The first ten years GLENCREE CENTRE FOR RECONCILIATION The first ten years A grant from the Allied Irish Banks Group Community and Social Programme towards this publication is acknowledged with thanks. Glcncrec... a place and an ideal

lencree Centre for Reconciliation was G founded in 1974 as a response to violent conflict in Irish society, in the conviction that there must be a better way than violence and vandalism, intolerance and sectarianism. The Centre works to discover and promote the conditions for a just and peaceful society. It seeks to uncover and encourage in the people of Ireland the moral and physical resources to transcend the politics and economics of violence, pollution and greed and to reconstruct an island where young and old can live in security and hope. A spirit of Christian commitment to this ideal inspired the foundation of the Centre and continues to motivate its varied activities of peace training, peace making and the respectful use of natural resources. It welcomes members and fellow workers from any religious faith and from none, from Ireland and abroad and from all social and political traditions compatible with the aims of the Centre. Glencree is a place and an ideal. It stands for tolerance and justice; for an Ireland where individuals and families, small groups and large, can find the space and the environment to live and work together with dignity and mutual respect • What the Taoiseach has said

HE work of reconciliation is Tthe greatest single challenge that faces this generation in Ireland. As each of the last ten years has gone by, the task has become more daunting, more complex and more heartbreaking. ... Too many young Irish men and women have sought relief in escapism or have yielded to a blind urge for violent revenge. Too many of my own generation have yielded to a weary fatalism. “If we fail to confront the crisis of Northern Ireland, it will inexorably worsen and fester. “Until we all seek to understand this crisis, we will not be able to act intelligently and effectively for peace. The effort of understanding will require a willingness on our part, on the part of both sections of the community in Northern Ireland and on the part of the British to reject a good deal of our own cherished mythology as well as the mythology of others. It will require a readiness to contemplate difficult, expensive and probably painful options and it will require a commitment to give to this problem and to its solution a priority above all other issues.”

From aspeech by the Taoiseach, Dr. Garret FitzGerald, T.D. at the opening of a Glencree exhibition in May 1983. Glencree - a beacon of hope

Dr. A. J. F. O'Reilly, Chairman of the Glencree Development Committee sends us this message on our tenth anniversary.

OM M ENTING on the synonym for surrender - or if it CAnglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 does mean surrender, it is and partition, a British author surrender of a positive type to wrote, “So the Irish won in a the forces of general good. way, but they lost too, for they Glencree is all about creating never made friends with space .. . space for the mind, themselves.” space for the spirit, space for the That observation was penned soul. It is a crossroads for tribes many years ago, but it is as true to meet. Properly used, it is a today as it was fifty years ago. supermarket for low-cost Glencree is one of those little generosity and high-quality beacons of hope that light up an Christianity. otherwise turbulent, Stop and shop at Glencree! ungenerous sea. You’ll find the Christian We have to learn the message of peace alive and well American lesson that and prospering there, thanks to compromise is the distinction of your generosity. • the intelligent man and not a Ten Years...

“Forgiveness is a catalyst creating the atmosphere necessary for afresh start and a new beginning — Martin Luther King

