It occurred to me that I might
document our student trip in The Corrymeela Diaries, a blog I wrote from
June-September 2011 while I was a volunteer with The Corrymeela Communiy in
Northern Ireland. I haven’t written in it since my return. In the first month
after my last entry, the blog had in total about 2,000 hits. To date, it’s up
to 13,000. I have no idea who is still reading it ... it’s kind of like I have
released it into the blog-sphere and it has a life of its own. But I know there
are a lot of folks interested in how and what we are doing for the next 10
days, and this is the best way I know how to keep them up to date.
As I began to collect my thoughts
about where to start, I realized that my return to Northern Ireland is exactly
17 months to the day from when I left on September 21, 2011. As the plane rose
above the George Best City airport in Belfast that day, I wondered how long it
would be before my return. I knew in my heart it was never a question of “if”,
but “when.”
I actually returned to Belfast much
sooner than I thought I would, exactly a year ago, when I accompanied the Saint
Mary’s university trip as a guest, hoping to explore how I might plan a similar
yet distinct Dalhousie student trip. So, after months of planning, fundraising,
educating ourselves and team building, here we are. The first picture is (from
left) Sam, me, Ariane, Sarah, Alana, Alayna, Avery, and Emma at the Halifax
airport Thursday evening. The second picture, our day 1 dinner last night at Robinsons
in Belfast, includes Caitlyn (at the end of the table), who traveled to Belfast
a week early to attend a family wedding.
The official name of our group is
the Dalhousie Northern Ireland Dialogue for Peace Study Trip ... which is of
course an incredibly long name to say each time we introduce ourselves. Even
the acronym DaNIDiPS, which I used in organizing my mounds of paper around this
trip, hardly fit on a little filing sticky. But long though it is, it does
accurately explain what we are about. Each word is important.
We are here to explore theories and
practices of peacemaking in Northern Ireland, particularly as they relate to
high school youth. In preparation for the trip, we have researched basic
conflict resolution theory, facilitated workshops on peace and conflict with
high school youth in Halifax, and done some research on the contexts of peace
and conflict in Nova Scotia, Canada and Northern Ireland.
During our time here we will meet
with folks working for peace both in Belfast and in Corrymeela. We will travel
to Corrymeela on Monday morning to spend three days learning about their long
history of peacemaking. When we return to Belfast on Wednesday, we’ll get ready
for two days of facilitating workshops in a Belfast high school, facilitated by
Bernardo’s Children’s Charities.
And, no doubt there will be a
Guinness or two in the evenings ... stay tuned for details of our adventure!
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