The eagerly awaited Citizen NI Programme took place last week each evening from Monday to Thursday. The leadership programme was a partnership project between University of Galway and Ulster University and ran between Ulster University and St Columb’s Park House. The course was delivered by two leading academic historians – Professor James Livesey (Vice President, NUIG) and Dr Christopher Brooke (Associate Professor Political Theory at the Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Cambridge).

The course was funded by the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Reconciliation Programme. There were 11 participants across the four days from a diverse range of backgrounds and nationalities.

The course centred on citizenship and leadership. Issues around citizenship are evidently important to people in Northern Ireland, with the population here one of the most politically mobilised populations in Europe. Citizenship grew out of cities, and the experience of running cities, so this issue is particularly relevant to places like Derry/Londonderry.  The last twenty years have created the conditions for new explorations of citizenship, and a rise in the number of people in Northern Ireland who do not identify with the two traditional political identities in the province.

In this project people from all communities in Derry/Londonderry were introduced to the rich discussion of citizenship in ancient and early modern political theory as a resource for mutual recognition. The goal of the course is to enable participants to articulate their own intuition about their citizenship, and to understand and recognise the way in which others enact their citizenship.

Rohit Rana, one of the first participants to sign up for the programme took a lot of learning from the course. “I would definitely recommend this course to a friend, James Livesey and Christopher Brooke have immensely edified my political and historical viewpoint towards Citizenship.  I took a great deal of learning from the discussions around ‘political epistemology’. The construct of citizenship depends just not on where you are born but citizenship can be achieved if you persevere to grasp the qualities as a citizen that the law of the land demands. I thoroughly enjoyed the art of explaining, James and Christopher were excellent explainers and delivered impactful examples throughout”.

Liam Rigby, another participant, outlines what he found enjoyable about the Citizen NI Course. “I found the course interesting and educational. I have never studied history or philosophy at any level, but I found it interesting in relation to modern society.  The course was kept interesting by two good lectures and the concept of the two lecturers feeding off each kept the course focused and all together for fruitful and enjoyable. The short course concept was appealing and helped with focus, as well as the small class size for engagement and understanding”.

Each participant was awarded a certificate from the University for their commitment and achievement over the course of the week!