Northern Ireland – Spring Break – Reflections

By Hanna Saveraid

After many hours of travel, 16 LCMers, one staff member, and one pastor arrived at Dublin Airport only to encounter our first challenge of the trip: finding our bus driver. Luckily, after only a few minutes and frantic phone calls we located Nigel, a cheery yet taciturn local who ended up driving us around for the week and teaching us Irish sayings. 

We spent the week at Corrymeela Retreat Center, a beautiful building situated on the ocean. Corrymeela is the center of decades of passionate work to explore community, peacebuilding, and identity. Our hosts encouraged using games and practice scenarios to explore conflict. Outside of our sessions we also participated in the daily rhythms of the community. A simple breakfast, then silent worship to start the day; a community dinner full of good conversation, then a worship to end the day in the echoey Croi (the sanctuary). 

Getting to know the year long volunteers was a highlight. Several volunteers even led some of us on a cold plunge in the ocean one chilly (42 F) morning. The water was freezing but invigorating. The volunteers seemed to enjoy the enthusiasm and welcome that LCMers always bring along with them. The LCMers who signed up for this trip were particularly willing to jump in, even though for many this trip was their first to Europe.

Midway through the week, we took a trip to Derry/Londonderry, Ireland which was one of the more poignant moments of the trip. Derry is a walled city built by English settlers in the 1600s and more recently was an epicenter of the “Troubles” in the 1970s-1990s. We visited the Free Derry Museum in Derry, which tells the story of civilian victims killed by British soldiers on “Bloody Sunday.” I found myself taken aback by the divide between Protestants/Unionists and Catholic/Nationalists that could still be felt in Northern Ireland. We found ourselves facing a living history of sectarian violence as many of the people we learned from had lost family members and chose to relive those traumatic experiences to teach others the importance of remembrance and working together. While outright violence has mostly dissipated following the 1998 Good Friday Agreement and the tireless activism of peace builders like those at Corrymeela, these cultural-political divides still impact everyday life. Neighborhoods and schools are largely segregated between Catholic and Protestant, still making the “other” a foreign entity. 

While not exactly the same, our communities at home in Minnesota also feel starkly divided along political and cultural lines. This divide often feels hopeless. We learned from our generous Corrymeela hosts that peace or resolution takes time and may not ever be “complete.” When our history – recent and long ago – has taught us division, we have to keep returning to the table again and again to have difficult conversations. The conversations I had with old and new friends from LCM in Northern Ireland make me hopeful for the future and every community that LCMers will enter. This community collects people who act with grace and thoughtfulness, qualities that are needed in every place of discord.