Mr. Philip Deane:

No, there is no pressure. I am not winking at anyone; I have a twitch in my eye. Primarily, the decision made by Lisburn People’s Support Project, PSP, at the beginning of our involvement was that there was a need to de-glamourise the conflict. A large section of young people feel that in many ways they missed out on the conflict. There is an irony which suggests that in many ways it has been glamourised. The work we did in connection with the flags protest is a great example of what we have done. We were lucky in Lisburn that the trouble in Belfast did not spread but it took a lot of work to ensure that was the case. We asked young people about their plans and what they would do if they were pushed off the street. We told them a story about how things would develop. The difficulty with the prison experience and the conflict is that in many ways they have been romanticised. Every single television programme or film made about the conflict refers at some stage to the great camaraderie in prison. That is true, but nobody tells about what happens when the cell door closes and one is alone or one’s family is falling apart.

To develop on the point made by Ms Gildernew, for a man fathering children is an issue as becoming a mother is an issue for a woman. We spend a lot of time de-glamourisng the conflict. In a similar vein, I was looking at phase two of the project and the work we have done for the progress report. I have run more than 17 programmes, 13 of them have been with women and young people. They were all based around the de-glamourisation of the conflict and the pitfalls in terms of getting involved. I tell them that getting involved in conflict might affect their ability to travel and ten years down the line such involvement might seem remiss. Many young people that were involved in the on-street protests will encounter a problem further down the line in terms of travel.

We believe our conscious decision to work with young people to deglamourise the conflict and the romanticism behind it has been a great success. We think it is one reason the recent trouble in and around greater Belfast did not spread to Lisburn.