Anna McKinney worked on the new documentary The Agreement, but she wasn't yet born when the GFA was signed. Working on the series made her realise how much Northern Ireland has changed.
Spooling through archive of bombs, shootings, and despair, and witnessing politicians interviews, I have recognised just how detached I am from a very recent tragic world. I have been working as a trainee editor on The Agreement, a two-part series with Fine Point Films and as a 23-year-old, I have grown up in an almost entirely post-violent Northern Ireland. Although born after the talks concluded on Good Friday, April 10th 1998 , the decisions made by all the politicians that day provided people of my generation with a peaceful childhood that people before were denied.
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In the above clip, Olive Travers describes her experience of 'Bloody Friday' in Belfast as a teenager in 1972
In late 2022 I was sent down to RTÉ in Dublin to look through the television archives for possible use in the programmes. Each news clip was shocking to see. Much of it was fuelled with violence, funerals and tears but what struck a chord during my research was seeing the imagery of explosions only metres away from our offices in Belfast city centre.
The stark difference of professional life here in the space of just twenty-five years is incredible. My perspective is different to that of many of my colleagues on this project as I never saw these images play out in real time. The detachment I have to that life is a strange but wonderful thing. It has become evident to me how I have been taking for granted my safety and the thriving cross community friendships I, and many of my age, enjoy.
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I grew up in Belfast and through my lens it has been a safe home to grow and learn. That is not to say I wasn't aware of the past, nor that trouble still didn’t linger, but for the majority, life for my age group has been safe. We grew up hearing stories from older generations and our troubled history even made its way into the school curriculum. I attended a post-primary school that would not have been considered in my side of the community twenty-five years ago, but for my generation, pupils generally didn’t think twice. Whether you were a Catholic or Protestant in your friend group was more of a Derry Girls 'do you keep your toaster in the cupboard’ style conversation rather than a sectarian one.
Looking to the future
I am a recent Film Studies and Production graduate of Queen’s University Belfast. My experience there was fun, peaceful and filled with youthful opportunity. It wasn’t riddled with fear of violence or a need to hide any family identity from either side of the community (our fear was Covid 19!) My course was very international, I had peers from China, France and the USA who had all chosen Belfast as their place of study. Not only that, the sheer luxury of studying film here would not have been an option in the 1990s.
As a young person, nightlife in Belfast is thriving, and most importantly it is indication of distance from our recent past. Twenty-five years on clubs and pubs are not segregated but instead filled with people from all sides of the community and tourists from all over the world enjoying culture in Northern Ireland.
The abundant options of restaurants, cafes, and live music across the North are welcome luxuries that voters back in 1998 could hardly have dreamt possible. The growth of the entertainment and cultural industry here has propelled us further away from our past and as a result left us with a new and shared cultural stamp.
I feel fortunate to have grown up in Northern Ireland not only because are we surrounded by strong older generations who have admirably overcome the toughest of times but also post 1998 generations who are keen to shine a light on an even more prosperous future as a result of the Good Friday Agreement.
The two part documentary series The Agreement airs on RTE One on April 3rd at 9.35pm and on April 4th at 10.15pm.
