Reconciliation

Forgive for the sake of the future?

Allan LEONARD (Mr Ulster) on October 6, 2015, 7:34 am | Readers 772

Forgive for the sake of the future? A lecture by Duncan Morrow by Allan Leonard for Northern Ireland Foundation 29 September 2015 As part of the Community Relations Week programme, a former Chief Executive of the Community Relations Council, Dr Duncan Morrow, gave a lecture that explored how unresolved trauma affects the legacy for future generations. Sitting in the same chairs as the elected representatives occupy in the chamber at Down District Council, Dr Morrow told the audience that he …

Knitting together: CRC annual conference

Allan LEONARD (Mr Ulster) on September 29, 2015, 9:49 pm | Readers 512

As Chair of the Communication Relations Council, Peter Osborne, welcomed delegates to their annual policy and practice conference at Stormont Hotel, Belfast, he explained the event theme, “One Place — Many People”: “All of us in this room are a minority of some sort; we are all minorities in this place we call home.” Mr Osborne added that it will be relationships between us that will dismantle bigotry and sectarianism. But that ordinary people in Northern Ireland are suffering from …

An uncomfortable conversation* at #Feile15 [*in the sense that a lack of hope leads optimism to wither]

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on August 3, 2015, 9:09 pm | Readers 1647

Pulling names out of a hat to decide the order of speaking, Presbyterian Minister and deputy Equality Commissioner Rev Lesley Carroll began by looking through “a dark lens” and delivered a downbeat assessment of the present state of reconciliation in Northern Ireland – we need to “change our tune, change our dance steps, or we’ll burrow a hole in the ground and fall into it”. She was followed by CRC chair Peter Osborne who spoke about continued segregation, relative funding …

Reconciliation In Derry – Remembering Messines

Robin Keogh on June 14, 2015, 12:03 pm | Readers 1579

After a pretty heavy engagement on Slugger last weekend on the role of republicans, loyalists and the state regarding the troubles and its many victims, I was left feeling a little hopeless about how to overcome the barriers on the road to reconciliation. However, when I saw this article in the Belfast Telegraph, I have to admit my spirits were lifted somewhat. It is only in recent years that the Irish state has moved to lift the blanket of collective amnesia that for …

National reconciliation: “Patriotism is not enough”

Allan LEONARD (Mr Ulster) on February 20, 2015, 4:45 pm | Readers 1812

In the second of a series of seminars organised by Niamh Mental Wellbing, Reverend Dr Gary Mason facilitated a civic engagement in a packed room at Skainos on the Newtownards Road, Belfast. The discussants were Declan Kearney (Sinn Féin), Reverend Harold Good (former President, Methodist Church in Ireland) and Nelson McCausland MLA (substituting for Jeffrey Donaldson MP). For Mr Kearney, national reconciliation is for Protestant, Catholic, Dissenter and those of no religious affiliation and beyond. His concern is that the journey …

Is time the only consistent factor in post-conflict reconciliation?

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on June 19, 2014, 1:37 pm | Readers 49

In the course of a recent conversation, the statement was made that while international studies can point to many policies and initiatives that failed to lead to increased levels of reconciliation, few if any studies cite examples of practices or policies that can be shown to have successfully accelerated reconciliation. Whether on the back of a family dispute, a church split, or communities driven apart through forty years of conflict (and hundreds of years of debated history before that), the …

Not a cosy conversation: Victims and survivors conference

Allan LEONARD (Mr Ulster) on February 26, 2014, 1:18 pm | Readers 53

The Commission for Victims and Survivors (CVS) convened a conference “to listen to as many voices as possible” in forming its advice to the Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister, the CVS Commissioner Kathryn Stone explained. The event was well attended by a couple hundred delegates, representing the broad spectrum from Northern Ireland’s Troubles; but remarkably absent were politicians. https://soundcloud.com/mrulster/20140225-cvs-01-kathryn-stone?in=mrulster/sets/20140225-cvs-conference Commissioner Stone quoted the Haass-O’Sullivan published draft document, in regards to the leadership role demonstrated to date …

On the matter of uncertainty and principle…

Mick Fealty on June 5, 2013, 12:07 pm | Readers 63

With all due apologies to students of quantum physics out there, Brian Feeney’s ‘poetic’ use of the Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle in today’s Irish News (£) to explain the SDLP’s apparent confusion over the last fortnight is too good to resist: The principle suggests that the closer you get to establishing the position of a particle the harder it is to work out the speed of its movement [or rather its momentum – Ed]. Conversely the closer you get to working …

“For reconciliation to work it must be a social rather than political process… “

Mick Fealty on April 23, 2013, 5:37 pm | Readers 54

Good piece from Barney Rowan, with a useful perspective from the PUP on Sinn Fein’s reconciliation project lead by party officer (probably a reflection of how highly the project lies within party priorities) Declan Kearney… “However reconciliation is defined, we believe that it will not work if conceived as an extension of the political process,” the document reads. “In that instance reconciliation will become little more than a reinforcement of the two-horse political race that currently dominates. It will be …

Reconciliation: “Not every question will be answered”

Mick Fealty on March 4, 2013, 11:36 am | Readers 56

Brian Rowan at Eamonn’s place notes that there is a difference between getting to the truth of the past, and an apology: Everyone and every side understands that more has to be done – the questions are within what structure and within what rules? Not every question will be answered – but let’s find out what answers are possible and within what context, and let all sides do it in the here and now. The last phrase there, the here …

Loyalists and Republicans using manipulative means to justify terror campaigns?

Mick Fealty on June 11, 2012, 12:25 pm | Readers 45

Alex Kane weighs into the victims fray: I don’t think there will be a definition of ‘victim’ which is acceptable to all sides. I don’t think there will be a definition of ‘reconciliation’ which is acceptable to all sides. I don’t think there will be a definition of ‘shared future’ which is acceptable to all sides. I don’t think there will be much agreement on what is meant by ‘dealing with the past’, let alone what is meant by ‘putting …

McGuinness: “open to using new language, and consider making new compromises”

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on April 5, 2012, 9:00 am | Readers 34

The deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness spoke last night before the Political Studies Association conference dinner in the plush surroundings of Belfast City Hall. He initially covered the mandatory tourism information, quoting travel guides that say “Belfast is a must see city in 2012” and adding that “Derry city – or as some people call it Londonderry – is a must see city in 2013”. During his twenty minute address he mentioned the “tiny number of militarists who delude themselves …

“this may suit political parties with a deeply rooted sense of conflicting priorities based on ethnic division”

Pete Baker on October 4, 2010, 11:14 am | Readers 8

The BBC reports criticism of the DUP/Sinn Féin drafted Programme for Cohesion, Sharing and Integration, all ‘motherhood and apple pie’, by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust. The Trust’s report is available here [pdf file]. And from the Trust’s press release [pdf file] The study, carried out by the Institute for British Irish Studies at UCD, Dublin, identifies three key areas of concern. Celia McKeon of the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust discusses: “Firstly, the research has indicated that the new policy framework …

“That is if this place ever has a process of truth and reconciliation.”

Pete Baker on August 28, 2010, 3:18 pm | Readers 3

In the Belfast Telegraph Brian Rowan picks up on NI Police Ombudsman Al Hutchison’s comments following the publication of the Claudy report. Al Hutchison was, let’s not forget, repeating himself… From the Belfast Telegraph article The Ombudsman has more than a hundred historical cases sitting on his desk — work he estimates will take fifty years to complete. And if this is left in his office and left with the Historical Enquiries Team, then the reality is that many people will never have their …