Religious banter should be encourage in the north?

Belfast Telegraph

Northern Ireland’s religious divide has often proven a minefield when it comes to engaging in a spot of workplace banter.

But a team of local academics are now saying that light-hearted ribbing about community backgrounds is actually a good way to form relationships with colleagues.

The authors of the Learning To Deal With Difference report from the University of Ulster interviewed a total of 81 workers in 10 organisations in Belfast about their attitude to banter, with particular focus on employees who came from interface areas.

"Our research revealed that banter, which included references to one's community background, was a potentially very useful communication practice in many organisations, in facilitating and easing relationships,” said Professor Owen Hargie, one of the authors of the report.

However, Damon Quinn, a member of local comedy group The Hole in the Wall Gang, said the nature of such banter depended on its context.

“I used to be a lawyer and this would have been presented as a defence when I was taking cases, that sectarian comments were just a bit of a joke,” he said.

“The tribunals took a fairly dim view of it because if someone said they were offended by it you’d have to take your victim as you find them.

“On the other hand, when we came to write Give My Head Peace we took the view that you should confront sectarianism head on. Once you get over that, the insults are lost.”

One of the other authors Dr Aodheen O'Donnell added: "The findings from our research show that steps need to be taken by organisations to make the induction and the handbook more relevant to the needs of new members of staff. In particular, the induction process needs to address more directly aspects of cross-community difference".

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