Smaller Font  Bigger Font  Print Page  Bookmark page

 
Over the summers of 2001 and 2003 members of the Malone College Soccer Team made their third trip to Ireland and Northern Ireland.    The team will embark on another trip during July nad August of 2005.  The majority of the two-week trips are spent in the Belfast area town of Lurgan, which is in County Armagh, Northern Ireland.  Lurgan with it’s neighboring city of Portadown make up a portion of the so called the “murder triangle.”  The area is famous as a hotbed of sectarian violence between Nationalist Catholics and Loyalist Protestants dating back to the beginning of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

The team’s involvement in Northern Ireland began in 2000 after the Malone women’s soccer team was approached to consider the trip by members of the Minerva, Ohio YMCA.  The YMCAs in Lurgan and Minerva had exchanged several groups of adults over the previous several years and it was thought a group of young adults might also benefit from the experience as well as share with the young people of Lurgan.  The mission of the YMCA in Europe remains an evangelical one as opposed to the more secular sports and family centers familiar to Americans.  Eventually a team made the trip in 2001 and others returned in 2002, setting the stage for this summer’s trip.

The Lurgan YMCA, under the direction of Mr. Hugo Dale, actually prepared for the team’s visit in 2003 with the help of two Malone players that spent the entire summer in Ulster.  Team captains Bethany Irwin and Laurie Franklin secured internships and housing in the spring and spent the summer working, living and playing in the Belfast area. The two also had the distinction of playing under Northern Ireland U19 coach Ann Gourley who trained their club side Newington LFC.  Bethany served at the YMCA in Lurgan and helped in the daily operations of both of the town’s the drop in centers and the Youth Information Point.  Laurie worked for the Irish Football Association and had the unexpected task of acting as an IFA official for the men’s UEFA qualifier between Northern Ireland and Spain’s national teams!    Needless to say with two players so involved prior to the trip things were well prepared for the team’s visit in July.

Most of the time the team is in Lurgan they stay in either private homes or one of the YMCA facilities.  The High Street Center was home for ten days.  The particular building is much more typical of an inner city drop-in center than the posh sports complexes that we have in the United States.  Lurgan, a picturesque town of 26,000 has not only two YMCAs but also two of just about everything due to the clearly divided communities.  There is only one McDonalds in town and many of the Protestant youths the team met had never been there even though it was three blocks away because it was in the “other end” of town and they felt unsafe.

Lurgan is one of Ulster’s most hotly divided towns for several reasons.  Firstly, it is almost evenly divided between Catholics and Protestants as well as Loyalists who want to remain under British control and Nationalists who want a united Ireland.  Most people view the Troubles as only a conflict between the religious groups, but it is a fact that the conflict is as hotly contested across political lines as well.  The true difficulty is that there are really a variety of groups that want a myriad of solutions to the problems and just as many ideas of how to resolve the conflicts, some violent and some peaceful.  Secondly, Lurgan town is just a short distance from one of  Northern Ireland’s larger cities in Portadown.  Portadown is where the annual Drumcree Church celebrations held each July 12^th by Ulster’s loyalists often result in riots as the Protestant Orangemen hold bonfires and march through the Catholic Nationalist neighborhoods to honor William of Orange and his defeat of James II several centuries ago.   The strong feelings between groups are particularly felt during the summer months of what is known as “marching season” in the area.

The team was extremely privileged to be asked to take part in a significant cross community project through the YMCA.  For the several months prior to the team’s visit a group of young people from opposite ends of Lurgan had been meeting to discuss their similarities and differences as teens in Northern Ireland.  The dozen teens, YMCA leadership and the Malone Soccer team left Lurgan for Greenhill, a national recreation center in the beautiful Mourne Mountains, and spent several days engrossed in discovery and discussion.  Among the highlights was a trip to the coastal town of Newcastle and a variety outdoor pursuits such as rock climbing, water bouldering and kayaking.  By far the most eye opening experience to the Americans though was the presentation made by two former imprisoned paramilitaries from the UDA and IRA.  The two men spoke to the teens about their own experiences growing up during the Troubles and their use of violence, including domestic terrorism and murder, to address the issues facing the average young person in Northern Ireland over the past thirty years or more.

The trip to Lurgan was not just an experience about Northern Ireland’s tumultuous political situation though.  As the group met and played soccer with young people from both the Catholic and Protestant communities in Lurgan, Portadown, Belfast and surrounding areas, they once again found the people of Ulster to be generous, caring, open and tremendously gracious.  The supporters of the YMCA not only saw to the group’s every need in terms of lodging and transportation but also, as they always do, opened their personal homes and lives to the Malone players.  It seems at times as if every person in Northern Ireland not involved in paramilitary or sectarian conflict is set on convincing visitors that Ulster is the hospitality capital of the world.

The trip was once again a tremendous success in every way.  There was, of course, soccer every day.  The team played in the park with various young people from Lurgan.  On one evening the team was able to train with Newington LFC, which has three players with Northern Ireland’s women’s national side, and is trained by the Northern Ireland Women’sU19 coach.  On yet another evening the team was given tickets to see a preseason friendly between the professional teams Glenavon FC from the Irish Premier League and Scottish side Queen’s Park.  Each opportunity was not only an opportunity to enjoy the great game of soccer but also to share time and thoughts with the young people of Lurgan.  At every turn the team was able to share their lives with the kids they came in contact with.  Since Malone is a Christian school, religion was always a hot topic.  They were amazed that the team was comprised of both Catholics and Protestants, while the Malone players were always amazed that it mattered.

In addition to soccer, the team was able to see the sights of not only a gorgeous old country town like Lurgan but also the beauty of the Antrim coast, Dunluce Castle, Carick-a-Reede Rope Bridge, the Giant’s Causeway and the fantastic County Down countryside with it’s thatched roof cottages and stone walled farms.  A tour of murals in Belfast was sobering with its “peace walls” to divide neighborhoods, it’s artwork celebrating the IRA, UVF, UFF and other paramilitary groups among the  centuries old architecture, including The Stormont and The Queen’s University and the shipyards that produced the Titanic in the background.  Dublin was all things typically Irish; pubs, street vendors, folk musicians, Victorian shops with colorful doors, the Temple Bar district, Christ Church, Trinity College, and the General Post Office on O’Connell Street where Irish independence was born in 1916.

The trip was a fantastic experience for everyone involved.  It was an intense experience in world events, cultural division and human nature.  Once in a lifetime memories were created and friendships were both renewed and formed that will transcend nations, culture and religion.