Doha: To examine attempts at peace and healing from what many refer to as “the Troubles,” 18 Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q) students recently visited Belfast and observed successes and studied frustrations of political reconciliation efforts in Northern Ireland. It was a GU-Q Zones of Conflict, Zones of Peace (ZCZP) trip that tasked students with assessing how groups have used sports, art, and culture as tools of understanding and compromise. Sixteen years ago the Good Friday Agreement introduced an arrangement in which exclusively democratic and peaceful means would be used to resolve political issues. The eight-day trip gave students an opportunity to view first-hand which issues remain unresolved and better understand efforts made by community stakeholders to address them.
Students met NGOs, including Northern Ireland Children’s Enterprise, Healing Through Remembering, and PeacePlayers International and historians, professors, curators, artists, playwrights and community organisers to better understand current regional dynamics.
“Although there are complex community divisions in Northern Ireland, I found it to be a very welcoming society,” said Dima Wahbeh (Class of 2015). “Interactions with children at community centres, such as PeacePlayers, were insightful because the youth are the hope of Northern Ireland’s future in terms of political and societal stability.”
“The trip allowed students to learn about issues that remain and gain a better understanding of efforts of the government, community leaders, and local organisations to build bridges across the divide,” said Sheena Martinez, GU-Q Student Support Administrator.
Martinez and Kathryn King, Associate Director of Student Development, helped facilitate the trip. Dr Dominic Bryan of Queens University Belfast assisted with student debriefs. ZCZP has been repeating trips over recent years as a way of maintaining and building relations established in previously visited countries. This allows a first-hand view of changes over the years. In 2014, ZCZP participants are visiting the same countries ZCZP students travelled to in 2011.The Peninsula
