Rotary District Conference, Cork, Ireland

(Written on Saturday, 29 Sept. 2007)

Ahh, a few moments of quiet, sitting in the cloudy sunshine, not shaking hands, asking or answering questions or meeting anyone new, are precious moments in the midst of a busy conference. Don’t get me wrong because it has been a great conference and I have enjoyed talking with people from the Rotary District 1160 over the last few days. I also enjoyed riding from Dublin to Cork with the president of my host Rotary club, Tony Stafford from Dublin Fingal Club, and his wife. I meet two other members of the Fingal club yesterday morning. (picture to the left)

The theme for the conference is “Ireland – The Way Forward” and I have been impressed by the candor and thoroughness with which the various speakers have spoken about the past and about current challenges facing Ireland – both north and south. The keynote speakers have been truly amazing. The most notable for me were two speakers who talked about Northern Ireland. Fergal Keane, a BBC reporter and recipient of numerous awards recognizing his work, spoke through a DVD presentation because he was unexpectedly sent to Burma at the end of last week and could not be with us in person. The power of his personality and insights commanded the attention of the room without him even being there in person. He spoke about his experiences as a reporter in Northern Ireland, the growth that has happened there and some of what still needs to be done. I was impressed by his readiness to admit how wrong he had been a few years ago when he concluded that nothing would change to bring peace. He said that he failed to give attention to the local communities and individuals who were making courageous efforts in their own ways to bring about peace and to cross lines of conflict. He also said that there is a great deal of healing that still needs to be done and that a shared narrative needs to be developed, across lines, to education the children about the truth, without it being corrupted by dogma. It makes me wonder how this might apply to neighborhoods and ongoing conflicts in the US.

Another speaker who was quite impressive was Sir Hugh Orde who has been the Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) for five years. He spoke eloquently and powerfully, while a small group of people protested his presence outside the conference center, about the transformation in Northern Ireland and the efforts of everyone, not just the police force, in bring about that transformation. I was impressed by his courage to lead, to bring change and to point to others when praised for the changes that have occurred.

Courage was a theme repeated again and again throughout the conference and I was reminded that, for people here, conflict within their neighborhoods is not that far in their past. My people commented on the courage it takes to end conflict and to allow their own views and opinions to change and be changed to end violence. It has been a good lesson to me and I wonder if I would have the courage necessary if faced with similar challenges.

The funnest part of this conference has been getting to know the other ambassadorial scholars (picture to the right). There are 10 of us in Ireland, Republic of and Northern Ireland; nine who came to Ireland to study and one who just was notified of her acceptance into the scholarship program who will be heading to Africa in a year and a half. We all just met each other but I feel like the whole group has really, really clicked. From staying in the same B&B to commuting to and from the conference together to the dinner and dancing last night, we are having a great time hanging out and getting to know each other. The group of us are scattered all around Ireland but I have a feeling we are going to be visiting each other often.