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Port of Call |
LAST UPDATE January 18, 2007
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| May 26, 2006 |
Dublin, Ireland – Glencree Reconciliation Center |
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Nestled in the rolling hills of Wiklow County, Ireland lies the Glencree Reconciliation Center. The quiet peaceful environment of the center is ideal for groups and individuals working through their conflict. Dedicated to peace building and reconciliation, the center offers peace education programs, reconciliation workshops for survivors and combatants, and promotes dialogue and relationship building. Started in 1947 as a response to the violence in Northern Ireland, Gleencree now works to reconcile conflicts both locally and internationally. Equipped with a resource center for peace studies and dispute resolution, Glencree visitor's center offers conference rooms and accomodations for individuals and groups. |
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Peace Boat's visit to the center coincided with a youth peace education workshop. Three groups from Dublin, Belfast, and Warrington had spent the previous few days getting to know each other through various trust and relationship building activities. Conn Mulvenna, Glencree Educational Program Coordinator said, “The young people came together to learn about conflict, prejudice, and team building. They came together to develop ways to resolve conflict.” 26 youth, ages 13-16 from Dublin and Warrington, gave Peace Boat participants a short presentation on what they had learnt through the workshops. One group talked about the Northern Ireland peace process and held up three hand made flags. The first flag was the flag of Ireland, and the third was the flag of England. “We hope to achieve unity among nations” said a youth as he held the flag in the middle which was the symbol for peace drawn across the world. The second and third group of presentations shared what they had learnt about reconciliation. With posters covered with peace symbols such as two hands shaking or a cross world puzzle to illustrate the complexity of world issues. Through their workshops they realized how relationships and communication skills were vital to creating peace. After the presentations, Peace Boat participants and the youth played a communication game called the fax machine, in which they practiced non-verbal communication and cooperation. |
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Then Glencree's Conn and Eamon Rafter, Educational Development coordinator, talked about their differing backgrounds and how they came to work for Glencree. For Eamon who grew up in Dublin, the Norther Ireland conflict felt very distant even though the city of Belfast was only two hours away. As he was growing up Eamon “didn't understand why it was so hard to resolve this conflict.” It was only later when he made friends from Northern Ireland that he began to understand the situation. “ I have come to realize on this small island is that we need to communicate with each other. We need to understand each other to solve this long conflict.“ Conn, originally from Belfast, shared his experience growing up in Northern Ireland. Even though he was only four years old when the violence began, he was very aware that life had changed. Until he was an adult, Conn had very little contact with Protestant community. He was born in Catholic hospital, went to a Catholic school, learnt Catholic history, and worked with only other Catholics. Conn felt he lived in a sectarian society in which good points of belonging to a group were twisted into believing that “we could only talk to our group, we could only belong to our group.”
Along with it's staff the Glencree center relies of the hard work of its international volunteers. One volunteer, Yasser Alasshqar has been volunteering at Glenncree for over a year. Yasser was born in the Anasurat Refugee Camp in the occupied territory of Gaza, Palestine. When he was growing up, he was told, “this camp is not your home. Your home is Palestine that is now Israel.” Yasser's brother was shot by Israeli soldiers and his uncle was imprisoned for 22 years, he has realized that violence is not the answer and came to work at Glencree to learn about peace building and conflict resolution. “I believe in peace. I don't believe in conflict with violence, rather it should be resolved through negotiation” he said. He is planning on pursuing a Masters in Peace and Conflict resolution in the fall and then returning to Palestine to promote understanding between Palestinians and Israelis. “Peace building is not just my job. It is everyone's job.” |
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On the bus ride back to Topaz, Peace Boat participant Reiko Hirota reflected upon the events of the day. Before joining the 53rd voyage, she had not spent much time thinking about people in conflict in other parts of the world. After spending time with the youth at Glencree,, “ I realized how important children's education is. And how teaching them to communicate clearly and value peace is so vital,” she said. |
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