War play goes on tour

THREE schools from Londonderry, brought together as part of the International School for Peace Studies Schools Link Programme are touring the country with their schools production of “We Were Brothers”.

The students of St.Cecilia’s College, Lisneal College and Oakgrove Integrated College, who visited Messines in Belgium, are from different traditions, brought together by the ISPS, to explore issues of diversity and to learn about and from each other.

The “We Were Brothers” story, written by Felicity McCall and directed by Bernie Mahon, promotes reconciliation through an understanding of a shared past. It is based on Messines in June 1917, whereby soldiers from Ulster and Irish battalions of the British army fought side by side for the first time to liberate Belgium from German occupation. The “We Were Brothers” project remembers a generation of young men, who put aside the ties of religion and politics and, somehow, found a common humanity in the unimaginable horror that was the Western Front.

John Harkin from Oakgrove College stated: “The We Were Brothers project should allow young people to explore their family history, to know their relatives and not to be ashamed of them. I hope it will help to bring us to a day when we can all express our views on conflict past and present, without contemporary political judgements being made, where people can feel free to remember, or not to, and to be respected.”

‘We Were Brothers’ schools production tour dates are as follows: Waterside Theatre Londonderry on 2nd November; Liberty Hall Theatre Dublin, 3rd November; Rupert Stanley College Belfast 4th November; St. Pius College Magherafelt 5th November; Letterkenny Arts Centre, 8th November; North Coast Integrated College Coleraine 9th November.

All performances commence at 8.00pm.

The tour is kindly sponsored by the International School for Peace Studies, the Department for Foreign Affairs and Magherafelt District Council Peace III.