 My name is Kiera, I'm 16 years old and I live in Derry. I'm in lower 6th at school and I'm studying English literature, biology, French and history. At school, because I go to an integrated school, it's a school where it's not just one religion, there are Catholic schools in Derry and there are state-run Protestant schools. My school is different because it's Catholic and Protestant and boys and girls, so it's completely mixed. So I suppose when we're at school we always hear both sides of the story. So we might have an assembly about bloody Sunday, but we might have an assembly about the NSL and bombings. So I suppose I hear both sides and growing up my dad would tell me stories about the troubles and what happened and obviously there were atrocities on both sides of the conflict. I think they do a bit because you can't get away from it still. It's history but it's recent history so people still don't know what happens. I think sometimes they don't really know a lot because, for example, my dad works and sort of the whole thing to do with the troubles. It's his job so I would hear about it more. So a lot of them would say to me, well you're so political, care, whatever. But they wouldn't know. I think it's just, you're used to it hearing about stuff that happened. We've all heard about bloody Sunday, we've done about it in school and we did about the 1916 rising in school and stuff. It's recent history but at the same time a lot of people don't really care because they weren't born. I think that it's good to learn about what happened in the past because we can learn from mistakes that were made. And I think if we're learning about what happened on both sides we'll sort of be able to make sure it doesn't happen again and grow up to be more open because we can discuss what, we're looking back with hindsight so we can see what caused those problems and how we can solve them and stuff so I think it's useful to help make a better future. Bloody Sunday is on the 21st, no, 29th of January and there used to be marches for that. And I actually went on a couple of them but with the inquiry and stuff and obviously all the victims were, the pronounced innocence and now they just have like a sort of memorial thing but I was actually there in Guildhall Square whenever they read the reports from the families, read the reports and they stuck their hands like the windows and started waving like they started waving the report to say yeah it was good and stuff. So that was a good day. I got out of school. In school we have assemblies for all different days, not just Bloody Sunday also we have one for that but we have one for the Uma bombings and Skelund bombings. We also have one for Remembrance Day because the school likes to celebrate or commemorate both sides, both days for both sides of the conflict. I think all schools have their own commemoration assemblies. I don't think they're as into them as my school because my school has a big thing about peace and reconciliation and integrated education and remembering the past. It's a big thing in my school so I don't know because I just have gone to my school for all of my secondary education so I would guess they would but I just don't think they have such big assemblies all the time because we have peace one day assembly, we have assemblies for everything for all memorial days. Well Remembrance Day for World War II, World War I, but I'm pretty sure that's nothing else comes to mind. My dad encouraged me to go to Ogu but I originally was going to go to a Catholic all-year school in Derry called Saints of Seas. I can't remember why but I think we just went and it just wasn't for me and then I went to open out at Ogu and to be honest I just wanted to go because in the Home Economics department they had a free cupcakes and they had trampolines in the pre-department. But looking back I'm really glad I went to Ogu because I think they're really fussy about all this peace and remember in the past but I think it's good because you get people from other schools and they'll come in and they'll come to our school and they'll just be like what's that about, what's that about and we'll be able to explain well this is an assembly hall to remember such and such an atrocity and we remember it because we know it's good to remember the past and learn from the stakes and I think because I go to such a mixed school I'm used to being with different people so there'll be people from completely different sides of the community and I'll speak fine with it I mean a lot of friends who are Protestant and you'll get some people in Derry you'll say oh no I'm not friends with any Protestants or you know I've never even met a Protestant in my life which is probably not true because you probably just met someone from the Protestant community who didn't know but even I don't know there's just places and areas that people won't go like there you'll get Protestant students from my school you'll say oh I would never go into the bog side which is like a nationalist Catholic area which is the side of a bloody Sunday it's kind of just part of everyday life I walk through there every Saturday and I just see them and I think oh there's some nice art skills but I don't find them threatening or anything I mean you know it's members of I suppose my community who painted them so a lot of the murals that I see I know the stories behind them and I think they're nice I don't think they should be taken down because they're almost a part of the landscape of the place and you see all these tourist buses going around saying oh this is this mural and this is this mural and I think they're nice I think any threatening murals should be taken down but you know there's no as far as I can see there are no threatening murals the murals that you see in the bog side are memorial murals for people who died in the troubles and I think they're important because they've been there for so long and the bog side wouldn't be the bog side without you know the you are now entering free dairy and you know it's not saying it doesn't have anything offensive written up I suppose maybe people might get offended but they're not there to offend people I don't think it does as such I think there are some people who will you know who do know about it but it's still important I think it should be part of my generation but not as a cause for bitterness not as a cause for you know keeping the divides or divisions I think it should just be just to remember the past and look back and see how we can improve and say that was wrong that needs to be fixed or maybe we could have done that better but I think there are people who will still you know it's important it's memory it's still it's history but it's still recent history and memory it's still our dads and our mums and our grandfathers and grandmothers and grandparents aunties and uncles loved through and I think it's important to remember it some people do use it as an excuse to sort of feel their own hate and prejudice but I don't think it should be a cause for bitterness or prejudice or divide I think we should just take the positives and try and you know don't mean to sound really cliched but heal the negatives not forget but sort of forgive and still still remember because it's important I think people who say oh that's that was ages ago I think that's wrong because there's still a lot of people were hurt and I think it's important to still remember that but not in a hateful way history and memories have been used to twist people and make them really bitter I think there's families that will have passed on like the bitterness of their generation on to other generations you know they might say oh don't you ever marry a Protestant because they did so and so and your grandfather was shot and you know if that hadn't have happened or whatever but I think politicians are guilty of it too they really were not as such now but I think it's been shown by the riots in Belfast you know with the whole flag issue I mean that was that was a lot of young people out and to be honest you know they didn't know what they were doing they didn't have any clear arguments but there was clearly an older generation was fueling that and a lot of frustration was built up because I think it's just a lot of factors it just causes that you know unrest and anger I think memory if it's you it's a powerful weapon if it's using the wrong way I can really stir up hatred which is not I don't think it's right and I don't think it should be done I think my generation's probably some people it's just the same in every generation some people are very politicised and a lot of people aren't a lot of people don't care I think it just depends I think there are a lot of people you know in my school there are people who will be politically aware of what they're doing they wouldn't be politically active I mean at the age of 16 you're not going out and you know lobbying parliament or storm lunch or going out with your friends I will vote because I think it's important to vote I think it's just stupid if you're not voting because frankly it's a right that you have and also it affects everyone I mean everyone has a say in what government and I think people who say I don't like the government or whatever I'm not going to vote but yet if they don't like the government they could vote to change the government or they could get involved themselves if they don't agree with political parties or any of the political parties When we went into school we're actually learning about the Second World War and the Weimar Republic and then we're going to move on to Irish history next year I know some schools do Irish history first and then the Weimar Republic but we wouldn't really learn about it I suppose because that's something that's a war that was really fought in Europe and I don't know they probably just