FTER a particularly horrifying community leaders, politicians and A outbreak of bombing in Belfast in trade unionists of all persuasions have 1972 a number of people met in Dublin taken part in seminars and to protest against the atrocities being conferences. carried out in their name and an All this activity and the practical ecumenical service to voice concern effort entailed must surely have some for the people of Northern Ireland was stronger motive force if the ideals and later held in Christ Church Cathedral. aspirations of Glencree are to reach Concern was not enough, however out and influence the hearts and minds and the organisation known as of those to whom the concept of Working For Peace considered reconciliation is as yet unknown - or injustice and social problems to be at even unacceptable. the root of the conflict. The various There is of course this motive force peace groups involved soon realised and it springs from the Christian belief that reconciliation was the key and which permeates everything to do with that what was needed was a common the Centre and which was what fired base from which to spearhead an the enthusiasm of the founders over effective and non-violent approach to ten years ago. the urgent issues both north and south. ROM its earliest days Glencree has In February of the following year the been inspired by and affiliated to old Glencree barracks were made FCorrymeela, the Christian peace available by the Government and in a community in Co. Antrim which is generous act of faith, bankers twenty years old this year. Joint Guinness and Mahon approved an projects with Corrymeela are an overdraft of £47,000 for the work of ongoing feature of our co-operation. renovation to be undertaken. There is also an affiliation with the May 1975 saw the opening of the Cross of Nails Community, a special Glencree Centre for Reconciliation honour for an organisation so young as which has been the scene of important Glencree. Other Cross of Nails events and projects during the ensuing centres are in the United States, decade. They are too numerous to Dresden, Berlin, Taize and detail here, but they have been wide- Corrymeela. ranging in their scope, including the See what is meant by the stronger fields of education, recreation, fund­ motive force and the Christian raising, work camps and holidays and inspiration? hosting the flow of visitors to the Glencree since 1974 has initiated an Centre in the beautiful and peaceful annual Peace Week during which there valley of Glencree has been rewarding are lectures, seminars, exhibitions and for all concerned. street drama and always an ecumenical service. Distinguished HE work goes on. There is a preachers over the years have continuous programme of North- included the Rev. Michael Quoist from TSouth exchange, peace studies and France and Bishop Helder Camara of conflict resolution courses for Brazil. secondary schools, farm education for During the last ten years there have primary schools and inner city children been many seminars and the extent of and local and international work- the concept of peace and camps. reconciliation can be gauged by the Hundreds of families from troubled variety of subjects covered. These areas in the North have come to range from political (Irish neutrality, Glencree for holidays or shelter and the politics of forgiveness and U.D.l. for Northern Ireland), economic as their submission to the New Ireland (unemployment and renewable Forum which used it extensively as a energy), religious (minority religions), source of reference. social (pluralism, sexism in education From a valley in the Wicklow Hills and prison sentences). where peace is being nurtured flows hope into a world of strife. In M O N G the more significant of apparently small ways and practical L recent conferences was that held day-to-day human contact and in the Ajointly with Corrymeela in Queen’s broad sweep of idealogical influence, University, Belfast. Political scientists, things are being made to happen. historians and other experts came Elsewhere in this booklet we tell you from Europe and the United States to what is happening in Glencree now give their views on alternative models and how the work will grow and of political co-operation and their develop with your help and the kind of papers were afterwards published in vision that started off the whole book form. The book was glorious cycle of peace and subsequently presented by Glencree reconciliation in our time. •

The old barracks building in the Centre under renovation by volunteers during the first ten years. The Glencree Centre and Christianity

The Rev. Alan Martin of the Abbey Presbyterian Church, Dublin, a former Chairman of the Glencree Council and the Rev. Denis Green s.m. of Mount Saint Mary’s, Dublin, a Glencree Council member, reaffirm the Christian presence at Glencree. For Christians the Centre is an ecumenical effort to bridge divisions, they say. It is also a place to work with men and women whose faith or church membership is not explicit, or who have no religious faith or church.

