Nervous wait ahead for ‘Brothers’ team

Having successfully battled their way through the preliminary rounds of the Lottery funding process, they must now wait until November to find out if they have won. However, the ‘We Were Brothers’ project has already been deemed an ‘unqualified success’ by it’s creator.

Grateful for the support they have received, writer and facilitator Felicity McCall, has thanked those who have voted for the multi-media project.

“Thank you for the amazing surge of support over the weekend. We had hundreds of people calling at the stand we shared with ‘Hands That Talk’ in the Richmond Centre during the afternoon and again when it was staffed by our schools’ team in the evening, and we were delighted with the support we received at ‘Culture Night’ events, including the ‘We Were Brothers’ reading by Ryan Boyd, Shaun Coyle and Peter McDonald in Little Acorns bookshop at Bedlam Market.

“We also had a great response from the Mark Patterson Show, which featured us live and at the Derry City away game in Cork, where David Doherty of our schools’ project travelled with fellow supporters, lobbying all the way there and back, and at informal voting parties and gatherings in homes across the city,” said Felicity.

“It was heartening to have so many young people approach us to volunteer for future schools’ projects. I was also touched that some elderly supporters took the time and trouble to come to the Richmond Centre to share their family stories of World War 1 and Messines.

“It’s also good to know that more community groups are keen to find out about Lottery funding and, I hope, apply themselves. It is a great scheme. The final result is a closely guarded secret until the awards ceremony which will be held in London in early November.

“Over the past months we have experienced such a surge of goodwill and support, and our cast and crews, family, friends and colleagues have given so generously of their time and energy, that all that remains is for me as project manager to thank everyone so very, very much and to assure everyone that whatever the voting tally, the ‘We Were Brothers’ project and its message of reconciliation and shared history cannot have been anything but an unqualifed success. In that respect, we are already winners,” she said.