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16 October 2014
BBC NI - Eyewitness

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Eileen Weir is Culture Co-ordinator at the Shankill Women's Centre in loyalist west BelfastImage of Eileen Weir

We need the people within the Protestant community to have more skills within lobbying, skills within the media, skills of putting their points of view - because years back they sat back and was assuming all this was being done for them. I believe that the Protestant community is split within their own communities because of the politicians, the amount of parties that we vote for, the churches within the Shankill area itself where every corner has a different church. It's Church of Ireland, Congregational, Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian. Again, we're split within our Christian beliefs. The Catholic community have a parish and that parish has a priest, they have an elected representative either from one party or the other party, and it's a stronger base to be promoting yourself from. Where in the Protestant community we don't have that strong base, we don't have that strong leadership within any particular party because there's so many of them.

And so would part of your vision for the future be a greater degree of community and political reconciliation on the Protestant side?

Yes, it would. I would love to see one or two political parties within the Protestant community.







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