HE Glencree Centre for see the conflict as a judgment TReconciliation is not a we have brought on ourselves church-affiliated community, but by worshipping the false god of Christian motivation was strong sectarian interests and the among the founders and finds a Catholic/Protestant divide is place in the latest statement of used by some to underpin and identity. justify these interests. In the course of history the Church has been involved in violence or has become petrified “He is the peace in its organisation or expression between us.” of faith. Still, it has also persist­ All this runs counter to the ently aspired and tried to be a purpose of G od revealed in place and sign of new beginnings Jesus Christ. He revered the and of peace. mission G od gave his people, The Christian presence at respected the Law and wor­ Glencree draws attention to shipped with fellow Jews, yet he G o d’s hidden involvement in the refused to identify with any of human race. In the dialogue and the religious or political groups communion through which of the day. They were individuals and communities representative of the kind of develop, God is drawing man­ divisions the human race splits kind to growth and into at any period. Rather than reconciliation. This process side with any of them he persists despite violence and accepted death at their hands. injustice. G o d ’s active presence We believe G od showed his in the world is part of that Good acceptance of Jesus by raising News declared through Jesus him from death. So, concerning Christ and accepted with the the hostility between Jews and gift of faith in him. pagans, the New Testamant The Centre was established at says, “He is the peace between a time when long standing us and has made the two into divisions in Ireland had burst one and broken down the into renewed destructiveness. barrier which used to keep them The opposed forces feed on apart... to create one single each other, for the hopes of one New Man in himself out of the side represent the fears of the two of them and by restoring other. In Glencree Christians peace through the cross, to unite them both in a single body ship is not explicit, or who and reconcile them with God. In have no religious faith or his own person he killed the church. hostility.” (Eph. 2/14-16) W e believe that where there is goodwill there G od is secretly at A sign of the power of work. We acknowledge too that Christ often rejection of the institutional Reconciled to G od by our Church or difficulty in believing faith in Jesus Christ, we are to comes from that very Christian be reconciled to each other and exclusiveness, privilege or to be agents of reconciliation. religiosity which Jesus himself Christians in Glencree want to rejected and which rejected him. be a sign of the power of Christ We know Jesus has opened the and his Spirit and to work with Kingdom of G od and with him others towards forgiveness and we too want to be open to all. It peace. is our belief that the work of Thus for Christians the reconciliation is so central to the Centre is an ecumenical effort to faith, “that only what is said bridge divisions within the about and suffered in the service Church and it is also a place to of reconciliation can be work with men and women therefore truly described as whose faith or church member­ Christian.’’(Moltmann) •

Council member Mrs. Lil Collins pours tea for Metropolitan Philaret of Kiev who uisited the Glencree Centre in the autumn of 1983 during the visit to Ireland of a delegation of Russian church leaders. Also in the picture is the Rev. Alan Martin (right). From prejudice to understanding

By Geoffrey Corry, Chairman, Glencree Centre for Reconciliation.

ELFAST is miles closer to Dublin Dublin to see the many new social Bthan Cork - nearer than Limerick problems faced by young people, for or Galway or Sligo, but many example, “joy-riding”, unemployment, Dubliners feel it is more distant both in some drugs problems and poverty. On physical terms as well as in the mind. Saturday night an opportunity is One of the ways Glencree has tried provided for the young people to talk to develop greater contact and about each other’s situation and to communication between North and express their feelings about things. O n South has been through a variety of Sunday morning there is time to do a youth exchange schemes. These tend number of things before the to be weekend visits and involve youth evaluation. clubs, peace corps, unemployed youth very encouraging aspect of all this and trainees. Every effort is made to AL.is the friendships made which, if mix the groups so that there is a sustained, invariably lead to a change balanced cross section of Protestants in opinions, a softening of attitudes and and Catholics, Northerners and the desire to come together again. At Southerners, girls and boys. This of the end of a successful weekend, a course is not always possible because typical comment might be, “I can look of last-minute changes, bombs going at both sides of the story now,” or “I off, groups afraid to travel, parents realise now that the troubles are not putting pressures on the young people only about Catholics versus Pro­ and other genuine fears. testants,” or “The Southerners do not O f great attraction for all who want to take over Northern Ireland.” come to the Glencree Centre are the Building on these contacts, ex­ farm life and the variety of work changes and friendships, many of us around the place. They vary have a bigger vision. By opening up according to the time of year and can channels of communication between range from cutting turf on the groups divided by conflict and the mountains, milking the cows, building events of violence, we can restore to walls, making bread and so on. Getting people the possibility of doing some­ out of the city and going to a new place thing to resolve their own situation- of with out-of-the-ordinary experiences becoming increasingly sensitive to how are the very stuff for breaking down they have been numbed by the barriers and getting everyone to rope violence. in together. Hard necked boys from Conflict of all kinds - ideological, city life would have been slagged right economic, cultural and racial-is going out of it back home if it was known that to play a bigger part in the lives of all of they had made bread. At Glencree us because of the pace of change and there is no question that this is a the greater inter-mixing of people. The “sissy” activity. most important skill for people today is the ability to resolve a conflict, yet we ORE recently, the North/South Irish tend to be better at taking one M link programme provides a particular side or conviction and rigidly weekend exchange which opens with a holding on to it. The daily violence and getting-to-know-you session on the barbaric incidents are clearly teaching Friday night. O n Saturday morning us the hard way; we have to learn new the groups do work projects around ways of resolving conflict between the Centre and on Saturday afternoon groups and of forming a healthy they visit a local neighbourhood in respect for each other* Divided in life, they are remembered in death

