While you were lifting green beer in Savannah, six Georgia Southern students were in Northern Ireland lifting paint brushes.

They were on a week-long "alternative spring break" helping to restore some historic murals, artifacts of the "Troubles," the bloody sectarian conflict which plagued the country for a generation.

There's not an arts major among them, with the group instead comprising two chemistry majors, and one major apiece in political science, anthropology, English, and philosophy.

So why were six non-artist college students from southeast Georgia studying political murals in Northern Ireland? We spoke to GSU faculty members Steve Engel and Bob Frigo about the trip, as well as one of the students, Rachel Rozier.

What's the idea behind this unusual trip?

Steve Engel: The original genesis was to have an alternative spring break where students could spend it doing meaningful activities where they're doing both service and having a cultural immersion project at the same time. Universities around the country have alternative spring break programs, and typically they're domestic spring break trips. So when we started one three years ago we decided we wanted to have an intercultural dimension to it as well. Bob led a group to Miami two years ago where they worked with Cuban and Haitian refugees, and then last year a group to Honduras and this year to Northern Ireland.

Why Northern Ireland in particular?

Steve Engel: It's one of the most interesting places where political identity has clashed in recent memory, and furthermore and more importantly, they've found ways to address these problems through a peace process. Northern Ireland in some ways poses a model for the rest of the world to look to.

The murals fit into that as the ways different communities grapple with the past and express their understanding of the past. When a conflict is rooted in recent past experience, how people address the past becomes particularly important. We see that in the use of the Confederate battle emblem, for instance, in our own state, and how that brings up issues in the past.

How will the students learn about this?

Bob Frigo: We'll be working with a group of artists in the city of Derry called The Bogside Artists that have been together since 1994. What really sets them apart from other people who've painted murals over the past 100 years is they use their works as a way to advance the peace and reconciliation process in Northern Ireland.

The works they've painted since '94 really capture historical snapshots of the Troubles that have been going on there since the late ‘60s. These are three-story murals, 12 of them right now, painted in a Catholic area outside of Derry. The group brings Protestant and Catholic kids together and uses these murals to begin a conversation between two groups of children who perhaps have never shared the same room or sat down at the same table before.

Rachel, is it difficult for someone of your generation to understand how such violence can come out of a religious conflict?

Rachel Rozier: It's definitely hard to relate to, because as an American citizen we put so much importance on separating politics and religion. And so to look at a country that has so much trouble because they do have so much interaction between politics and religion, it's just a completely different situation.

Tell me about the mural tradition in Northern Ireland.

Bob Frigo: The mural tradition in Ireland dates back about a century. They've been used in that part of the world for people to make political commentary as well as to mark territory between Protestants and Catholics.

Really from 1908 until ‘70s the murals were dominated by Protestants. We started to see Catholic graffiti in the ‘70s, but didn't start to see Catholic murals really until the early 1980s. When Bobby Sands the hunger striker, who's in essence was a martyr-like figure, passed away in 1981, that really for the first time is when we saw this explosion of Catholic murals in Northern Ireland. We saw 100 murals in the following three months in Belfast and around the province.

What will the students have to do with the murals?

Bob Frigo: The murals exist out of doors, and basically they've been subject to the elements - wind, rain, not a whole lot of sun because it's Ireland. Since 1994 they have deteriorated over the course of time, so the artists have invited our students to assist them in doing some touchup work to sort of restore them to their original glory because they're such a focal point for this community.

So when the parade rolls out in Savannah on Tuesday morning our students will be touching up these murals on Tuesday afternoon in Northern Ireland.

We're also meeting with the number two commander of the police from a decade ago, what used to be known as the Royal Ulster Constabulary. Story of peace process.

 We're especially excited that the students interacting with people who are advancing the peace process. Former Sen. George Mitchell was sent to advance the peace process in Northern Ireland during the Clinton administration. It's no surprise that President Obama is now sending Sen. Mitchell to the Middle East. This is letting students know how to pretty insignificant

Rachel, what do you hope to get out of this?

Rachel Rozier: Aside from just immersing myself in another culture and learning about Northern Ireland, I'm looking forward to meeting new people, having new experiences, and we're also going to be interacting with painters and seeing their work.

On top of that we're going to Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, which I'm very excited about as a political science major. It's really an important thing in political science from a modern perspective. One of our missions is to work on a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland. We'll be talking to people who are shaping the future there.

Will you miss not spending St. Patrick's Day on River Street?

Rachel Rozier: No. (laughs)  I don't think I'm going to be missing out on too much. I'm good with that.