they would have to respect each other. The strapline of Peace Players is that children that play together can learn to live together.

In time, they progressed to a joint initiative with the GAA, IRFU and IFA called ‘A Game of Three Halves’, where children play short games of Gaelic football, rugby and soccer.

And a central element to what the Peace Players do is conversation. You play the games, then you sit around and discuss the issues that divide your society.

In inner-city America, it is poverty and wealth, mistrust in law enforcement and ethnic backgrounds. In the Middle East, they work with Israeli and Palestinian children.

Here, they can take it onto another level and explore the reasons

Breaking walls: Gareth Harper of the Peace Players (left) working with some young people he has introduced to new sports (above)

why, for example, a child in Wheatfield Primary School has not played Gaelic games or a pupil of Holy Cross has not had a chance to play rugby.

“So that sparks a conversation around the celebration of diversity and difference. That’s really how we use that tool of sport to do that,” Harper explained.

“The big part for us is that they have the contact, they have the opportunity to try out new sports and we have coaches from each of the codes who come and do that.

“But the important thing is we add a ‘fourth half ’ dimension to that, and that is the facilitated conversation. That’s where you learn about difference and diversity and celebrating how sport can be used to recognise diversity.”

These projects do take time. When they were initially progressing the sporting activity from basketball towards Gaelic football, soccer and rugby, there was instant pushback.

They ran their first ‘Game of Three Halves’ event in Ballysillan Leisure Centre nine years ago in July 2011 with over 40 children participating.

When they went to host another event in Queen’s PEC, the students had to be transported in separate buses. Eventually, that barrier was broken down too and they now host each other in their schools.

“It is at the stage now where the kids from Wheatfield come across the road to Holy Cross Girls’. They do treasure hunts and all sorts of things to get them introduced to their school and what their school is all about. Then the other school does the same the following week,” said Harper.

Ask Harper what the legacy of this work is, and he replied with the magnificent line: “We are in the business of doing ourselves out of business.

“We are trying to create a generation of young people who have had a positive experience of somebody from the other tradition, and then has also had the chance to get to know other people from that background, to learn about those traditions and gain respect for that diversity.”

Two years ago, they had a young woman approach them. She and her mother had been involved in the Holy Cross school dispute.

She came up with the idea of hosting another ‘Game of Three Halves’ event as part of the North Belfast Festival.

As part of yesterday’s presentation, Harper was able to screen a short film of two young girls; AJ and Rachel.

They attended the two different schools, and tell their story of how meeting at the Peace Players event led to them being inseparable best friends.

“At one point AJ talks about being away on holiday and felt like her arm was taken off because she did not have Rachel,” said Harper.

“They tell their story much more eloquently than I can, but it tracks their journeys.

“The two schools are 100 yards apart, yet it was Peace Players who gave them the opportunity to get to know each other.”