About our trip

With only one week until we leave for our experience in Northern Ireland we thought we would fill everyone in our itinerary.

The first 4 days in Northern Ireland will be spent at the Corrymeela Center for Reconciliation in Ballycastle, NI. Corrymeela was started as a community of Christian, both Catholic and Protestant who decided to work together to provide an example of a non-sectarian way of life. That community has grown to over 150 members in the past 40 years. They started a residential program at a center on a cliff overlooking the North Atrim coast only a few miles from Giant's Causeway. Their mission is to serve all people in Northern Ireland regardless of creed, race, nationality, ability, or background. We will be meeting with their staff, learning about their programs, participating in a service project, and helping to lead worship.

To learn more about their program- check out this video from a recent fund raiser:


While at Corrymeela we will head west across Northern Ireland to Derry/ Londonderry. The name alone tells of the division in this city. It was the site of "Bloody Sunday" and infamous day in Northern Ireland when 13 innocent civil rights marchers where gunned down by the British military and police. We will met with and be led by a man who was at the march on Bloody Sunday and visit the Bloody Sunday museum.

Once we finish at Corrymeela, we will travel on to Belfast where will be hosted by the Presbyterian Chaplaincy at Queen's University. Our days will be filled meeting with politicians, clergy, community leaders, journalist, and students. We hope to continue in our learning about the history of the troubles and the recent events surrounding the peace process. We also plan to spend part of a day serving at a Community Center that works with the youth in Belfast.

Finally, we will take a day "off" to head down into the Republic and tour around Dublin. We hope to see all that Dublin has to offer in 12 short hours! Museums, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Trinity College, and the General Post Office are just a few of the sites we plan to take in.

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we try to serve and learn from the people of Northern Ireland.

Check back for updates of our journey!

Peace,
The OWU Northern Ireland Mission Team

Power Sharing Miracle

A long overdue post of the recent developments in Northern Ireland. On March 26, 2007 Ian Paisley, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party sat side by side with Gerry Adams, leader of the Sinn Fein (Republican political party).

As told by BBC UK...

It was a moment for which all kinds of superlatives seemed appropriate, but none seemed adequate. You had to remind yourself that almost anywhere else on earth it would have been routine, even dull - two long-serving leaders of political parties on the point of entering a coalition talking about the challenges to come.

Both found words which were generous and even statesmanlike

But this is Northern Ireland, where for almost 40 years rival communities sought to resolve their problems not inside a parliament building, but in the streets outside it. Things are different here.

Gerry Adams and Ian Paisley have each led their respective communities through a wilderness of violence for more than 30 years.

'Broken homes and hearts'

In decades of political leadership in a province with a population the size of a large English county or a medium-sized American city they had never met, spoken, or shaken hands.

In different ways, each would have blamed the other for the violence which has broken thousands of homes and hearts here.

Gerry Adams has wanted this meeting for years - it is part of his extraordinary journey from reviled paramilitary to renowned statesman. Ian Paisley has always refused.

Casting Sinn Fein as political pariahs appealed to his followers of course, many of whom had relatives who died at the hands of the IRA, but it also provided a sort of guarantee against change.

Not talking meant not being asked to share power.

As republicanism has changed though, and moved away from its paramilitary past, it has been difficult for Ian Paisley to stick to the old hard line.

Such was the symbolic power of it all that the image of Gerry Adams and Ian Paisley side by side at the conference table will surely come in future as the image that defines the peace process

Unionists were filled with anger and hatred by IRA violence of course, but it also provided a guarantee that they would not have to change, or think about the future too much.

Once the violence stopped, unionism was forced to operate on a new political landscape and today's meeting was just one outworking of that.

And who knows - perhaps Ian Paisley after starting his career as an anti-establishment outsider in the privileged world of protestant politics here achieved his real goal when he became the leading unionist politician in 2003.

Since then he has been freer to pursue the goal of leaving behind a more constructive legacy - this was after all the man who for decades opposed any hint of change or whiff of accommodation with catholic nationalism.

Such was the symbolic power of it all that the image of Gerry Adams and Ian Paisley side by side at the conference table will surely come in future as the image that defines the peace process.

Future disagreements

As they sealed the deal to share power just six weeks from now, the two men found words which were generous and even statesmanlike even if there was no warmth, and more than a little awkwardness.

It would have been surprising if it had been any other way.

There were even signs that each had deferred to the sensibilities of the other.

Ian Paisley spoke of a loathing for the horrors of the past, without saying who was to blame for them.

Gerry Adams made a rare reference to the help of God when he talked of the opportunities for the future.

So much time and energy in Northern Irish politics has gone into getting the assembly back that it is easy to forget that parliaments are simply arenas for disagreement.

And there are plenty of disagreements to come here.

Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams still represent two parties which will disagree about almost everything once power-sharing is restored but almost everyone in Northern Ireland understands the significance of this moment; in future, differences will be resolved inside a parliament, not in the streets beyond it.

To hear their statements, visit BBC Northern Ireland.

New beginnings...

Here's a recent photo and story from the Belfast Telegraph.

We saw many of these sangars while in Northern Ireland. Some of them were still staffed by the military. The landscape of Northern Ireland continues to change with the recent negotiations in St. Andrew's and the corporation between the nationalist and the local police force.

"Sangar dismantling brings normality to Crossmaglen

For the small Crossmaglen community, yesterday's historic event was long overdue. Those who turned out to see the dismantling of the last significant military structure in south Armagh were nothing short of delighted. For more than 30 years the armoured sangar was the Army's base in what was often referred to as 'bandit country'. Yesterday's historic dismantling was part of the Armed Forces' withdrawal of security infrastructure throughout Northern Ireland. It's expected that the removal of the sangar will be completed by March 31."

Photographs by Alastair McBroom