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Date Posted: 10:42:47 11/09/08 Sun GMT
Author: Lynn
Subject: Ireland shows way to common ground (The Coloradoan)

Ireland shows way to common ground

William M. Timpson • November 4, 2008


As I work on a new book titled "From Battleground to Common Ground," I made my third visit to Northern Ireland this past summer and came away with some insights into our current elections.


On the day that I visited the Hazelwood Integrated School in one of the rougher areas of Belfast, Northern Ireland, I was already on edge from the killing of a 15-year-old boy, "wee Michael McIlveen" by a gang of teenagers in what the papers were calling "sectarian," motivated out of religious differences. This small nation of 1.5 million people has survived 800 years of invaders, empire, exploitation, violence and conflict, and these "sectarian" divisions between Catholics and Protestants run deep. Even the schools are divided, taught largely by teachers who themselves reflect this religious divide.
Between this historic walls of division flows the integrated schools movement, "dedicated to the long-term future of genuine reconciliation based on understanding and celebration of diversity." Currently, 58 schools and 17,000 students (almost 6 percent of the population) carry this formal designation as integrated schools with more under development. While some 4,000 children have been turned away from integrated schools in the past five years because of a lack of space, 50,000 seats are available in the two historically separate school systems.
The two students I met at Hazelwood agree completely with the school's focus. For them, the fighting, tension, conflict and "sectarian" hatreds from the past make little sense. They appreciate the school's emphasis on open and respectful communication, noting, for example, the use of the restorative justice to shift the emphasis from punishment to peer mediation, learning and healing. When I ask about problems in the streets, one says that "he sees them all the time" but has learned how to avoid trouble.
Businesses are also helping to find common ground. Begun with some seed money from the government, T.R.E.E. (Timber Recycling Eco Enterprise) picks up scrap lumber from construction sites and trucks these loads back to their shop where they specialize in making various wooden toys and art pieces. So benefit number one is keeping useful materials out of the increasingly expensive landfills. Benefit number two is as intriguing to me. Young people are recruited from the surrounding community where unemployment is as high as the sense of being under siege and embattled. Wood-working skills are taught and real pay possible. Moreover, efforts are under way to recruit kids from the Catholic areas, equally troubled and embattled, to come in to learn these same skills alongside their Protestant peers. Sustainable peacemaking at its best.
I also spent considerable time with ex-prisoners and security personnel who played active roles in the "troubles" when the IRA was at war with British troops and their Protestant allies. What I learned that is relevant to our own elections is this. No one talks about "victory" anymore. That was part of the language on both sides that sustained the violence over the past 800 years. Everyone talks now about common nonsectarian ground of the future where religion is downplayed and expertise wins out. Education has expanded beyond academics and test results to include the citizenship skills and understanding needed to navigate differences in constructive, nonviolent ways.
Look at the various candidates and put them to this test of the "common ground."
William M. Timpson is a professor in the School of Education at Colorado State University and the author of "Teaching and Learning Peace."

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