Four Overlapping Spheres

Glencree’s current and future work is conceived as four overlapping spheres of activity.  These can be summarised as follows:

• Dialogue

Dialogue is a key part of all Glencree activity and includes work with politicians, women, youth, teachers, government officials, former combatants, survivors, business leaders, new communities, people of faith and community activists.  Glencree has a long history of experience in hosting dialogue events which bring people together for personal and communal growth/change that influences wider society. 

• Learning

Learning is fundamental to transformation, whether at the personal or group level.  Glencree has organised Peace Education work and runs training courses in areas such as Alternative Dispute Resolution, Roots of Reconciliation, interest based negotiation, mediation skills and much more. Training plays a key role in building the capacities of women and politicians in activities described in this application. A new, second dimension of learning is the organisation’s self-learning. Glencree is now building in a reflection/learning capacity to all its work, so that we can learn from our own experience and document and disseminate that learning for the benefit of others in Ireland and beyond.

• Networks

Reconciliation on a basic level consists of forming relationships between people across divides.  Our work has evolved from bringing people to a Peace Centre to meet and form relationships, to cultivating a diverse web of sustainable relationships that is the Glencree Network.  The understanding is that such networks are the basis of a sustainable and strong civil society. 

• International Activity

Glencree continues to respond to the growing demand to share our experience with people in other conflict areas.  A coherent International Programme has grown out of these responses and has proved invaluable for participants in Israel/Palestine, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Colombia, Haiti and Liberia.