Victory insight for marathon man

In the original Shared Future Policy Document, the Government made a commitment to promoting Shared Space by:

• Developing and protecting town and city centres as safe and welcoming places for people of all walks of life.

• Creating safe and shared space for meeting, sharing, playing, working and living.

• Freeing the public … from threat, aggression and intimidation while allowing for legitimate expression of cultural celebration.

Dervock is trying to put some of those concepts into action at a local level, creating space for all while maintaining the importance of celebrating local cultural identity. The village of Dervock has witnessed significant changes to the composition of its character.

Mr. Cunningham commented:

“We have such a rich and varied heritage here in the Dervock area that we want to share it, and make the village into the sort of place that people really want to visit. Not only was Kennedy Kane McArthur, the winner of the marathon in the 1912 Olympics, born and bred in Dervock, but the village also produced a future president of the United States in William McKinley! We would love to develop a shared community building to commemorate the achievements of former sons of Dervock, and have begun to work on creating the sort of place where people of all walks of life feel welcome.

“Current projects with that in mind include participation in CFNI’s Creating Space for Learning and Sharing Programme; a ‘Re-Imaging Communities project (Arts Council) designed to celebrate the history of the area, including the tradition of marching bands; ‘Dervock Discovered’ which has produced a cultural heritage audit funded by the Heritage Lottery; It will also provide the opportunity to advertise the continuing excellent work as categorised within this application that already exists in the village participation in a Peace III (5a) Community Dialogue & Exchange programme; Peace III (7a) Culture Connections programme - as well as environmental projects designed to improve both the appearance and the infrastructure of the village.

“It will provide a tool for promoting dialogue between people of different faith and cultural backgrounds, in an area which has long been seen as ‘single-identity’. This will build on cross-community and multi-cultural work already begun through the annual civic festival and half marathon.”

Dervock & District Community Association are members of a newly formed North Antrim Village Forum. This initiative chaired by Dr Bob Curran provides a vehicle for community groups, collectively to look at the commonality that already exists between neighbouring communities. The central theme within all these applications is

Re-imaging, to promote existing village structures in a more positive image, both from a socio-economic and a culture perspective. Other programmes currently running parallel to these are the ‘Story Finders’ project (www.storyfinders.co.uk ”

Committee member [Frank k McLernon] added: “Dervock and District Community Association appreciates the fact that the work done here is being recognised both locally and further afield, and we wish to acknowledge at this point the value of partnership working – both with other local community groups and also with statutory bodies. It’s my understanding that Mr Ralph Victory (First Secretary) primarily arranged this visit to look at how his department could develop the story of Kennedy Kane Macarthur in recognition of his achievements in the 1912 Olympic Games.

“The opportunity exists for dialogue between different cultures – Scandinavian, South Africa, Irish, British and Ulster Scots. Here was an Irishman (pre-partition 1922), born in the old province of Ulster (Uldah), ran for South Africa, and yet signed his entry form as a British citizen – “it encapsulates everything that is relevant to the ‘Good Relation Strategies’ encouraged by councils throughout the province.

“We would not have been able to make the progress that we have towards promoting shared space without help from organisations such as the Arts Council, Ballymoney Borough Council, CFNI, the Museums Service, Mosside Development Group, the Ulster Scots Association, HLF, Supporting Communities NI, BCRC, local schools and churches.”

For more information on any of the current initiatives in Dervock, please contact the ‘Community House’, 13 Travers Place, Dervock, or telephone 028 207 42568 or by email: [email protected]