Bridgewater Review Volume 25 | Issue 1 Article 10 Jun-2006 Faculty Research: Violence and Family in Northern Ireland Patricia J. Fanning Bridgewater State College, [email protected] Ruth Hannon Bridgewater State College, [email protected] Recommended Citation Fanning, Patricia J. and Hannon, Ruth (2006). Faculty Research: Violence and Family in Northern Ireland. Bridgewater Review, 25(1), 23-24. Available at: http://vc.bridgew.edu/br_rev/vol25/iss1/10 This item is available as part of Virtual Commons, the open-access institutional repository of Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Faculty Research Violence and Family in Northern Ireland E C N For several years Dr. Ruth Hannon packed with nails, metal frag- O of the Psychology Department has ments, and a blasting cap, Y P studied working parents and their exploded on the schoolhouse children’s perceptions of their parents’ steps. Dozens of children, ages 4 work. In interviewing some four dozen to 11 were quickly surrounded by agal children and families, mostly from New riot police and removed from the M England, she found that an overrid- schoolyard. ing concern for those trying to balance How did such events affect family a… work and family was safety. Parents N life, Hannon wondered. How do worried about the availability of safe working parents cope with this UA yet affordable day care, after-school IJ kind of danger and how do the programs, and other after-school ar- children perceive the situation? rangements, even in ostensibly safe, O T Dr. Hannon also knew from her G suburban neighborhoods. How, she research that women were enter- E I wondered, do families manage in areas From Page 19 ing the workforce in Northern D n that are inherently unsafe? Although his or her individual work that would later feed the screens, and free local beer. The audience was a mix Ireland in record numbers. “In N she continues to be interested in commu- common project. The individual material was re-pro- of the art community of Tijuana, San Diego, as well as Ruth Hannon recent years,” she explains, “the cessed conceptually, formally and collectively assembled the local gamblers. n The dog track became a space nity violence, she has focused for now on the effects of ethno- SA rise in women’s employment, into a ninety-minute video and sound performance. with a multiplicity of meanings and metaphoric asso- political violence, particularly among families exposed to IN particularly part-time employment, was the largest “the Troubles” of Northern Ireland, having made contact over The event took place on a Saturday night on September ciations; a space of spectacle embodying the transaction increase by any group in the country.” Since this dra- n the years with faculty from the University of Ulster—Magee 2005 at the Caliente dog track. The performance in- of hopes and monies. The elliptic cycle is a visual matic increase was occurring within an environment of OMA campus in Derry. volved two computers, six DVD players, two video mix- reminder of cycles of life, of money transactions, of the conflict, she felt that families in Northern Ireland would D ing boards, one sound board, three live video cameras, flux of language, the flow of energy and the passage of Beginning in the late 1960s in Northern Ireland, politi- be an excellent population to study. With the assistance C I one live microphone, speakers, nine TV sets, three time. The dirt registers the imprint of the dogs’ steps; cal unrest emerged primarily among the Catholic popu- of a Faculty/Librarian Research Grant from CART, 16 feet projection they stay as evidence of the race, waiting to be re-writ- lation who felt they were being discriminated against she spent 6 to 8 weeks obtaining 26 family interviews ten. The collaboration between the artists created a by the Protestant elite and the British government. among both Protestants and Catholics in Derry and project that was cohesive, political, dynamic, Characterized by protests, sit-ins, demonstrations and Belfast. She also talked with teachers, principals, child profound and humorous, yet its ephemeral sporadic community violence involving paramilitary care workers, community board members, faculty at THE PUBL nature contrasted to the reality of the organizations as well as ordinary citizens, the unrest, Magee, and women’s center advocates to contextualize San Diego-Tijuana border. IN referred to as “the Troubles,” has continued to the pres- the families’ responses and perceptions. These supple- —Magaly Ponce is Assistant Professor of Art. ent day. Although the violence has lessened since the mental interviews also helped Hannon to rethink her CES peace accords and power-sharing of the mid-1990s, oc- interview instrument. “I was familiar with an interview I casional episodes of anger and discontent flare up from instrument that is largely appropriate for families ex- time to time. One such episode occurred