John Reavey
A London Irish Story as told to Matthew Dunne-Miles
“Growing up, I’ve always known that my three uncles were murdered in The Troubles...I always knew my family would believe in me to tell the story and do it right. ”
I’m from a small village in South Armagh called Whitecross. It's mainly farmland, one pub, one GAA football field, one shop and that's kind of it! There’s around 350 people there, so it means the community is so tight knit. I thought that was super cool growing up. You were friends with everyone the same age as you and everyone knew your face before you were even old enough to realise who they were. I loved the freedom of all that open space, and you could do whatever you want in all the land there to explore.
The downside is there aren't many events going on but, when they do happen, the community comes together. Another thing I found is a lot of people of older generations have stubborn views when it comes to LGBT, religious, and political issues. I feel like the new generation are progressing a lot, but that can take away from how accepting of a place it is.
“When I first found YouTube, I was obsessed with the idea that you could create anything from your phone.”
My earliest memories of filmmaking are of me and my older brother playing games in the garden and uploading them to YouTube. It’s embarrassing now but it showed that I love the idea of just recording myself and others.
It all came together when I started studying moving image arts for GCSE. That's where I found my passion for filmmaking and realised, I was lucky enough to have a bit of a talent for it. When you're not getting paid and you're doing it in your spare time, you know it's a passion.
I moved to London the second I finished school. It was brewing in me for at least two years that I was going to move. I was researching and watching YouTube videos about how to survive. I'm from a low-income background, so I was always thinking “how the hell am I going to survive?” I applied for student grants, loans, and set up a whole budget planner about how I was going to work part-time. Everything was planned before I even arrived.
“I moved over completely alone with no parents, no friends, no industry connections, but I was driven on by seeing all my dreams come to reality.”
The ‘expectation versus reality’ is you imagine yourself living in the centre of London and having all these things on your doorstep when, in reality, I was living in Zone 5 in trashy student accommodation. I didn't live near an underground station, so I had to get an hour-long bus to the nearest one. Working in town was a horrible commute, but I knew it was temporary and that it would all pay off.
I now work as a video producer for West Ham. On match days, we film the game from the pitch side, and interview the players and the manager. It’s absolutely hectic but everything you see on TV has probably been shot by me or one of the others.
When people were dreaming of even getting into the stadiums last year in lockdown, I was in stadiums across the country. I'm not well travelled, so even going to somewhere like Burnley was a new city and a new stadium. It was thrilling.
I've always wanted to tell stories from where I'm from and it only hit me, when I moved to England, how different Irish people live. There are a million stories that can be told, but I didn't even realise that.
Growing up, I've always known that my three uncles were murdered in The Troubles. My family would speak about it all the time. I always knew my family would believe in me to tell the story and do it right.
“I had no expectations going into the piece but set up a crowdfunding page with a goal of raising £3000.
We didn't think we would hit that but thought people might donate more to help us get there.”
Within one day we hit our goal, it was absolutely outrageous to even think that happened. After that, the crowdfunding just kept rolling and rolling.
The local community really pushed this fundraiser over the line. The support came from people who had heard the story of my uncles, but also those affected by The Troubles within their lifetime. There are so many people like the Reavey family, who believe that their story hasn't been brought to light. I would love to think that they can also see ‘Reavey Brothers’ as an outlet.
Home will always be Armagh to me. Although London has stolen my heart. As much as I could live in London for the rest of my life happily, I feel like my heritage and my stories lie in Armagh and they always will."
To find out more information on John’s upcoming film, visit www.reaveybrothersfilm.com
