Audio CD #5 & #6 ~ (Recorded January 31, 2012) ~ Peace Versus Forgiveness in Northern Ireland Today
Between 1969 and 1998, Northern Ireland, the only part of the island that remains part of Britain, suffered the loss of roughly 3,600 civilians in a vicious dispute over who rightfully "owns" its 1.5 million people. Everyone lost in this barbaric contest, from hard-line Protestant "loyalists," to equally fierce Catholic "republicans," to often perplexed British soldiers. The much-celebrated Good Friday Accord of April 1998 marked what some have called the beginning of the end of civil war in the North. Today, Northern Ireland is generally classified as a "post-conflict society." But what really happens when the shooting stops in a place that has known only mayhem for a generation? Can there be real peace without personal forgiveness? What is the way forward in the six counties of Northern Ireland? And what can the tortuous path toward peace in Ireland suggest about our expectations for healing in other fractured lands?