Ursula Birthistle
Management Committee Member

Ursula Birthistle has a B.Sc. in Biochemistry and an M.A. in Peace and Conflict Studies. Birthistle worked for four years with the Quaker Peace Education Project in Derry and Co-Operation North (now Co-Operation Ireland). After earning her M.A.("A Survey of Human rights Education in Northern Ireland"), she spent six years as a research officer in the School of Education (now the UNESCO Centre) in the University of Ulster. Research projects included a comparison of the Northern and Southern education systems, evaluation for the developing schools citizenship education programme (SCPE). Along with a colleague, Alison Montgomery, Birthistle developed "Primary Values," a teaching resource for personal, social, and civic education in primary schools, commissioned by the Council for the Curriculum, Examinations, and Assessment (CEA). She has also facilitated anti-sectarian/anti-racism workshops that have been organised through The Junction.

Birthistle joined the Management Committee of The Junction originally as a representative of the UNESCO Centre and continues on a personal basis. She has long felt that a one-stop-shop, such as The Junction, is essential in supporting and building on the very valuable work in peace building and community relations that has been done during all the years of the conflict. She feels that The Junction provides an excellent networking/resource centre and "safe space" for this work to continue, and she greatly values the commitment and vision of the people working here.