IT IS a city once torn apart – and still haunted – by the spectre of sectarianism.

Now Belfast is to host a group of young Scots as part of efforts to educate them on the dangers of entrenched bigotry.

A Govan youth project is taking a group of young people to Belfast to educate them on the dangers of entrenched sectarianism.

Trip organiser John Aitken is a youth worker at the Govan Youth Information Project (GYIP) in Glasgow, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. 

He was caught up in the tensions in the city on the night of August 30, when riot police swarmed the streets during an “Irish Unity” march and counter protest in Govan.

He said: “There were loads of Union Jacks flying about and people wearing balaclavas and scarves over their faces.

“We were trapped and couldn’t get out either side. All of a sudden people were running down the street. It was chaos – there were bins on fire, it was like a scene from Belfast.”

Events of that night inspired Mr Aitken to organise a trip to the Northern Irish capital.

Mr Aitken started attending GYIP when he was 15 as a place to get away from tension with his father. Now 29, he is a full-time youth worker there.

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“GYIP is somewhere that, even when you leave, you always want to come back and see what’s going on but, luckily, I’ve managed to get a full-time job,” he said.

“I didn’t have a bad upbringing but I had clashes with my dad and it just gave me that escape.

“I don’t know where I would be without GYIP – I’d have probably gone down a different path. We’re like a wee family in here.”

Most of the staff arrived as youngsters and now help organise the project’s busy free programme of street outreach work, school workshops and holiday clubs.

During the summer holidays, the project is a lifeline for working families who can’t take time off work and can’t afford daycare. Other children of parents struggling with alcohol and drug addiction are given a safe haven during the breaks.

Around 100 children a day attend the hub in Water Row during the holidays, receiving the only meal they’ll eat that day.

Making sure children with more needs feel secure at the project means treating every child equally, Mr Aitken said.

“What we really try and do is to treat everybody the same. That works because, maybe coming from their upbringing, they don’t get treated the same as other people. That helps them more than being singled out.”

Without GYIP, Govan would suffer a big loss – not only the young people but the adults too. 

“Without us, parents would have to pay for holiday care which would have a longer term effect because they’re spending money they wouldn’t normally have to,” he added. 

“There’s also countless young people who have come through the doors here who have left and went on to a career such as teaching and they may not have done that if it hadn’t been for the youth work.”

Hearing the impact of the work he and his colleagues do “feels amazing”, he said.

“People have come back and said, oh, if it wasn’t for GYIP I wouldn’t have been a teacher . It feels like you’re actually doing something positive because in this job you don’t always get a start and an end because you’re working on a longer term project.”

In Govan High, Bellahouston Academy and Rosshall Secondary School, GYIP hold regular workshops on racism, alcohol and drugs. 

“That’s been a successful piece of work because the young people like a new face and they don’t need to call us sir or miss.

At the project, badminton is popular with the young people, as is football, table tennis, gaming consoles and the bouncy castle. They are taken on trips to Ayr -128 went on the last day summer holiday club - or along the Clyde on speedboats and, now, a group of 11 of them are preparing for the five-day trip to Belfast next month.

Witnessing the overspill of tensions in August, Mr Aitken was worried for the young people in the area getting caught up in the physical or ideological clashes stirred up on both sides.

He said: “The streets were kind of crazy so none of the young people could get to the club that night. We thought it was time to target this and try to reduce it.”

Some of the young people have already chosen a side, more because of football associations than political affiliations.

He said: “We thought we could reduce it by taking some of these young people over to Belfast for anti-sectarianism training.”

The Glasgow contingent will be hosted by the Corrymeela Community, a Christian peacebuilding group dedicated to healing religious and political divisions in Northern Ireland.

Mr Aitken said: “They’ll teach us about the troubles and take us a tour of Belfast to show the young people just how divided it is and make them realise this isn’t what we want for our city.” 

After training, the young people will earn the title Agent of Hope and Change, becoming peer educators for others. 

Mr Aitken said: “If we can have these young people teach other young people what they learned then that’s going to help us all massively.”