Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Once upon a time....

For all the family and friends who may end up reading this with little prior knowledge, I feel like I should explain myself as to why I am moving to Ireland for a year.
As an already over-committed junior at Ohio Wesleyan University, I long debated over whether or not to apply for the Chaplain's Office's trip to Ireland and Northern Ireland to learn about the Catholic-Protestant troubles. Growing up Catholic, I have occasionally come across some anti-Catholic sentiments. However, I have a great intolerance for discrimination based on one's race, religion, lifestyle, or hair color and I am a big fan of getting along with those who might seem different from you. These are pretty big parts of my life philosophy. So despite the lack of room in my schedule, I turned in my application at the last minute, leaving the decision up to fate (and the two Chaplains who were advising the trip). I was accepted!
Starting in October eight students and two chaplains began meeting to plan and fundraise for our trip. We delivered pizzas, dorm stormed for change, threw a Valentines dinner/dance, cleaned houses, held a raffle, held a garage sale and more! We tried to learn as much as we could about the origins of the religious struggle. We brought in an Ireland native who is a chaplain at Queens University in Belfast and writes about Bono from U2.
In May of 2005, we flew into Dublin, Ireland and began our amazing journey. Our travels took us up the eastern coast to Belfast, Ballycaslte, Derry, and Shannon, among others. The whirlwind trip sometimes seems but a blur in my mind, but three stops particularly stick out in my mind.
Glencree was a peace and reconciliation center 30 miles outside of Dublin that we stayed at for three days. Even though they are in the Republic of Ireland, which hasn't seen much sectarian violence in the past couple decades, they are committed to the goal of reaching peace. The beautiful and peaceful compound hosted formerly violent, murderous IRA members who are seeking a different path to resolution. The entire place emanated peace, from the quiet waterfall to the voice of rotund Paddy who spoke like wise old grandfather.

The second stop that spoke to me was Belfast. Here we spoke with middle class students who felt fairly untouched by the sectarian violence. We spoke with a Presbetyrien minister who was late to our meeting because he had to check that the five petrol bombs that went off in his parishoners neighborhoods didn't hurt anyone. We spoke with two Catholic priests who had to worry about the safety of the students of their all-girls elementary school as they walked to school through a Protestant neighborhood. We saw the intimidating "peace wall" that separates the lower class Protestant and Catholic neighborhoods (picture). We saw the murals painted in both neighborhoods to celebrate their paramilitary heros.
The third stop on our tour was Corrymeela Community. As you may have figured out, this is where I will be for a year. I'm not sure what it was specifically about this place that made me want to come back. I just felt compelled, called, connected, whatever term you like. Again, the peace and beauty of the place and the commitment to the very worthy cause struck a cord. The volunteers we worked with were so open and friendly, so happy to be assisting in the noble cause.
So I picked up an application while I was there to be a year-long volunteer and I was accepted! My family thinks I'm a bit crazy to move away from friends and family to a foreign country for a year to work virtually without pay. But I will be doing what I am passionate about in the most beautiful place in the world. What more could I ask for?