The title refers to a slang word for ›them ones‹, in the religious opposing sides within Northern Ireland. The divide is among Catholic Irish Republicans and Protestant Loyalists. Fellow members of one‘s own side are known as ›ussuns‹.

With UK’s 2016 Brexit referendum Nothern Ireland will have to leave the EU. Local Protestant Loyalists predominantly supported Brexit whereas the other fraction of mainly Catholic Irish Republican citizens voted to remain. After more than 30 years of conflict during the so called ›Troubles‹ one of the fundamentals of the Peace Process declared in the 1998 Good Friday Agreement is the open border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland – wich will, in a post Brexit scenario, become an external border of the European Union.

In this project I was interested in exploring daily life situations with youth from both confessional communities and find out more about their concerns, surroundings and way of life. These observations may often have revealed more similarities than differences of lifestyle in a world of sectarian strife and political conflict mainly maintained by the older generation.

The work is about an empathic and sensitive view on whatever I felt could contribute to a comprehensive documentary of a social condition and a young generation’s quest for identity.

click to view the complete set of images in the archive check out the dedicated website - www.themmuns.net

The structure of the work as represented on the project-website and book follows prevailing geographical demarcations with chapters each referring to a specific neighbourhood in Belfast or Northern Ireland with its specific ethnopolitical and confessional orientation.

A text section in the book contains area profiles of all neighbourhoods with statistic information on social parameters and further readings with assembled texts from different sources like local newspapers, social media posts and the world wide web.