I think the community breeds a lot of sectarianism as well. I have brought my kids up the best I can, and tried to teach them not to be that way, but my son is 15 now, and I came in from church the other Sunday night and he was playing paramilitary songs via the Internet, which I thought was horrendous.
My daughter does Irish dancing and he thinks this is terrible, that she's mixing with, as he calls them, Fenians in Ardoyne. Well, she was going to stay with a friend who she does Irish dancing with in Ardoyne. I was frightened of it because of the situation in Ardoyne at the time (the Holy Cross saga was going on at that stage) - and he thought this was terrible that she was going to stay with a Fenian, as he called her. And he said to me 'Oh, you'll never see her again - why are you letting her go and stay there?', and I felt that I had to prove a point to let him see yes, she could go into Ardoyne, she could stay overnight, and she would come back home safely. And then I tried to tell him he shouldn't be calling them Fenians, and he came up with this myth that it means 'Catholic Warrior' and that they like being called this. And I was offended that he was calling them a Fenian.
So to me, the values that's being instilled in him at the minute are via the community and he's not taking on board the values that I'm trying to instil in him. So I believe that his schooling and his friends in school and the community is putting a lot of sectarian issues into his mind.
But I think girls is getting just as bad. I know my girl at fifteen and she's got very bitter. You know, she would go with her Rangers top into the town, where I would be scared of her going 'cos I know it's going to end up. They go as a group and they know this is going to cause antagonism; they're going to, in effect, cause rows and, 'cos there're girls walking about in Celtic tops now down the town as well, you know. And it's just, they seem to go out for an argument type of thing.
So wearing a Rangers top indicates to the community that she's a Protestant? (Yes.) What does she understand by being a Protestant?
I don't think she really knows 'cos I've never really sat her down and said to her, you know, 'This is what you have to do, this is鈥ou're a Protestant and you know, this is the way you live and the way you don't.' That's what I say, I've joined a community group and try and let her see the both sides of what Catholic people are like too.
In your area, what myths would have grown up about the Catholic community?
Well when I was a child I always heard that you never trusted Catholics, they can't be trusted, and you'll know them because their eyes are close together, and they kick with the wrong foot - but who actually does kick with the right foot? And I didn't know any Catholics at all living on the Shankill Road, until I went out to work, and then I was admittedly a bit wary whenever I heard someone was from the Roman Catholic religion - do you trust these people? - but I can honestly say I had better Catholic friends in work than what I had Protestant friends.