DECLAN HANNA has a good idea and he wants Northern Ireland to hear about it. The 17-year-old A-Level student is currently recruiting 30 teenagers to act as GAA coaches to local primary school children from both Protestant and Catholic schools.
Like the other 99 contributors to 100 Small Steps, a book due to be published by a cross-community group this autumn, Hanna believes his idea will help to break down community divisions in his neighbourhood.
Collated in a single volume, the 100 different projects and suggestions form a quiet wave of community action that aims to overcome the elephant in the room of Northern Ireland's political settlement, namely the persistence of sectarianism. The latest PSNI statistics show an average of over 30 sectarian incidents occurring each week in the North.
Last year, the number of sectarian incidents rose by at least 20 per cent in three out of the four Belfast policing districts.
The proposals for the book were submitted by members of the public on the website of the One Small Step campaign; a group currently chaired by ex-British Lions rugby international Trevor Ringland.
"Politics in Northern Ireland has been pressing sectarian buttons for a long time," said Ringland in an interview with The Irish Timesin April.
"As the fog of our conflict clears, that has been exposed. People with loud voices will say they don't want change, but the majority of people want something different to emerge."
Such people include Rachelle McCurry, a 20-year-old dancer who holds performing arts classes for young people from Catholic and Protestant housing estates in Belfast.
Another person involved has set up workshops to offer mental health support in economically marginalised neighbourhoods.
The publication also highlights the changing face of cross-community relations in the North. Many submissions make no mention of Protestants or Catholics, but propose measures to improve problems faced by ethnic minorities.
Katarzyna Deeds, a 30-year-old social worker originally from Poland, is currently setting up a telephone service for homeless Polish and Slovakian people in Belfast. Deeds will act as an intermediary for those seeking accommodation in city-centre shelters and provide translation services free of charge.
According to Tony McCusker, chairman of the Community Relation Council (CRC), which funds One Small Step, the book symbolises the most important challenge currently facing Northern Ireland. "The dilemma for everyone is how to promote the new political dynamic in Northern Ireland, but still recognising that there are communities still fundamentally in conflict with each other."
Last year, the CRC paid out more than £5 million (€6.29 million) in funding to cross-community projects. Recipients included an Orange Lodge in Ballymena for a cultural information day, the Northern Ireland Polish Association and a circus school organised by the Belfast Community Street Festival. "Community relations is not top of the agenda for most of the groups that we deal with," says McCusker. "But it's in order to deal with issues like welfare or housing that they have to deal with sectarianism first. Sectarianism is preventing them from achieving their primary goals."
For Jacqueline Irwin, deputy chief executive officer of the CRC, the need to improve social cohesion in the North risks being lost amidst the plaudits being won for Northern Ireland's political settlement.
"We want to make sure that the good news story is a shared good news story, and that there are benefits for all. Otherwise, we'll see a twin-track society emerging, and we'll be back to square one."
Given that the North's schools, sports and housing estates are still segregated along religious lines, Irwin believes the funding of the long-term social work required to improve integration will be a test of Stormont's desire to deal with the social legacy of the past: "Do we just settle for a peaceful co-existence where people don't have to come into contact with each other? Or rather build something else that makes it safe to live differently?" asks Irwin.
According to McCusker, "We are already famous globally for managing the end of a conflict. I'd like us to be famous in another 10 years for managing the post-conflict situation."