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As part Belfast City Council’s Decade of Centenaries Programme to mark the 1916 Easter Rising and the Ulster Covenant and Declaration of 1918, a group of young people from Ligoniel Youth Project, Divis Youth Project, Mountain Hill Youth Club and Belfast Youth Forum came together from February – June 2016 to answer the question:

“What would your Covenant or Proclamation look like in Belfast 2016?”

The young people (pictured with Councillor John Kyle at the launch of the project in City Hall) worked with PPR, Creative Workers Co-operative, and the Golden Thread Art Gallery. They looked at the issues impacting young people in the City today, and examined the Ulster Covenant and Declaration 1918 and the Proclamation of the Republic 1916 to assess whether the aspirations behind them were relevant to or had been realised in their lives today. The young people examined other historically significant examples of speeches and writings which were intended to bring about social change, including gay rights activist Harvey Milk’s ‘The Hope speech’, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘I have a Dream’, and the Black Panther’s Ten Point Programme.

Working with local artists they have created the ‘Manifesto For You’.

It sets out a vision of Belfast in 2016 with peace, equality and human rights at its heart. The Manifesto For You is a call to action for young people to ‘make change happen wherever you are’.

The Manifesto was on display in the City Hall in the first week of August and will shortly appear on the Big Screen. 

The film is also available to view on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWlMO3L9xAU&feature=youtu.be