RAY DAVEY:REV RAY Davey, who has died aged 97, was a Presbyterian minister who founded the Corrymeela community in Ballycastle, Co Antrim, with the goal of reconciliation between the North's two communities.
The centre was set up in 1965 as an open village where people from all backgrounds could learn to live as a community. Its focus changed and intensified from 1969, when it became a place of refuge and respite for those affected by the violence of the Troubles.
A major inspiration for the community came from Davey’s experiences in the second World War.
He left his home in Belfast – where he was born in Dunmurry in 1915 to a Presbyterian minister – when war broke out. He became a YMCA chaplain, working in north Africa supporting the troops.
He was captured on the fall of Tobruk in 1942 and taken to prisoner-of war camps in Italy and Germany. The horrors of the allied bombing of Dresden in 1945 were to have a lasting effect on him.
Visiting the city after the raids he wrote: “I walked for a very long time without seeing a house fit for habitation. I had never seen such absolute devastation on such a wide scale.” Returning home he became the first Presbyterian minister at Queen’s University Belfast
At this time he married Kathleen Burrows, whom he had met before the war at Queen’s, when he had played rugby for Ulster.
In 1965, with a group of students, he founded the Corrymeela community at an old holiday camp to give “ecumenical expression” to those aware of the “problems of a divided society”. At the time many Protestants did not consider there to be major divisions or inequalities in the society.
Davey saw the need for the churches to be involved in changing society. “Anyone who says that the churches have nothing to do with our current trouble in the North and are completely blameless are very naive people indeed,” he told The Irish Times in 1976.
He also explained the impact of bringing groups of Protestant and Catholic young teenagers together at the centre: “We have found that we do not have any real problem along the lines of sectarian trouble. Our experience is that when young people are away from the tension and violence of their environment they get on remarkably well together,” he said.
Davey led the centre until his retirement in 1980. The community now hosts thousands of residents and day visitors annually. Its legacy was described last month by Church of Ireland primate Archbishop Alan Harper as “a constant source of influence and inspiration for all those who sought and continue to seek reconciliation and peace in Northern Ireland”.
He was predeceased by his wife Kathleen and is survived by his children Rob, Ian and Alison and grandchildren Andrew, Patrick, Kate, Charlotte, Raymond, Peter, Patrick, Caitlin and Chris.
Robert Raymond Davey: born January 10th, 1915; died April 16th, 2012