Young people from Derry, Catholic and Protestant, discuss cross community dating, going south of the border and a united Ireland.
Young people from two Derry youth centres, one Catholic and one Protestant, exchange views on some of the issues that affect them.
There is a discussion on dating somebody from the opposite tradition. Protestant Frances Thompson would date a Catholic but she would expect to be called names for doing so and,
You'd get too much stick from your own kind.
Trevor Holmes, also a Protestant, believes this scenario is harder for males,
I’d probably get more or less battered about the street than a girl would.
Catholic Larry McGowan would date a Protestant but his mother would be very unhappy about it.
One of the teenagers recalls,
When I was a youngster Protestants were a different species.
Very few of the young people have experience of life in the Republic of Ireland. Until Frances Thompson had to use Dublin Airport, the furthest beyond the border she had been was Buncrana in County Donegal.
Trevor Holmes would not like to live in the Republic of Ireland as it is a foreign place to him.
It’s a country I know nothing about.
When asked about the dream of united Ireland, Larry McGowan says this is an ideal he has grown up with and it offers him a sense of identity.
A true Irish man without a Union Jack flying over my head.
For another Catholic,
It’s not a dream, it’s a goal, but it’s not a very immediate goal.
The series 'Access: Community Television’ shows programmes made by communities or groups about their specific projects.
This episode of ‘Access: Community Television’ was broadcast on 8 December 1983. The reporter is Ciana Campbell.
