Overview

This course explores some of the key challenges and dynamics of reconciliation between people who have been directly involved in and/or affected by violent political conflict.  The focus will be on what has aptly been described as the “heart of deep peacemaking and cultural peacebuilding” (Ramsbotham), on reconciliation at the interpersonal level.  The course will be co-facilitated by former combatants and survivors of the conflict in and about Northern Ireland, who have also become experienced reconciliation practitioners on the islands of Ireland and Great Britain and beyond.  The following are some of the theories, themes and processes to be explored in a participatory, experiential way through discussion and interactive group activities:

• Meanings of reconciliation, with an emphasis on the notion of “humanizing former enemies”
• Different understandings of who are the (real/true) “victims” and “perpetrators”
• Place of “intrapersonal” reconciliation, notion of “inner peace”
• Strengths and limitations of storytelling/sharing of personal histories, as illustrated by the Journey through Conflict/Healing of Memories approach
• Challenge of cultivating enduring co-operative relationships between victims/survivors, former combatants and members of the wider society after “The Troubles”, as highlighted by the Glencree Sustainable Peace Network
• Promise of nature-based activities in promoting interpersonal and intrapersonal reconciliation 

Drawing on their learning during the week and their own experience, participants will be expected to give short presentations at the end of the course.

Provisional Schedule
Note this schedule is for this Module only, it does not include the wider lectures for participants (Northern Ireland Programme) at 4pm each day and evening activities. A full programme will be supplied in due course of these activities.

Notes on Facilitators

Alistair Little
Alistair Little is a former loyalist political prisoner, from a Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) background.  He was imprisoned at the age of 17 and served thirteen and a half years in prison.  Upon his release he qualified as a councillor and has become an experienced reconciliation worker in Northern Ireland, Ireland, the Balkans, the Middle East, and South Africa.  For the last 10 years a key focus of his work has been the facilitation of in depth sharing of personal histories/storytelling between diverse participants.  He is the co-founder of the wilderness-based peace work that led to the Glencree Sustainable Peace Network (GSPN) and he is a co-facilitator on a wide range of GSPN events.  He has given presentations at numerous international conferences on conflict and reconciliation themes, including two previous INCORE Summer Schools.  He has participated in many local and international TV programs, most recently “Moving beyond hatred” for NHK, Japan.  His journey from political violence to reconciliation worker is the subject of a BBC film “Five Minutes in Heaven” to be screened internationally in 2009.  His autobiography “Give a Boy a Gun: From Killing to Peacebuilding” will be published in March 2009.

Wilhelm Verwoerd
Wilhelm Verwoerd was born in South Africa and since 2002 has been working as a Programme Co-ordinator of the Survivors and Former Combatants Programme at the Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation in Ireland.  Before moving to Ireland he was a lecturer in the Department of Philosophy, University of Stellenbosch (1990-2001) and was a researcher within the Cape Town office of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (1996-1998).   He currently works as a reconciliation practitioner at the Glencree Centre and has worked extensively with ex-combatants and survivors from all sides of the conflict in and about Northern Ireland, with the development of the GSPN being the main focus of his work since 2004.  He is the author of My Winds of Change published by Ravan Press and co-edited with Charles Villa-Vicencio, Looking Back, Reaching Forward: Reflections on the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission published by Juta Publishing Co./ London: Zed Books.   Recently his PhD, Equity, Mercy, Forgiveness: Interpreting Amnesty within the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, was published by Peeters, Leuven.

Suggested reading

Bloomfield, David, Teresa Barnes, and Luc Huyse, eds. Reconciliation after Violent Conflict: A Handbook. Stockholm, Sweden: International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, 2003.(This book is available as a PDF at http://www.idea.int/publications/reconciliation/upload/reconciliation_full.pdf)

Du Toit, F. Learning to Live Together: Practices of Social Reconciliation. Cape Town: Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, 2002.

Govier, Trudy, and Verwoerd, Wilhelm. "Trust and the Problem of National Reconciliation." Philosophy of the Social Sciences 32 (2002).

Govier, Trudy and Verwoerd, Wilhelm. 2004.  “How not to polarize ‘victims’ and ‘perpetrators’”, Peace Review, 16 (3), pp.371-377.

Hamber, B. (2007). Forgiveness and Reconciliation: Paradise Lost or Pragmatism? Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 13(1), 113-123.

Hamber, Brandon, and Grainne Kelly. "A Place for Reconciliation? Conflict and Locality in Northern Ireland." Belfast, Northern Ireland: Democratic Dialogue, 2005.

Ignatieff, Michael. The Warrior's Honor: Ethnic War and the Modern Conscience. London: Chatto & Windus, 1998.

Lederach, JP. "Building Peace: Sustainable Reconciliation in Divided Societies." Washington DC, United States Institute of Peace Press (1997).

Lederach, JP. The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace.  Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.

Porter, Norman. The Elusive Quest: Reconciliation in Northern Ireland. Belfast: The Blackstaff Press, 2003.

Rigby, Andrew. Justice and Reconciliation: After the Violence. London: Lynne Rienner, 2001.

Smyth, Marie. ‘Putting the Past in its Place: Issues of Victimhood and Reconciliation in Northern Ireland’s Peace Process’, in Nigel Biggar (ed.), Burying the Past: Making Peace and Doing Justice after Civil Conflict. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2001. pp. 125-53.

Verwoerd, W. (2007). Equity, Mercy, Forgiveness: Interpreting Amnesty within the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Leuven, Belgium Peeters.

 

Introduction to Sustainable Peace and Storytelling

Lederach, JP. The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace.  Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005, pp. 131-150

Healing of Memories storytelling - see http://www.healingofmemories.co.za/index.htm

These are introductory readings for the case study on the Glencree Sustainable Peace Network.  See also http://www.glencree.ie

Cryer, P. (2000). To See the Right [Unpublished Paper]. South Africa: Wilderness Leadership School.

Lederach, JP. The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace.  Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005, pp. 75 - 112

Pretty, J. (2004). How nature contributes to mental and physical health. Spirituality and Health International, 5(2), 68-78.

Udayakumar, S. P. (1998). Landing peace theory on solid ground. Peace Review, 10(1), 13 - 19.

Verwoerd, W. (2004). Troubled Scatterlings in a South African Wilderness. In A Place for Peace:  Glencree Centre for Reconciliation (pp. 166-175). Dublin: The Liffey Press.

Contact Details
Wilhelm Verwoerd
Glencree Centre for Reconciliation
Glencree
Co. Wicklow
Ireland
Tel: +353 1 2829711
Email: wilhelm.verwoerd@glencree.ie
Glencree: www.glencree.ie