A peace wall along Bombay Street. Backyards are protected from occasional outbreaks of violence. Credit: Supermac1961

Unsteady peace has held in Ireland for fifteen years, but there are still painful reminders of the violence and discrimination that ripped across the Emerald Isle propagated by political, religious and national differences.  Thousands of lives were taken in the conflict that subsided only fifteen years ago with the Good Friday agreements.

Today the Northern Ireland border is lined with “peace walls”, built to temporarily keep the communities safe and apart. Although murals now adorn many of them, making them popular tourist attractions, they also speak of outstanding hostilities and fear.

An article by Sky News on the British government’s announcement to tear down the walls within the decade reported the reticence of the communities living on either side of the wall. One man from west Belfast said, “We need to deal with the mental barriers here before we can think about removing the physical ones.” Another man adds, “The people, rather than the politicians or paramilitaries, will decide when it’s the right time to remove walls.”

This is true both legally and socially.

According to the Good Friday Agreements, the Irish and British governments are obliged to move according to the will of the people’s majority.

The will and cooperation of the people were rallied on both sides of these walls for the passing of the Good Friday Agreement. Prior to its issuance, two referendums were held, one in Northern Ireland and one in the Republic of Ireland. At the time, a majority in Northern Ireland voted to remain as part of the United Kingdom, but a significant number of Irish expressed a desire for eventual unification on Ireland.

The multi-party agreement that engaged both government and political parties, outlines that should the majority opinion change, both governments are duty bound act in accordance to that desire.

Furthermore, the treaty asks that each governing body exercise “rigorous impartiality on behalf of all the people in the diversity of their identities and traditions.” It outlines the principles that should define the sovereign political structures:

–          full respect for, and equality of civil, political, social and cultural rights

–          freedom from discrimination for all citizens and parties

–          esteem and just and equal treatment for the identity, ethos and aspirations of both communities

Fifteen years has passed since the Good Friday Agreements, but progress has been slow. Perhaps, as the man from Belfast expressed, before political and economic integration, movement should be made to tear down the “mental walls” that have been erected from decades of suffering, starting from forming a shared aspiration that transcend the divisions north and south.

Just as the Good Friday Agreements is built upon grassroots engagement, so should continued peace building

Global Peace Foundation just recently established its first European chapter in Ireland. It promises to bring models of grassroots peacebuilding similar to the Korea United initiative for Korean reunification.

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Arnold Kashembe, Country Director for Global Peace Foundation, receiving a presentation from Martin Quinn, Hon. Secretary of Tipperary Peace Convention, with Global Peace Foundation Vice President Dr. Tony Devine. PHOTO: COURTESY OF CAITRIONA KENNY PHOTOGRAPHY / THE NATIONALIST (TIPPERARY)

On July 18^th, 2013, Global Peace Foundation-Ireland was officially launched at the Irish Aid Volunteering and Information Centre in Dublin, followed by ten days of events and meetings, giving GPF’s newest chapter a running start

The launch concluded with an event  organized by the Tipperary Peace Convention at the Tipperary Excel Centre. Dignitaries of Tipperary Town, including Mayor Anna Tuohy-Halligan, the Pride of Tipperary Donna Breen, attended. GPF was given a special presentation by Martin Quinn, Hon. Secretary of the Tipperary Peace Convention.

Tipperary, was made famous by a World War II song, “It’s a Long Road to Tipperary”, but has reinvented itself to be a center of peace through organizations like the Tipperary Peace Convention, that will be presenting its 2012 annual peace prize next week to Malala Yousafzai.

Although the peace process is still ongoing, Ireland’s example of peace was highlighted at both events. Country Director, Arnold Kashembe said, “Ireland has lessons to teach the world as a result of its peace accomplishments.”

Global Peace Foundation Vice-President Dr. Tony Devine recognized the contributions of NGOs such as the Tipperary Peace Convention and Cooperation Ireland, and governments in the peace process and encouraged them to share their success stories with other conflict ridden regions. He said that GPF-Ireland can make important contribution. “GPF-Ireland is uniquely positioned to facilitate these connections internationally, as well as leverage European resources and opportunities for peace.”

The focus areas of GPF-Ireland are:

• Community Building
• Education
• Youth Empowerment
• Community Based Development.

Global Peace Foundation already has ongoing projects in Ireland like Linking Cities,  a reconciliation initiative that is building connections between Limerick, in the Republic of Ireland and Coleraine, in Northern Ireland.  As an official chapter it will build on its three pillars of partnership: interfaith cooperation, strengthening families and service.

The original story appears on: www.globalpeace.org

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People who were old enough will recall powerful images of November 9, 1989, the collapse of the Berlin Wall. East and West Germans scaling the wall to embrace on ramparts that used to be laced with barbed wire. The concrete wall being torn down by any and all means: cranes, hammers and bare hands.

What is often overlooked, is the sudden groundswell of public protests in the autumn of 1989. . This movement was “Die Wende” (the turning point) that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall and eventual German unification.

Until that point, despite the opening of the USSR through Perestroika and Glasnost, and the thawing of Cold War relations, many European neighbors expressed strong reservations about German unification. Among them were British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and French President Francois Mitterrand who warned against the dangers of a rising German power.

It was the “Friedliche Revolution” or Peaceful Revolution that tipped the scales. And at the heart of this revolution was the Protestant church.

Protestant Church Sparks an Awakening

Until that point, the voice of civil society in East Germany was closely controlled. Even the sparse dissent coming from academia and intellectual circles was scattered. Furthermore, writers had to self-censor to survive the close surveillance of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). What the SED did not anticipate, was the voice of the Protestant Church.

