The people behind a cross-community football team in Belfast have spoken about how it's transforming lives in the interface area for 11 years.
Limestone United is based in the Limestone Road area of North Belfast, an interface between Newington and Tigers Bay. Brian Caskey had been working as a police officer in the area for 25 years, so was used to dealing with violence and its aftermath.
However, 11 years ago, he decided to do something to help put an end to such clashes. Teaming up with several other volunteers, as well as Holy Family Youth Centre, Mountcollyer Youth Centre, and Star Neighbourhood Centre, Brian and the team founded cross-community football club Limestone United.
The group has been a great success, transforming the lives of young people in the area through involvement in their senior team, boys' youth team, and girls' team.
Brian retired from the PSNI three years ago, but is still involved in the day-to-day running of the club, and is hoping to train up the next generation of young leaders in the area.
He told Belfast Live : "We wanted to work with the young people to try and think of a better way to stop the youth violence that was reaching really high levels at the interfaces.
"So we basically used sport as a way to reach out across the interface, and the idea was young people would come together from the communities to play football rather than get involved in negative activity at the interfaces. It was a simple model like that and one we took a chance with, and the young people embraced that idea and formed the Limestone United cross-community football team.
"We're in our eleventh year now. When we started off, we didn't have a team or anything, but with our fantastic partners Holy Family and Mountcollyer, we used that as a way to get the kids in and do activities with them, then it became clear that football was the hook and we asked if the boys would like to form a football team and they did.
"They designed their name, their badge, and they basically worked out how the programme would run, and we supported the programme. It's something I love doing because I just saw it was working."
Brian added that the group has been able to use football and other activities to "break down barriers" and bring communities together.
He said: "It's bringing young people together who were previously fighting on the Limestone Road into relationships where we get the difficult conversations out of the way.
"Sometimes it's a bit hot and heavy to get there, but we suddenly found there was so much common ground, and sport was a great way to introduce new ideas and new ways of doing things."
Kevin-Barry Brown is a youth worker at Star Neighbourhood Centre, and is also involved with Limestone United. He said: "The main aspect of this is bringing both sides together, and it's worked. The stories I've heard and the experiences I've seen have been great.
"The young people have developed great skills from people from across communities they wouldn't have been able to, especially as it's on the divide. It's really good."
Current players on the team, Jordan Gyle and Lee Doherty, have been involved with Limestone United since the beginning. They said they "wouldn't want to think" about where they would be now if they didn't take a chance on the group eleven years ago, adding that they would likely still be throwing stones across the divide.
Looking towards the future, Brian is hoping to give young people in the group the skills they need to go out into their communities and become the next generation of young leaders.
"This next two years we're trying to bring as much help as we can to the lads who have come through, and are now giving back," he continued.
"There's an onus on us to support them in any way we can to give them the skills so they can take over from old people like me, and become the next generation of young leaders.
"It's sometimes a thing you hear an awful lot, but for me, the kids live here, they have a vested interested in it, and my hope is the next generation will come through in a very similar, positive way, and look up to those peers."
Video by Belfast Live videographer Harry Bateman.
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