50 Years Courage

50 Years Courage 6 18 22 24 Summer 2015 Volume 15 No 2 www.corrymeela.org www.facebook.com/Corrymeela Follow us on twitter @Corrymeela The Ice-Cream Man Rum and raisin, vanilla, butterscotch, walnut, peach: I first heard Michael Longley read this poem You would rhyme off the flavours. That was before at Corrymeela and that was the moment when I understood, why some have described him They murdered the ice-cream man on the Lisburn Road as one of the greatest living lyrical poets in the And you bought carnations to lay outside his shop. world. His gentle inflection and subtle reading I named for you all the wild flowers of the Burren allow the words to work their way into your being, before you have quite realized what is I had seen in one day: thyme, valerian, loosestrife, happening. The horror of the sectarian murder Meadowsweet, tway blade, crowfoot, ling, angelica, is replaced by a recitation of the wildflowers Herb robert, marjoram, cow parsley, sundew, vetch, found near his cottage in Connemara. A simple Mountain avens, wood sage, ragged robin, stitchwort, act of comforting his daughter but also a quiet act of courage and defiance, and respect for all Yarrow, lady's bedstraw, bindweed, bog pimpernel. living things. Michael Longley Mark McCleary From Collected Poems by Michael Longley published by Jonathan Cape (2007). Reprinted by permission of the Random House Group Ltd. Michael Longley will perform at our 50th Anniversary Gala Reception “The Poet, The Peacemaker and The President” Belfast City Hall, Friday 30th October 2 | CORRYMEELA Corrymeela magazine In this Issue Summer 2015 Volume 15 Number 2 The Ice Cream Man 2 www.corrymeela.org www.facebook.com/Corrymeela Thoughts from the Leader 4 Follow us on twitter @Corrymeela A Royal Visit 6 Corrymeela magazine 129 Ormeau Road, Belfast Living Together Well in a Culturally Diverse Society 10 Northern Ireland BT7 1SH Contact, Culture and Conflict around the Causeway 12 Tel: +44 (0) 28 9050 8080 No Child Left Behind 14 Fax: +44 (0) 28 9050 8070 Email: [email protected] As Long as My Bin Gets Lifted 15 Corrymeela magazine is published Corrymeela begins when you leave… 16 by the Corrymeela Community. Violence hidden in plain sight 18 The Corrymeela Community is a Waiting & Silence 21 dispersed community of people of all ages and Christian traditions The Poet, The Peacemaker and The President 22 who, individually and together, are committed to the healing of social, Common Grounds 24 religious and political divisions in Lenten Pilgrimage of Prayer for Peace 26 Northern Ireland and throughout the world. Corrymeela News 27 Corrymeela magazine is sent to Events round up 30 all ‘Friends of Corrymeela’. To become a ‘Friend of Corrymeela’ A Centre For Public Theology? 31 and receive the magazine send Coming Up 32 your name and address to the Belfast office. Friends subscription is £36 (waged), £18 (unwaged), (€46 / €23, US $50 / $25) per annum. The magazine is published three Dear Friend times per year. The articles in Corrymeela “Corrymeela begins when you leave,” says the sign above the front door in Ballycastle. magazine do not necessarily reflect the views of the For 50 years members, staff and visitors have been taking the lessons learned here into Corrymeela Community. The their daily lives and work. In this magazine we hear just a few of those stories showing acceptance of advertising does not imply editorial endorsement. how the Corrymeela vision has played out from Belfast to South East Asia, and how Corrymeela magazine is protected many lives have been transformed by it. We also report on the recent visit by Prince by copyright and nothing may be reproduced wholly or in part Charles where he described Corrymeela as a place where people could ‘talk about the without prior permission. All hurts, which are too deep to bear in silence.’ extracts are reproduced with the permission of the original publisher/author. We are also starting to gather stories for our 50th Anniversary weekend and it is a truly humbling experience. There are stories of courage, stories of loss, stories full of both fear Corrymeela Belfast 129 Ormeau Road, Belfast and hope. Overwhelmingly there are stories of lives irrevocably changed by time spent Northern Ireland BT7 1SH here. At a moment when we are struggling to move beyond what Colin Craig describes Tel: +44 (0) 28 9050 8080 Fax: +44 (0) 28 9050 8070 as the “hollowed out peace,” it is good to be reminded of what a small group of people Email: [email protected] achieved in much darker times. And I believe it is why Corrymeela is still here 50 years on Web site: www.corrymeela.org when so many other organisations have faded