Two significant walks of remembrance in Dublin.

N the Sunday before St. Patrick’s Day during Peace OWeek of 1981 and again in 1983 there was a walk of remembrance through the streets of Dublin and along the way wreaths of sham­ rocks were laid at points of historic importance to commemorate Irish men and women of all traditions. Before the start of the walk from St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the walkers who numbered several hundreds assembled at the memorial there to commemorate the dead of two world wars and the words, “Though they were divided in life, let us remember them together in death,” were recited. The walk then proceeded down the hill and over the Liffey to the Four Courts where those who died on both sides of the Civil War were TheRev. MichaelSweetmanS.J., Mrs. Una remembered. The final visit was to O ’Higgins O ’Malley and Siobhan McKenna the G.P.O. where those killed in lead the 1981 Walk of Rembrance. 1916 in the struggle for national independence, by the bombs of In participating in a symbolic 1974 and by violence North and walk of this kind, Glencree was South were remembered. emphasising the need for The wreaths were laid in 1981 by forgiveness. Very little has been Nobel prizewinner Sean MacBride, done to heal the scars of the Civil Una O ’Higgins O ’Malley, daughter War, the major political parties of the late Kevin O ’Higgins and remain its captives and seldom do actress Siobhan McKenna; in 1983 they find all-party opportunities to Lieutenant-General Sean Collins- remind people of the things that Powell, nephew of the late Michael hold all of us together. Collins, accompanied by Lieutenant-Colonel Derek Boydell HILE time allows us to for­ O.B.E. President Southern Ireland get these past divisions Area Royal British Legion and W and is itself a natural form of other members of the Legion joined forgiveness, memories linger on the gathering at the war memorial and we can never fully escape in the cathedral, then took part in from the brutalities and the walk of remembrance. imperfections of the past. The wreaths were laid by Sean Through such a walk of re­ Lemass’s grandson Sean membrance, forgiveness can O ’Connor, Chris O ’Malley, grand­ provide a way to remember the son of Kevin O ’Higgins and actor past so that it does not overshadow Cyril Cusack who read the oration the present, but can allow a new at the G.P.O. future to emerge from it. • Glencrce Centre for Reconciliation

TO RATHFARNHAM

Barrack building

Water ponds Potato field for Pelton wheel

An Oige Youth wing in construction youth hostel

Vegetable War garden Barracks ■Y \ cemetery

Vegetable garden Church Grotto

Paddock 'Mass stone

W indmill Glencree Centre House farm Pelton Orchard wheel

Land leased for hay Adventure playground

Church Adventure playground

Towards the new barn

TO ENNISKERRY Peace comes to a valley

The Glencree Reformatory fife band practising for a concert. (Picture from the Lawrence Collection in the National Library).

