Peace centre plans refresher course for North's politicians

POLITICIANS FROM the North may be invited back to the Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation in Co Wicklow.

Between 1994 and 2006 about 700 Northern politicians, both unionist and nationalist, attended the centre to discuss the peace process. Those invited were mostly local politicians.

The workshops stopped in 2006 because it was felt their work was done. However, Geoffrey Corry, a facilitator at the Glencree Centre since 1994, said they were now examining the possibility of starting them again next year to educate a new generation about the importance of reconciliation.

"We believe there is still work to be done. At the top level the Martin McGuinnesses and the Peter Robinsons are getting on well together, but there is a whole generation coming up who have not met each other on the DUP and Sinn Féin sides.

"Some on the DUP side are still suspicious of the South and there are still many in Sinn Féin who feel they are not treated as first-class citizens by unionists."

Speaking at the Psychological Society of Ireland's (PSI) annual conference in Tullow, Co Carlow, yesterday, Mr Corry said Glencree played an important role in normalising relations between unionist and republican "second-tier" politicians.

The Belfast Agreement would not have succeeded if it had only been embraced by the leadership on both sides. It needed the support of "local groups and civil society", he believes. "We have heard what happened at the top level, but we haven't heard the work that went on below that top level and also the work between victims and ex-combatants."

He said that until December 1996 unionists and republicans would not even be in the same room. "Today that's normal. Then it was regarded as impossible."

Mr Corry said the visit by representatives of both the African National Congress (ANC) and the white Nationalist Party to Ireland in 1996 to discuss how they had come to form a new government after centuries of conflict had an important role in showing a way forward to politicians in the North.

The ANC's chief negotiator, Cyril Ramaphosa, his National Party counterpart Roelf Meyer and the conservative Afrikaner leader Constand Viljoen came to Ireland in the 1990s to give advice.

"The stories they told about how they did that gave a lot of help and the journey that was required. My hope is that Irish politicians and diplomats have a role to play and tell our story to give hope to other conflicts," he commented.