Concious cusp

Today I was at a conference ran by Healing through Remembering http://www.healingthroughremembering.org/ they are a group of people that are working on a number of strands the one that I have been mostly been interested in the debate about having a Living Memorial Museum of the conflict in and about Northern Ireland. Around two years ago I went to a seminar calling for ideas for a living memorial museum. Just to see what was going on and felt compelled to send in a submission.

My idea was to have a "I never realised" museum with five different "approaches".

1. North-The Northern entrance should show the historical perspective of the UK on the Irish " problem"

2. South-The Southern entrance should show the perspective of the South of Ireland on the "Northern Problem"

3. East-The Eastern entrance should show the Northern Protestant population.

4. West- the Western entrance should show the perspective of the Northern Catholic population.

5. Web based -the virtual part of the museum should show the perspective of the global eye on the "troubles".

The idea being to encourage people to see the "Issues" in N.I/Ireland from different perspectives. The logic behind the idea was that in all the work I have done and experiences I have had in different areas of Northern Ireland, UK and US what has really struck me is that everyone is sure of that their perspective is right and not everyone is willing or acknowledges that people could have a different perspective or if they do, that it's valid. Maybe by creating a space with these perspectives and facilitating discussion it could move society on.

There were lots of different elements fixed, movable, educational etc but what really struck me today that with all of what the speakers were saying was that how many of the themes were echoed in elements of the proposal I had put in.

The first speaker talked about how Northern Ireland was on a curious cusp just on the edge of something else and in this period many things were possible. Some people were saying there was no need for such a museum.

On my way back into the city centre I bumped into a women from one of my courses in North Belfast I ran about 8 years ago she was gainfully employed and was talking about she was talking to her daughter about how you used to have to get your bag searched when going into the city centre of Belfast, her daughter was appalled and started to say it would have been against your civil liberties and human rights etc etc etc. She is only in her early 20's living in Belfast yet this part of our historical memory and collective history was not know to her. This instance itself speaks to me of a need for such a place.