away. Corrymeela Ballycastle 5 Drumaroan Road, Ballycastle Our 50th anniversary is a time for reflection and for thanksgiving and I am very grateful Northern Ireland BT54 6QU Tel: +44 (0) 28 2076 2626 for your continued support as we try to build a shared future for all. Fax: +44 (0) 28 2076 2770 Email: [email protected] Mark McCleary Corrymeela is a Company Limited Head of Communications, Corrymeela by Guarantee, registered in Northern Ireland No NI006823, registered with The Charity Acknowledgements: Commission for Northern Ireland NIC101597 and registered as a Corrymeela would like to thank the charity with HMRC Reference No following for the images used in this edition XN48052A. of our magazine: Zach Dunn, Ivan Cross, Richard Naylor, Editor: Mark McCleary Courtnae Dunn , Paul Hutchinson and Design: TatchDesign. Tel: 9260 1832 Donna Ashton. Printing: GPS, Belfast CORRYMEELA | 3 Thoughts from the Leader A NEW DISCOVERY OF be late. Then they phone the and a festival of humanity is Corrymeela is a place where POETRY for me in the last poets Palestinian father and created in what could have small meetings happen like year has been Naomi Shibab the passenger discovers that been a place of anxiety. The this every day. People arrive Nye. She was born in the she knows many people in poem ends with: and leave. People meet United States to a father who common with the father. Then each other over cups of tea, was a Palestinian Refugee they phone others who speak “And I looked around that while waiting at reception, and a mother of Swiss and Arabic and then the woman gate of late and weary ones on their way into sessions, German descent. She’s lived in takes out some small sweet and I thought, this is the world while skipping sessions. the States, in Jerusalem, and breads from her bag and I want to live in. The shared Individuals who come from considers herself a wanderer, hands them around. world. Not a single person in different areas of life have someone for whom the world that gate – once the crying of the opportunity to meet each is both a home and always a Before long they have begun confusion stopped – seemed other in the simplicity of curiosity. sharing with others in the apprehensive about any other community. waiting lounge. A four hour person. They took the cookies. Often in her poetry, she stops delay becomes a time for talk, I wanted to hug all those other There is a taste of something to take note of some small for children running around women, too. rich in this. When I see corner of humanity: a little boy covered in the sugar from the friendships develop among who mistakenly thinks she’s sweet breads. Naomi speaks This can still happen volunteers, among new someone else; a neighbour; of women sharing food and anywhere. Not everything is community members and a book that she’d forgotten speaking with each other, lost.” longstanding community about. For Naomi Shibab Nye, members, among the the vast sea of humanity is one participants of residentials, of discovery, with potential for I am moved to be part of the kindness and cruelty. She is joyful tumble of community both present to, and observing that occurs when a centre these worlds that surround her. like Corrymeela stands in its witness to the world - we My favourite poem of hers is witness that not everything called “Gate A-4” and is in her is lost. We witness that life’s 2008 collection “Honeybee”. distresses can be met with In it, she’s at an airport, hospitality. We witness that waiting for a flight and hears the joy of children playing over the tannoy that it’s going brings joy to all. We witness to be delayed by four hours. that the land, the cliff, the sea The voice over the tannoy air, the waves, the cups of tea, also asks if anyone could the fireplaces, the island and help translate the message horizon and the conversations into Arabic for a passenger can all play a part in bringing who does not understand us to touch our own deepest English. The poet goes and humanity. translates for a woman who is distressed. They then phone The history of Ireland has the woman’s son to explain shown us what it is like when to him that his mother will Naomi Shibab Nye people forget their own 4 | CORRYMEELA from the Leader humanity. We injure and “Festival without end”. and connection, and in so Welcome to the festival fracture each other. We get doing helped to transform a without end. Welcome to the caught in addictive cycles of For us at Corrymeela as we corner of an airport. We too, rich lives that surround us. blame and violence. We do celebrate this 50th year with wish to be part of the festival Welcome to Corrymeela.

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