as Hannon was posed to community violence such as muggings, break- making plans to visit Northern Ireland. In September ins, murder, or home invasions,” she explains, “but in of 2001, small girls and their parents were harassed as Northern Ireland there were riots, stone throwing, blast they walked to the Holy Cross Elementary School in bombs, and this gauntlet of threatening individuals. It RT PRACT A the Ardoyne section of Belfast. Protestant adults and was a different set of threats and stressors.” : children, shouting epithets and blowing high-pitched In each family, Dr. Hannon interviewed a child (aged whistles were held at bay by police officers and British 8-16) and one or both parents. Each respondent was soldiers on the first day of school. The following day, ite_05 interviewed separately, thus she amassed a vast collec- S four police officers were injured when a pipe bomb tion of taped conversations. “As you can imagine, the in (referred to in Northern Ireland as ‘blast bombs’) transcription of these interviews is a mammoth task in itself,” Hannon smiles, “and then the real work of analy- BRIDGEWATER REVIEW JUNE 2006 23 sis begins.” She cautions that the sample size is very door of the school. Parents also reported to Hannon small but several key concerns emerged. Parents worried that they sometimes missed entire days of work when Counseling and Katrina: about being late to work because they were forced unrest occurred. They also complained of having to vary to take a circuitous route to drop their children off at the routes they traveled to their workplace in order to The Challenges of Practice school. A Boston Globe article in September, 2001, anec- feel secure. dotally confirmed this concern. One mother reported to in the Aftermath of the Hurricane A particularly striking pattern of concern involved try- the newspaper that, although she lived 125 yards from ing to run errands. “We all know what it’s like to hurry the school, she had to walk her daughter more than 20 from work, pick up the kids, and then squeeze in several minutes around a soccer field to arrive safely at the back errands before going home,” Hannon explains. But, When three Bridgewater State College professors trav- in Los Angeles that they not engage in ongoing therapy. in certain Northern Ireland neighborhoods she found eled to Louisiana in the spring of 2005 to help in the This was to be emergency assistance. that parents had to pick up their children, sometimes aftermath of the Hurricane Katrina disaster, they faced dodging protestors, and then return home to allow Michael Kocet was in Shreveport from September 21st a number of challenges. There, was, of course, the enor- the youngsters to change out of their school uniforms to October 5th with the first wave of responders. He mous range of needs of the people they went to help. before going downtown. Children from local schools are worked with psychiatrists, social workers and other But there was also the problem of putting into practice easily identified by the color of their uniforms, Hannon mental health counselors in multi-disciplinary teams. the special skills and knowledge they teach as faculty notes, and there were instances of their being insulted People were still living in temporary shelters when he members in the Department of Counselor Education. by adults when they were out in public. “The children got there. Maxine Rawlins was in New Orleans with didn’t feel safe, they didn’t want to be seen with their Louise Graham, Michael Kocet and Maxine Rawlins the second wave of volunteers from October 4th to uniforms on, so it added even more time and stress to traveled to New Orleans and Shreveport Louisiana a the 18th. She was assigned to a shelter and followed the day.” Hannon also found that women’s employ- month after Katrina’s August 29th landfall. The devasta- the residents to assist them when they moved. Louise N ment was more vulnerable to conditions of the neigh- tion of New Orleans was the worst suffered by a city Graham arrived in Shreveport with the third wave of O borhood. “It was most often the mother who was called in the history of the United States, and the needs of its workers as residents were transitioning out of shelters, th NN from work in cases where people for the full range of human services was unprec- and was in Louisiana from October 18 until November schools were closing early edented as well. Under the auspices of the Substance 2nd. By federal order, all three were temporarily licensed HA due to bomb threats or Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, to practice in the state. other threats of violence.” each spent two weeks trying to help residents with TH Each of these faculty members has an area of expertise U their mental health needs, but in fact they knew their R During the summer of that could be valuable in helping survivors of Katrina to task would be broader.