In the course I have accomplished all of the learning goals that I had originally set for myself in my first blog post. Through the Post Office we toured in Dublin, the Free Derry Museum that we experienced on our second day in Derry, and the exhibit on the Troubles at Queen’s University that we explored on our last day, I was able to learn more about the Civil Rights movement, Women’s movement, Pride movement, and many other social movements. These opportunities helped me to better grasp the amount of civic engagement that was happening before the Troubles started. In addition, exhibits, like the ones in the Free Derry Museum, depicting the events of Bloody Sunday illustrated the fear that the protestors at the event must have faced. It was heartbreaking to see the shift from nonviolence to chaos. The other goal of mine for the trip was to learn more about restorative justice efforts currently taking place. Through my time spent with the representatives for New Gates Art and Culture Center, The Junction, Corrymeela, Healing Through Remembering, TIDES, and the British Council showed me the importance of group grassroots work to create change and lead societal change in peacebuilding. These community organizations are incredibly important in shifting the culture to lessen division, minimize stereotypes, and help to humanize everyone involved in the conflict. Their consistent dedication to community reconciliation really inspired me throughout the trip to try and bring what I learned from them back to the US.

I think the main takeaway from this trip and this course was how impactful personal stories can be. When we don’t try to understand and actively listen to the stories of people on all sides of the conflict, division can be deepened. Which is why, it should be our goal as peacebuilders and effective communicators to ensure that all stories are shared and heard, so that every side can be equally represented. I am incredibly grateful to all the speakers who took the time to be vulnerable and share their stories with our group. This will be an experience I will never forget. It has provided me with a better understanding of grassroots work in peacebuilding and has provided me with lessons that I hope to take into my future career in the peacebuilding field.

The biggest challenge that I had throughout the trip was the whiplash that came throughout the day. It would be a lie to say that it was easy to go from hearing a group of people bare their soles in the morning and then transitioning to a different group of people telling their own stories in a different perspective. Hearing about the horrors and suffering that people faced throughout the conflict and even after was incredibly hard, there were times when I looked forward to our free time so that I could reflect on what happened and try and unwind. Despite this, I think it was necessary for me to experience this challenge, because without it I don’t think I would have gotten a more conclusive understanding of what life was like from the 1960s, until in some cases, the present.

During this trip there were a couple things that surprised me. One of the things that surprised me, which is slightly less academic, is how close I got with the people on this trip. When you spend every day for 12 days with a group of people I guess it would be inevitable that you get close to them, but throughout the trip I felt safe to express my opinions, and even joke around at the appropriate times. It made the trip so much more impactful for me. On a more academic note, I was really surprised to hear how open people were about their experiences. When we talked to people on the street and told them about what we were studying, they all had their own inputs on the topic. A lot of them shared their own personal facts and experiences from the conflict, or talked about how certain places that we were at had a connection to the Troubles. Before the trip, I never would have thought that people would be so open to talking about these things, but it was really cool to hear about it from ordinary people on the street.

Me at Queen’s University on the last day of programming