Photographer of the Week
From October 28, 2024, to November 03, 2024 – Week 44
Behind the Shot: Andrew
There is hardly any other country in Europe where a past conflict is still as present in daily life as Northern Ireland. Not only by physical barriers as walls and fences but also through a divided society in minds. I have been documenting what it means for young people, all of whom were born after the peace agreement was signed, to grow up under this intergenerational tension – in both, Protestant and Catholic neighbourhoods.
“If I had been born at the top of my street, behind the corrugated-iron border, I would have been British. Incredible to think. My whole idea of myself, the attachments made to a culture, heritage, religion, nationalism and politics are all an accident of birth. I was one street away from being born my ‘enemy’.” –Paul McVeigh, Belfast-born novelist.
In both England and the Republic of Ireland, “the Troubles” seem a long way off. Even back then, people wanted to have as little to do with the civil war-like conditions in the north of Ireland as possible. To this day, both Republican Catholics and Loyalist Protestants feel forgotten or shunned by Dublin and London like the grubby uncle in the family. And yet, or perhaps precisely because of this, the old conflict still overshadows people's lives today in Belfast. Especially those of young people.
I have been documenting the daily life of teenagers in British working-class communities for two decades. After the Brexit referendum I focussed this work on Belfast. Although The Troubles are often described as a religious conflict, the reality is that the social impact on the topic is much greater than religion. These two communities in Belfast who seem to have irreconcilable differences, are more similar than they’d both like to admit. While they still stick to their own symbols of their identity and tradition, they wear the same clothes, have the same haircuts, listen to the same music, drink the same beer, take the same drugs and often the same worries such as violence, unemployment, social discrimination and therefore, lack of prospects.
