Workshop in Derry with IgnYte Youth Project

Derry/Londonderry – Workshops with IgnYte Youth Project September to December 2025

Dr Michael McLoughlin

Over the autumn of 2025 Maggie O’Neill and myself visited the IgnYte Youth Project in St Columb’s Park House in Derry/Londonderry. This was the first series of art based workshop conducted by the Euroborderwalks teams on the ROI/NI border. Over the course of three months we met regularly and from this process a huge amount of artwork emerged. For me, the young people in IgnYte presented a critical understanding of and an amazing ability to navigate the borders they encounter in day to day life.

St Columbs Park House website describes IgnYte as a “Personal Youth Development programme designed for 16-25 year olds in Derry/Londonderry.  It is a partnership between St. Columbs Park House and the Churches Trust and is funded by the International Fund for Ireland and managed by the Rural Development Council.”

The programme fosters personal development of each participant, bringing youth people from across the different communities of Derry/Londonderry together in a supportive environment. The focus is on individual growth through group support, training and learning.

We conducted a series of workshops, walks and open conversations that allowed us to experience Derry/Londonderry through the lens of the young people. And discover how they make sense of and navigate borders physical, political, social and phycological in their everyday.

The artwork by the group is reflective of this, from the initial mapping of group connections with place, through the individual mappings of journeys to key locations, and the work that was presented in a public exhibition in December 2025. The walks, talks and drawing resulted in a whole series of artwork that were presented in the exhibition in St Columbs Park House and visible here on the website.

Many of the conversations from the IgnYte Derry/Londonderry workshops have had huge influence on my orientation towards the border. The young people’s reflexive navigating their borderland opened up perspectives on the border that I will carry through the next series of workshops and the artwork I aim to develop. 

These creative works were crafted in Derry-Londonderry at the Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland border and were co-created with IgnYte Youth Project.

Our borderwalk book

our border walk; flick-through book made with IgnYte 2025

A border is

A Border is; a video collaboration with IgnYte Derry/Londonderry