Supporting conflict resolution across four continents and five decades
The Glencree Centre for Peace & Reconciliation works with individuals and groups to transform conflict, promote reconciliation, encourage healthy relationships and build sustainable peace.
We are an Irish-based, independent, non-governmental organisation. Founded in 1974 in response to the conflict in Northern Ireland, Glencree played an important role in the Irish Peace Process, bringing together those in conflict for confidential dialogue and helping to build relationships across divides. As well as our ongoing work on the island of Ireland, our perspective and expertise has been shared in more than ten conflict and post-conflict countries around the globe.
Our Vision is for Everyone to Live in Peace
Glencree stands for the possibility that peace and reconciliation are achievable when we act on what really matters to us.
We believe in a world where human rights are protected; where diversity is cherished; where all can live with dignity and respect in inclusive and equitable societies, free from violence or exclusion; where conflict is transformed peacefully.
Our Mission is to prevent and transform violent conflict by engaging people in dialogue, trust- and relationship-building.
Podcast 1: Introduction to Glencree
From the Good Friday Agreement to Brexit; women in peacebuilding to conflict facing the younger generation; a more inclusive Ireland for migrant communities to sharing experiences with the international peacebuilding community. Join Barbara Walshe, Chair of Glencree; Naoimh McNamee, CEO; and Community & Political Dialogue Manger, Pat Hynes.
Our Values
Glencree’s organisational values describe our core ethics and principles. They guide our behaviour, decision-making, relationships in the organisation and our engagement with our members, programme participants and others. The collective behaviour of our Board and staff commit to demonstrating these values in all aspects of our work.
Independent
We are an independent, non-governmental organisation and registered charity.
Non-Violence
We work from the belief that conflict can, and should, be resolved non-violently.
Inclusivity
We support the participation of everyone engaged in, or affected by, conflict.
Equality and Diversity
Every person possesses innate dignity, and we treat each person with respect.
We welcome diversity within Glencree and embrace the identity, culture, power, gender and faith dimensions of peacebuilding and conflict transformation.
Transparency
We commit to the highest standards of transparency and accountability including to our Board, members, participants, staff, organisational partners, and donors.
Confidentiality
We ensure the effectiveness of our activities and the safety and well-being of participants, staff and organisational partners by maintaining appropriate levels of confidentiality.
Improvement Through Learning
We value learning and gaining knowledge from our work experiences, and through regular review and evaluation. We also place emphasis on developing the skills and well-being of our staff. We share our learnings and creative approaches within Glencree, and with others locally and globally, while at the same time endeavouring to learn from them.
Our Approach
Step by step, we help transform political and inter-communal conflict, heal broken relationships and find pathways to reconciliation and sustained peace.
Much of our work takes place at our Peace Centre in the Wicklow mountains, a welcoming place of hospitality and friendliness, a quiet, strong space, surrounded by nature and steeped in history. In this safe, nurturing hub, connections are made, knowledge is shared and relationships are re-humanised.
We also work within the communities we serve. We bring together former enemies, opposing political factions, people who have suffered tremendous trauma, distrust or feel hatred toward the other, and provide an enabling environment where they can talk and listen to each other as they seek to transform divisive relationships.
As protracted or deep-rooted conflict has no quick fix, our work takes place over time in confidential, safe-spaces and is nurtured through skilled facilitation. This process of meaningful dialogue and shared learning between opposing sides often takes place under the radar, away from public scrutiny.
We adopt several distinct but related approaches within, and across, our programme work including:
Facilitating dialogues with groups and individuals
Glencree practices a process-centric, co-designed method of facilitating dialogue, where participants control the agenda and Glencree manages the process. Dialogue, as an open-ended process, includes a series of informal meetings and discussions that builds trust before bringing a larger group of participants together.
Informal Diplomacy
Diplomacy is normally conducted at inter-state levels. There are also various levels where independent entities or persons, who are trusted by parties to a conflict or situation, engage and establish dialogues and pathways to dialogue. We engage in these trusted, confidential dialogues and act as a bilateral or multilateral interlocutor.
Empowering and supporting the development of networks and relationships
We bring a diverse range of people and organisations together to help build the necessary supportive and challenging relationships and networks required for social change, political reconciliation and intercultural integration. This includes all-island, cross-community, cross-border networks and between groups in Ireland, Northern Ireland and Great Britain.
Providing peace education
We engage with school and university students in Ireland and overseas, providing the forum for them to explore their own prejudice, bias and stereotyping and gain an understanding of issues that arise in relation to identity, diversity, anti-racism and conflict resolution.
Sharing learning and building capacity
We share experiences from our programme work with other peace and reconciliation organisations and communities and with the statutory and voluntary sectors. We engage with people in countries or regions impacted by conflict to share our experiences of the Irish peace process: how it was developed, managed and sustained. A key area of focus is also to learn from dealing with the issues that arise in a post-conflict society.
We provide technical assistance to support capacity-building in conflict-affected regions including dialogue, facilitation, mediation, negotiation and conflict analysis. We also support and empower cohorts from political, policy and NGO sectors, women and young people in the areas of leadership, policy, influence and civic action.
Promoting public discourse
We foster spaces of public discourse where civil society and the wider public witness, listen, acknowledge and critically engage with diverse voices, compelling stories, creative approaches and innovative research on building sustainable peace, reconciliation and conflict transformation.
