Category: Stranmillis News

Belfast in the 1970s – remember the colours, the music, the flares…. the Troubles.

‘The Professor and The Factory’ is the latest play from Stranmillis University College lecturer and national award-winning playwright, Dr. Michael Ievers. The premiere will be staged at the Sean Hollywood Arts Centre in Newry on the 17th May, before the run continues at the Black Box in Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter on the 24th and 25th June and at Studio 1A as part of the Open House Arts Festival in Bangor on the 9th August.

Commissioned by Marble Productions, this is Michael’s third play, and the cast includes not only the renowned political journalist and actor, Ivan Little, but no less than four Stranmillis alumni, in Dawn Murphie, Adam Baird, Michael McCandless and Jason Nugent. After the play’s performance Ivan Little is interviewed about his new book, ‘Reporting The Troubles.’

‘The Professor and The Factory,’ transports you back to Belfast in the 1970s, and to a moment in time when the ‘weemin’ had their say. It’s based upon a true story about the fortunes of a failing shirt factory so transformed by the arrival of a professor from Queen’s University that during the Ulster Workers’ Council strike of 1974, the women of the shirt factory repeatedly breached the barricades to keep the factory going. This is the story of these women.

On 7th April a group of ten BEd students from Stranmillis and St. Mary’s University Colleges with two lecturers, Dr Anita Gracie and Dr Gerard McCann, met for the first time and headed off to Poland for a week-long intensive course in Internationalisation and Diversity.

This course involved learning about how our partner universities, Krakow and Krosno, facilitate international programmes for multicultural groups of students and how they use technology to collaborate with university classes across the world. The students had the opportunity to participate in one of these classes with East Carolina University via videoconference link where they discussed whether English will remain the global language in the future, and what form of English should be taught to students to best facilitate global communication.

The students and staff also heard about local Polish Easter traditions and then did some traditional craft activities such as decorating eggs with découpage, yarn-wrapping and sequins. They were able to share some traditional Belfast fudge with the international students as we all worked together – this went down a treat!

Another aspect of this course was going on field-trips to sites of historical interest. The group visited Auschwitz and reflected on how this place was an emotional and sobering reminder of what happened when people failed to see the common humanity and inherent worth of every single person on earth. They also also visited Lancut (pronounced Winesoot…?) Castle, where they marvelled at the lavish extravagance of the interior decoration of this ‘mini-Versailles’. On the last day of the trip they had the opportunity to learn about glassmaking – the primary industry of the town of Krosno where they had been based for the last four days.

One of the main benefits of this programme was the opportunity for the students to really get to know one another and to learn together about how diversity and globalisation is shaping the university experience for students all over the world and indeed, how technology and internationalisation are shaping how the world communicates – Professional Learning for a Changing Society in action!

Jill Magennis, Stranmillis Lecturer in Early Years Education and PhD student in the Queen’s School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work, recently returned home from a study visit to Israel; she reflects on this visit below:

‘I recently spent time in Israel in association with the Centre for Evidence and Social Innovation (CESI) and the LINKS network which is part of the international Early Childhood Peace Consortium (ECPC) in partnership with UNICEF, Yale, Harvard and New York University which seeks to support the development and evaluation of early childhood development (ECD) programmes in societies affected by conflict.

My PhD is associated with the LINKS network, led by the Centre for Evidence and Social Innovation under the direction of Professor Paul Connolly. LINKS currently works in six countries and is seeking to expand the network to include additional partner countries, including Israel.

My visit enabled me to continue data collection for my doctoral studies and I also had the opportunity to engage in the Bi-National Meeting: Israel and Northern Ireland, organised by Professor Margalit Ziv from Kaye Academic College of Education and Professor Dorit Aram from Tel Aviv University in partnership the MOFET Institute. This provided opportunities to discuss current research surrounding peacebuilding in early childhood in Israel and also learn more about the international work of LINKS shared by colleagues from Queen’s University, Belfast: Professor Paul Connolly, Dr Sarah Millar, Dr Laura Dunne and Dr Nicole Craig. This was also in collaboration with Dr Siobhan Fitzpatrick (CEO) and Pauline Walmsley (Deputy CEO) from Early Years – the organisation for young children. The meetings explored possible opportunities in the future to work together to support the development of early childhood development (ECD) programmes that seek to contribute to peacebuilding in Israel. A number of similarities were identified between this work and various initiatives being undertaken through the LINKS partner countries.

Speaking of the visit, LINKS Director, Professor Paul Connolly said: “We have had a very productive and inspiring two days learning about the work currently being undertaken in relation to ECD for peacebuilding in Israel and sharing experiences and perspectives. The issues facing the early childhood sector in Israel are complex and challenging. We were impressed by the commitment of colleagues working in this context to promote inclusion and respect for diversity and to challenge prejudices and discrimination.”

Thank you to Professor Connolly for his support in making this visit possible – I found it to be both productive and insightful as I continue my exploration into the experiences of educators in relation to promoting respect for diversity and ways forward for peacebuilding in conflict affected societies. My immediate priority is to complete my PhD. However, there are opportunities for me to continue and extend my research in this area with colleagues in Israel as part of my ongoing involvement in the LINKS network.

I would like to thanks my colleagues at Stranmillis, Dr Noel Purdy, Dr Patricia Eaton and Dr Glenda Walsh for their ongoing support with my studies and enabling me to make this visit possible to complete this phase of my doctoral studies. I look forward to sharing this work on peacebuilding with students across our PGCE, BA in Early Childhood Studies and BEd Primary in relation to PDMU, inclusion and cultural diversity.

“…to inspire others, we must continue to think of peace and know that peace is possible. What we dwell upon we help bring to manifestation. One little person giving all of her time to peace makes news. Many people giving some of their time can make history.”  – The Peace Pilgrim

To find out more about CESI and the Links network, click on the links below:

Centre for Evidence and Social Innovation: https://www.qub.ac.uk/research-centres/cesi/

LINKS network: https://www.qub.ac.uk/sites/links/