About Ordinary Lives

This project explores stories of European migration through the eyes of 18 young people from the Czech Republic, Latvia, Northern Ireland, Poland, Portugal and Spain.  The resulting stories and photographs reflect three different perspectives of the migratory experience: those who took the decision to move to Northern Ireland, the people they met on arrival and those they left behind.  These trios represent intercultural dialogue in action, and the effects of migration on societies experiencing both departure and arrival.

A Cultural Conversation
Increasing numbers of young people are coming to Northern Ireland, attracted by the possibilities of a new life and by a politically stable, economically strong, culturally ambitious and socially diverse country.
Ordinary Lives seeks to illuminate the process of accommodation, the interlacing of lives and experiences, telling stories of new friendships and old.

Migration is not without costs, and the movement of people and ideas can be difficult.  We hope that these stories will remind those who are negative that not so long ago many of our own families were forced to separate in search of a better way of life.
Today we must offer a welcome and help to pave the way for migrants to live their 'Ordinary Lives' amongst us.

Our contributors:

Inma Garcia is an English teacher from southern Spain. She recently spent nine months teaching Spanish at a secondary school in Newry, Northern Ireland. Her friend and colleague Michelle Morgan was brought up in Newry and is a librarian at the same school. Inma’s brother Rafael Garcia is working as a vet in Utrera, Spain.

Justyna Pers is from Poznan, Poland and works in Northern Ireland as an interpreter for the health service. Her friend Ann Beattie is a student from Newtownstewart, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. Justyna’s sister Ewelina Pers is a student in Poznan.

Emilia Kosinska is from Poznan, Poland and works in Northern Ireland as an interpreter. Her friend Sinead Dorris is from Belfast, Northern Ireland and  works for a local media firm. Emilia’s friend Martyna Plotnicka used to work in Belfast and is now back in Poznan bringing up her daughter before returning to university.

Ana Silva is from Lisbon, Portugal and works as a teaching assistant at a university in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Her friend Chris Clenaghan was brought up in Lurgan and works for Northern Ireland Railways. Ana’s Portuguese friend Alexandre Caetano is a businessman in Caldas da Rainha, Portugal.

Junona Baleisa is from Bauska, Latvia and works in Newry in Northern Ireland as a teaching assistant and cleaner. Her friend and colleague Oonagh Magee works in the same school as an art teacher. Junona’s Latvian friend Jelena Bahvalova works in a bookshop in Riga, Latvia.

Karel Kucera is from Prague in the Czech Republic, and works in marketing at a factory in Lurgan, Northern Ireland. His friend and colleague Sean Duffy works at the same factory. Karel’s friend Lucie Soukupova from Kolin in the Czech Republic, spent a year working in London and is now back home working as a teacher in a secondary school in Predhradi, near Prague.

• Ordinary Lives was launched on 19 March 2008 at Parliament Buildings, Belfast, hosted by the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister. The exhibition and accompanying publication - Ordinary Lives by Malachi O'Doherty - marks the culmination of a year long project in Northern Ireland which coincides with the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008.  For more information or to obtain a copy of the publication, contact Emily Wilcox.
• Photography by Chris Tribble.