PEACE IV

Addressing the Legacy of Violence through Facilitated Dialogue Project



Context

More than two decades after the signing of the Good Friday / Belfast Agreement, Northern Ireland and the border counties continued to remain deeply divided along communal lines. A contributing factor to this divide is the inadequacy of the Agreement and subsequent political efforts to address the legacy of past violence. The deficit is most acutely felt in the divisive relationship between victims and survivors groups and the individuals, groups, and institutions perceived to have inflicted harm upon them in the past. The Addressing the Legacy of Violence through Facilitated Dialogue (LOV) project was designed to promote and facilitate contact between these groups, and share learnings from these dialogues on a national and International basis. 

 

Project Summary


This project primarily focused on the experiences of victims/survivors groups and their communities in Northern Ireland. Through a process of private and confidential facilitated dialogues, and promoting sustained contact across divides, the themes and issues that remain as obstacles to deeper understanding and the promotion of positive relations were examined.

A crucial aspect of this project was that the groups, along with other relevant parties, co-developed their own process and pace of engagement. They entered dialogue with groups and individuals with differing interpretations of what happened in the past including, as appropriate, those perceived to have contributed to causing harm. The learning accrued through this project is expected to be of assistance to ‘Victims and Survivors’ groups, other interest groups, academics, policymakers, and practitioners in ascertaining how to productively engage with Northern Ireland’s contentious past.

 

Project Aims

A crucial aspect to this project was the co-design of the process and activities by the key participant groups. Therefore, while more specific objectives were determined as the project evolved, key goals outlined at the outset included:

- Increased profile of women and women’s stories within a legacy context: the increased ability for women to articulate gender-specific aspects of past violence, an increase in women’s formal and informal leadership roles, and an increased ability for all participants to hear and acknowledge women’s stories, experiences, and perspectives.

- Increased confidence within hard-to-reach Victim/Survivor groups: the increased confidence to engage with existing legacy structures, and with individuals and groups from across communal and geographical divides; the increased confidence in their own ability to advocate for meaningful change.

- Shared learning: the development of fora to facilitate difficult conversations between individuals, groups, communities and constituencies to enable learnings to be shared both by the project participants and Glencree. While protecting the confidentiality of the process and its participants, insights to be shared nationally and internationally in areas that are undergoing a peace process and post-conflict phase, among other victims / survivors groups, interest groups, academics, policymakers and practitioners.

 

Project Activities

  • Residential Dialogue Workshops with victim / survivor groups and representatives of groups and individuals with differing interpretations of what happened in Northern Ireland’s past including, as appropriate, those perceived to have contributed to causing harm
  • Women-led Residential Dialogue Workshops focused on empowering women within legacy contexts to address gender specific aspects of past violence. Click on this link for an example of this work.
  • Sessions (largely held under the Chatham House Rules) providing policymakers, academics, and practitioners with the opportunity to engage and learn from project participants. Click on this link to view a presentation by Glencree to the Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement about our work with V/S Groups.
  • A Symposium accommodating the broader audience of stakeholders, held in Summer 2022. View Resources section below for recordings of the "Missing Piece in Peace" Symposium which took place from 27th & 28th June 2022 in the Titanic Conference Centre, Belfast.
  • Briefing papers, a Mid-Term Report (see Resources section below) and Final Evaluation & Impact Assessment (currently underway).
  • A one-day Conference, in the form of an Online Webinar due to Covid-19 restrictions, hosted in conjunction with the Irish Centre for Human Rights at National University of Ireland, Galway and Ulster University to explore political, social, and cultural developments in contemporary Northern Ireland post the Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement of 1998. Click here to view details and recordings of this Conference.
  • This online Webinar also marked the launch of the Glencree Journal, in collaboration with the Irish Centre for Human Rights at NUI Galway and Ulster University, entitled 'Addressing the Legacy of Inter-Communal Violence through Facilitated Dialogue' with contributions from academics and practitioners in the field of peace studies and conflict resolution. View/download the Glencree Journal (.pdf) here.

Project Update - August 2022

    While the LOV project is currently in post-project evaluation stage, throughout the 5-year lifespan:

  • The Glencree team engaged with 4 victims & survivors groups encompassing 178 group members, 1,229 participants and 2,360 engagements.
  • Twenty Facilitated Dialogues and 18 residential workshops allowed group members to engage with issues that were important to them, and to meet with individuals and external groups for often challenging conversations within safe spaces.
  • Four of these were women-led workshops focused on empowering women within legacy contexts to address gender specific aspects of past violence.
  • A further 4 larger-scale roundtable events created opportunities for government and civil society representatives to hear directly from victims and survivors. These drew upon different forms of media such as theatre to introduce difficult themes and promote in-depth discussion.
  • Participants engaged in workshops and dialogues drawn from both Protestant/Unionist/Loyalist and Catholic/Nationalist/Republican backgrounds, as well as those with no affiliation to either community with many participating in multiple events.

Resources


Afterthought: The Missing Piece in Peace Symposium

Click on the image to view recordings of discussions held during the Symposium on 27th & 28th June 2022, Titanic Conference Centre, Belfast.

Symposium Keynote Address by the Rt. Hon Julian Smith MP

Glencree Journal - ‘Dealing with the Legacy of Conflict in Northern Ireland through engagement and Dialogue’

‘Dealing with the Legacy of Conflict in Northern Ireland through engagement and Dialogue’, the Glencree Journal in conjunction with the Irish Centre for Human Rights at NUI Galway and Ulster University, features contributions from 19 academics and practitioners in the fields of peace studies and conflict resolution from around the world. Bringing a keen focus to many of the issues that are intrinsic to the Peace IV Project, both individually and collectively the essays featured in this Journal will also help to inform practitioners in a wide variety of fields of future pathways to sustaining a just and equitable society in a post-conflict situation.

"... tells a very important part of the Northern Ireland peace process …. essays touch on critical issues …. an incredibly rich resource”, said Professor Brandon Hamber, John Hume and Thomas P. O’Neill Chair in Peace based at the International Conflict Research Institute (INCORE) at Ulster University, at the launch of the Journal.


Glencree Journal - Launch Webinar

Click on the images to view recordings the Launch of the Glencree Journal held in March 2021.


Addressing the Legacy of Violence through Facilitated Dialogue - Mid-Term Evaluation, December 2017 - December 2019.

Click on the image to view the mid-term evaluation presentation by Project Researcher Joe Robinson.


The Project Team

Glencree was the sole implementation partner in the Addressing the Legacy of Violence through Facilitated Dialogue project.

The project was overseen by Naoimh McNamee, CEO of Glencree and a voluntary Steering Committee. Cumulatively, the project team possessed extensive expertise in the fields of peacebuilding, conflict resolution, facilitated dialogue in a cross-community and cross-border context, project management, project administration, evaluation, and communications. Monitored and evaluated by a researcher working within the project team, extensive monitoring and evaluation material was produced at regular intervals throughout the lifespan of the project.

Additionally, the project had a built-in an exit strategy to ensure that the project and programme goals can be sustained even in the absence of direct European funding.

  • Project Manager: Roisin McGlone
  • Assistant Project Manager: Michelle Kearns

The Project Team also included a number of part-time members:

  • Lead Researcher, Michelle Kearns
  • Freelance Facilitators: Michael Donnelly, Will Devas, Cate Turner

A project supported by the European Union’s PEACE IV Programme, managed by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB). The grant provided by the Peace Programme is up to €1,237.627.90 (ERDF and Government Match Funding) for the period- September 2017 – August 2022.

To find out more about SEUPB, please click on this link SEUPB

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