LENCREE has been a battle­ training of delinquent boys in G ground for worrying factions charge of one Father Lynch, a truly since the twelfth century, but it was great man of faith and vision. not until the Rising of 1798 that It was a tough life for them and what is now the Reconciliation visitors to the Centre today who Centre made its first appearance as observe the fertile land surrounding the new military barracks of the it may remember those boys who time to deal with the insurgents. under the direction of the great The Military Road (nowadays Father Lynch relentlessly cut the known and loved by motorists and turf and removed the tons and tons walkers) was built at about the of stones. same time. During the Rising some 11,000 Catholic and Protestant S well as cultivating the land people in Co. Wicklow lost their ALthe boys learnt useful trades to farms, cottages and livestock. equip them for adult life and Father Peace gradually returned to the Lynch also taught some of them to countryside when the Rising play the fife, believing that music ceased and then began the long would be good for their characters. weary task of repairing farms and Very soon they were giving land. The army barracks were of no concerts for charity and singing in further use to the military and the their choir. buildings lay empty and neglected By 1860 about 100 boys were for over fifty years, a grim reminder being cared for in Glencree and of past turmoil. they were making their own In 1859 appear signs of human clothes, growing their own food concern and building for the future and building their own furniture. in the valley instead of death and Glencree Reformatory continued destruction and with the coming of to rehabilitate boys from all over the Oblate Fathers to Glencree the Ireland for another eighty years first seeds of reconciliation may be until 1940 when the staff of twenty- said to have been sown. The two and the 250 boys were moved military barracks were taken over to a more spacious school in by the Fathers for the housing and Daingean. The building was empty again, but not for long the Glencree River and the spirit of and during the Second World War peace and forgiveness pervaded it was occupied by recruits to the the valley more than ever when in Civilian Construction Corps who 1983 the Irish, British and Germans cut turf, improved the mountain prayed together in an ecumenical roads and helped the farmers. service on Armistice Day in At the end of 1945 the Irish Red memory of the German dead there. Cross Society invited 200 French The story of the valley is full of children for a 3-month stay in sound and fury, but the fury has Ireland the following summer and gone now and the sound nowadays for the next few years the old walls is that of voices in friendship. The of the reformatory echoed to the great buildings which have served laughter of refugee children from their various purposes as military war-torn Europe. stronghold, youth training centre and children’s refuge now fling wide their doors to study groups concerned with the nature of con­ EN years ago with the flict, the politics of forgiveness and formation of the Glencree those in need of shelter from the TCentre for Reconciliation the storms of the new violence of our building entered yet another phase time. and now it is a meeting place for Glencree draws the needy into people of all classes and creeds the healing peace of the valley and north and south; it combines the from the Centre emanates the work of practical reconciliation moral strength of non-violent with the study of conflict particular­ action and the necessity to ly in relation to Ireland. recognise how destructive violence A few hundred yards from the can be. gate of the Centre the German war There are concepts which can cemetery lies in an old quarry beside and must be heeded. •

The Glencree reformatory at the end of the 19th century. (Picture from the Lawrence Collection in the National Library) Glencree today

Our aims • To lend active support to non­ violent movements trying to fight • To convince people that violence is injustice and to improve the quality destructive of the ends if seeks to of life in our society. achieve - idealogical, industrial or • To provide a programme of peace social. education and research of • To show the moral strength of non­ international quality and value. violent action and what it can achieve. • To provide an opportunity for people to meet, talk and listen more easily and more honestly than is often possible.

Our activities Schools programme: 4-day residential courses including • Sem inars and conferences on non­ violence, pluralism, integration simulation games, discussions, group through education, community activities and projects to develop an development, Christian renewal, awareness in senior schoolchildren of North-South dialogue. their attitudes. for youth • International work camps from Training opportunities leaders and community development June to September and w eekend workers. cam ps during the rest of the year, each camp providing opportunities for Family holidays and rest for victims discussion and understanding. of violence North and South, for • Voluntary labour on the farm, in the battered wives and for inner city garden and in the kitchen, restoring children. the building, craft work.

Collection Number: AG1977

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