Cross Border Orchestra of Ireland forging new friendships

"Our orchestra shows how the two communities can come together through music."

The passion of 15-year-old Cara is written all over her face as she takes her handmade violin from its case.

She is one of the youngest musicians in the Cross Border Orchestra of Ireland.

I'm in Dundalk, County Louth, in the Republic of Ireland to watch her and more than 100 other young musicians rehearse ahead of a series of concerts.

Cara, from County Down, plays in the strings section of the orchestra that emerged out of the Northern Ireland peace process.

It was set up in 1995, a year after republican and loyalist paramilitaries announced ceasefires.

This followed more than a quarter of a century of violence in Northern Ireland.

The key aim was to use music to connect young people from Catholic and Protestant backgrounds on both sides of the Irish border.

Almost 30 years on, this remains the central goal of the 140-member orchestra.

Cara attends a Catholic girls' grammar school in Ballynahinch and has always loved music.

"I started playing violin and piano when I was young. You have to practise a lot but it's taught me so much about perseverance," she said.

She has been a member of the orchestra for two years and says it has helped her forge new, diverse friendships.

"There are still aspects of life in Northern Ireland that can make it difficult to meet people from different backgrounds, for example often schools are either Catholic or Protestant," she said.

"But going to the orchestra has been great because I've made friends from all sides of the community, all over the country."

The orchestra has also ignited Cara's love for different types of music.

"I just wouldn't have listened to things like Ulster-Scots music, simply because I just wouldn't have been exposed to it because it wasn't played where I live.

"But I love the pipes they use and getting to become immersed in that Ulster-Scots music and culture has given me a whole new perspective."

The orchestra combines Ulster-Scots culture, including bagpipes and Lambeg drums, with Irish traditional instruments such as uilleann pipes, the harp, the fiddle and bodhrán (drum).

They also have their own take on some of the biggest pop, rock and dance songs in the charts.

A diverse range of music has been key to the project's success, according to the orchestra's founder Sharon Treacy-Dunne.

She is originally from Hackballscross, a rural village in County Louth in the Republic of Ireland, a few miles south of the border with Northern Ireland.

"Growing up in the 1970s and 80s, and as a young teacher in Dundalk in the early to mid-90s, before the ceasefire and the Good Friday peace agreement, I remember being really worried about what I was seeing," she said.

"You had some young people becoming involved in paramilitary organisations just for a lack of something better to do, in some cases, to be honest."

She added: "Then in 1994 when we reached this momentous ceasefire, as a teacher I thought I needed to be some sort of role model.

"The only thing I knew was music."

Sharon began writing to schools on both sides of the Irish border about taking part in the orchestra.

She said: "To be honest it took a while to bring some of the Protestant schools on board, but music was the answer.

"Once we made it clear that we were also using music that was important to them with instruments such as pipes and Lambeg drums, that was a huge turning point."

The work of the orchestra culminates with the peace proms - an annual tour with other school choirs which has sold out at several arenas across the UK and Ireland.

It involves 35,000 children from schools all over the island, from diverse backgrounds and abilities.

For the past five years, 6,000 children in Northern Ireland have participated with a 50/50 representation from Catholic maintained schools and controlled schools where the majority of pupils come from a Protestant background.

Being part of the orchestra also means young people like Cara had the chance to perform at New York's famous Carnegie Hall on St Patrick's Day earlier this year.

"It was unbelievable, I could never have imagined having an opportunity like that, but music just opens up so many doors," she said.

The New York concert was part of a series of events to mark the 25th anniversary of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

The deal brought an end to 30 years of conflict in Northern Ireland, known as the Troubles.

But a series of resignations, suspensions and stand-offs have interrupted power sharing, sometimes for years at a time in Northern Ireland.

Current disagreements means there has been no devolved government in Northern Ireland since February 2022, when the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) walked out of Stormont as part of a protest over post-Brexit trading arrangements.

Cara believes being able to showcase the positive impact of the orchestra on the world stage is important.

"I often feel the headlines and stories about Northern Ireland are very negative. Most days the news revolves around Stormont and divisions between the political parties here," she said.

"The orchestra shows a different side, a positive story about how music connects people from all backgrounds."

She added: "When we perform together it is the most uplifting experience for all involved."

Cara shared her story as the Northern Ireland winner of the BBC Young Reporter Competition.

You can find stories by other young people online at: bbc.co.uk/youngreporter.