“They radiated an aura of reformist sincerity that was familiar to those who had seen American pastors active in the civil rights struggle.” In East Germany, the Protestant Church and the German Democratic Republic had come to an understanding that enabled the church to survive in the godless regime. The church would remain a-political and thus autonomous. Theological Seminaries in Germany were the only places where SED membership was not required.  Beginning in the early 80s, this agreement of separation between church and state began to deteriorate as younger church leaders began engaging in the civic square. “They radiated an aura of reformist sincerity that was familiar to those who had seen American pastors active in the civil rights struggle.” [1]

The Monday protests began in the Church of St. Nicholas in Leipzig. It amassed tens of thousands of East Germans in peaceful protests. (German Federal Archive (Deutsches Bundesarchiv))

In 1983, Führer began Prayers for Peace (Friedensgebet ) at his church.  Every Monday at 5pm, the church opened its door to anyone who wanted to pray for peace. The prayer service began with reading the Beatitudes, “Blessed are the peacemakers….”

The prayer service became a safe and open place for East Germans to discuss their concerns. It was also a space for the Church to interface morals and ethics with social issues such as the rising threat of nuclear war and the stagnation of the East German regime.

Prayers for Peace Grows into Peaceful Protests

In the fall of 1989, the Monday prayers for peace burgeoned from hundreds to thousands. Führer recalls, “They (the people) brought the masses.”  On October 9^th, days after the German Democratic Republic government had hosted its 40^th anniversary celebration, 70,000 thousand gathered.

“The Church is only the church when it is there for others.” ~Dietrich Bonheoffer It wasn’t certain that the protests would be peaceful. Just a few weeks prior, protesters were beaten by the Statzi . Despite threats, pastors and speakers urged the protestors to remain peaceful. As the people flooded into Leipzig square, surrounding churches opened their doors to accommodate the overflow.

The only weapons wielded by the peaceful crowd were candles and banners saying, “Wir sind das volk” (We are the people).  That night, there was no violence. News spread through East and West Germany of the peaceful protests, and inspired others to follow suit.

Fall of the Berlin Wall

The protests, combined with the massive exodus of East Germans fleeing to West Germany through Hungary, forced General Secretary Erich Honecker to resign. By November 7^th, the entire East German government resigned. On November 9^th, the Berlin Wall came down.

By March 1990, merely months after the fall of the Berlin Wall, East Germany held its first free multi-party elections, and seven months later, in October, Germany was officially reunited.

Economic integration would take even longer; and according to Chancellor Angela Merkel, the “inner unification” of the two disparate cultures still continues.

Despite trepidations, pastors and protest leaders urged for a peaceful and united front. (Source: German Federal Archive (Deutsches Bundesarchiv) )

Nevertheless, the victory of the Peaceful Revolution was that “non-violent protests could fell a system of dictatorship most Westerners had believed unshakable.” (Civil Disobedience) Unlike the violent revolution in Romania, which left thousands dead, and executed the former dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu and his wife, the peaceful protests that swept through East Germany enabled a peaceful and swift transformation of the political system.

The Peaceful Revolution was an awakening of East Germans to the ideal of peace. It was spearheaded by the Protestant ministers who were inspired by the example of other religious leaders like the pastors of the American Civil Rights and Dietrich Bonheoffer, who stepped out of the religious box and into the public square to engage the ethics of their faith in the social and political issues of the day.

Today Leipzig is remembered as the hero city, “heldenstadt”.

[1] Roberts, A., & Garton-Ash, T. (2009). Civil Resistance and Power Politics: The Experience of Non-violent Action from Gandhi to the Present . Oxford University Press.

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Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Dr. Hyun Jin Moon meet in 2008 after a Global Peace Leadership Conference in London.

Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s first and currently only female Prime Minister and longest serving PM in the 20th century, passed away on April 8, 2013.

Just as many love her as dislike her for her hard lined stance against communism and her fight for free market economies. Her confidence in every person’s potential to become something and contribute something, drove her to secure and protect liberty. She said, “We believe they should be individuals. We are all unequal, no one, thank heaven, is quite like anyone else…but to us, every human being is equally important.”

She recognized the unique qualities of the United States and urged Americans to take the lead to promote democracy and free-market economies. She also understood what made the United States great were not its systems of government and markets, but its founding principles. In 1991, she said the following at an event for the Hoover Institution:

“Americans and Europeans alike sometimes forget how unique is the United States of America. No other nation has been created so swiftly and successfully. No other nation has been built upon an idea—the idea of liberty. No other nation has so successfully combined people of different races and nations within a single culture. Both the founding fathers of the United States and successive waves of immigrants to your country were determined to create a new identity. Whether in flight from persecution or from poverty, the huddled masses have, with few exceptions, welcomed American values, the American way of life and American opportunities. And America herself has bound them to her with powerful bonds of patriotism and pride.

The European nations are not and can never be like this. They are the product of history and not of philosophy. You can construct a nation on an idea; but you cannot reconstruct a nation on the basis of one.”

President George W. Bush in his State of the Union and President Barack Obama in his 2011 State of the Union Address would make the same acknowledgement, that America was a nation founded on an idea, and that idea is what makes it great.

Lady Thatcher was a bold women, driven by her principles to serve her country and world. Popular or unpopular, she was an amazing woman who changed history.

Visit the Margaret Thatcher Foundation for a full biographical timeline of her life.

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