St Mary's University College recently hosted a week-long visit by a group of teachers from Turkey, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands and Denmark. This was part of a series of three courses being held here as well as Cyprus and Italy, looking at how cultural heritage plays a significant role in identity and loyalty. The project is entitled ‘Icons of Identity'. During their visit the teachers used the computer facilities at St Mary's to document what they had learned and added this to a vast database on European cultural heritage being compiled by the project as a virtual book. For this they used the tools of CHAIN, a powerful website developed by the Dutch director of the project, Fokko Dijkstra.
With Irish Medium Education as an example, particular attention was paid to the role of language in articulating feelings of identity. The group received a talk on Irish medium schools by Dr Gabrielle Nig Uidhir. They also visited Meanscoil Feirste where they were shown the work of the Irish medium secondary school. The visitors each made a presentation to the pupils of the school on their own culture and sense of identity. Celtic heritage and the monastic movement were featured, with visits to the Nendrum monastic site at Strangford Lough and the St Patrick Centre in Downpatrick.
The political situation here, which many observers associate with identity and culture, was examined through a conducted tour of the Belfast murals and a visit to Stormont where the group met with Unionist and Nationalist MLAs. The teachers were also given a presentation on education in a divided society with particular reference to Northern Ireland.
Two members of the group from Turkey are from the Islamic faith. This being Ramadan they were fasting and couldn't join with the rest of the group during meals or evening activities. Instead they visited the Belfast Islamic Centre, itself an icon of the growing multicultural nature of the city.
This is the third annual visit to St Mary's by participants in the project and it is part of the College's vibrant International Programme. The visit coincided with a St Mary's Outreach course in Cyprus for Secondary teachers which was conducted by Acting Principal, Peter Finn and Head of English, Leo D'Agostino. The course in Cyprus focussed on Intercultural Education and attracted teachers from Italy, Sweden, Estonia and Lithuania.