Social Work undergrad explores simmering divisions of Belfast

Visit Belfast or Derry and you quickly get a sense of division, even years after the peace process was adopted. Like urban battle lines, reminders are everywhere: political murals and curbs carefully painted with the red, white and blue of the Union Jack or the orange, green and white of the Irish flag.

The curbs and murals were painted for much more than just decoration during ‘The Troubles.’ They were (and are) serious demarcation lines for neighbourhood identities and loyalties. When social work undergraduate Brooke Bull lived in Ireland for a year in 2011, the division of space stayed with her along with an understanding that the scars of the Northern Ireland conflict are still near the surface for many living there.

“The thing that took me by surprise was how commonplace the conflict is and how normalized that kind of environment is for people,” says Bull. “For example, my train from Dublin to Belfast was detoured, presumably because of a bomb threat, which is something that as a Canadian I had never experienced. I was amazed at how nonchalant people were.”

For some, moving on isn't that easy

When she entered the Faculty of Social Work, Bull began reflecting on what she’d seen through a social work lens, and began to consider issues like social justice, and the lived and learned experience of people who lived through the conflict. In doing a literature review she came across a theme that resonated with her own observations of the divided neighbourhoods and the tension she’d felt bubbling just below the surface.

“There are survivors who live with psychological trauma, physical injury or other impacts on their lives,” says Bull. “Those things stay with them, regardless of the fact that the conflict is supposedly over. They don't have an opportunity to use their voice, and their experiences aren't heard.”

PURE undergraduate research award provides opportunity

Last summer Bull, who is entering the final year of her Bachelor of Social Work degree, had the opportunity to pursue this research question thanks to a PURE award from the University of Calgary. PURE (Program for Undergraduate Research Experience) awards provide UCalgary undergraduates financial support to conduct hands-on research for eight, 12 or 16 weeks between May and August.

You really can’t get much more “hands-on” than Bull did — roaming the streets of Belfast and Derry during Marching season (when emotions run highest in Northern Ireland), asking people to reflect on their experiences following the conflict.

“A lot of people, particularly in the nationalist community, find that week very, very tense,” says Bull, “so everyone decided to take their holidays. I’d been emailing people in advance of my trip, and they said, ‘We'd love to talk to you, but we're literally not around.'

“Also people love to talk to you and will tell you incredible things, then you ask if they’d be interested in having a formal conversation, people said, ‘No.’ One of the interesting reasons people [gave me] was that they felt that somebody else was more qualified to speak on the subject.’”

BREXIT debate creates tension 

Luckily Bull had a “Plan B” and she ended up focusing her study on a media analysis, with the idea that media reports both reflect societal discourse and reproduce them. For example, Bull looked at the tension being created by BREXIT, which has brought up the idea of a physical border. Such a border would violate the terms of the Belfast Agreement, which clearly stated that no such division can be created. Instead of having what could be a full and open debate, Bull says journalists are instead focusing on politicians and other “talking heads.”

“The things that do come out in the media about communities are done very subtly,” says Bull. “It implies that the communities are too divided. There are lots of historical and current examples to demonstrate that, in fact, people are more than capable of working together across community lines.”

PURE provides learning you just can't get in the classroom

As she pulls together her summer of research Bull doesn’t hesitate to recommend PURE to other undergraduates.

“People can talk to you in a classroom about ethics,” says Bull, “but it's an entirely different thing to fill out an ethics application and negotiate whether the application fully encompasses the actual ethical dilemmas you’ll face in field work. When you actually design your research questions and interview guides, it makes you think in a different way that you just can't get in a classroom. It's definitely an experiential learning.

“So if you want to do research — you have to physically, tangibly go do the thing to really learn how to do it.”

PURE awards provide financial support to University of Calgary undergraduates to conduct research for eight, 12 or 16 weeks between May and August, making it possible for students to work with UCalgary researchers to learn how research projects are developed and conducted, and how research results can contribute to new knowledge and solve problems in a field of research and in society. Learn more.