Building Bridges For Peace

Turning Tragedy Into Hope - A Discussion with Jo Berry & Patrick Magee

There are many stories of peace and reconciliation in the past few decades including the remarkable life of Nelson Mandela. This meetup is about one of those stories and how it can give us all hope for the future.

http://photos3.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/e/4/e/0/event_179758592.jpegIn 1984 the IRA bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton killed the MP Anthony Berry. As a result of this tragedy, his daughter Jo Berry was determined to seek out the bombers to try to understand why her father had to die. Eventually she found one of those bombers Patrick Magee. They formed a friendship and since then they have been working together tirelessly for peace and reconciliation not just in Northern Ireland but in many conflicts around the globe.

It is a truly remarkable story and we are privileged that both Jo and Patrick have agreed to attend one of our meetups to tell their story.

http://photos4.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/c/a/5/0/event_9831792.jpegWe are holding this meetup in collaboration with Conscious TV and EnlightenNext who have organised a meal after the event for us.

At this meeting we hope to raise funds for Jo Berry's Charity "Building Bridges For Peace" and so we are charging a £5 entrance fee to help with this. After the event there will be a meal for those who would like it and that will cost £10 and again some of this will help the Charity.The meal is optional. We will send out a link to make this donation before the meeting.

In the afternoon and before the meeting ConsciousTV will do a video interview of Jo and Patrick and that will be made available on the Internet. We also hope to film the evening discussion and also do some video diaries as well.

http://photos4.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/3/f/1/8/event_183136152.jpeg

Many people today feel their voices are not heard and that they are powerless to affect what goes on around them. This sense of powerlessness can lead to apathy or explode into violence: frustrated people blame others for their lack of power, and see themselves as victims of circumstance. It is a phenomenon that we are witnessing all around the world, from shanty towns and war-torn states to inner city housing estates terrorised by gangs, and it is one of the most difficult problems facing society today. Building Bridges For Peace have as their mission:-

• To seek to understand fully the roots of violence and conflict
• To raise awareness that non violence is a global movement
• To promote non violence as a viable response to violence, terrorism and war
• To create opportunities for all people to be heard
• To establish ways to resolve conflict in which no-one is hurt
• To educate on conflict transformation
• To advocate the importance of emotional safety
• To facilitate dialogue between those affected by conflict
• To inform on the alternatives to blame
• To empower those who believe they do not have a voice
• To support other peace initiatives

You can visit their site here ..... (http://www.buildingbridgesforpeace.org/index.html)

Although membership of our site is free we do expect all those who attend our events to pay a subscription of £10 for a whole year that covers attendance not just to one meeting but also to the vast majority of our meetups and webinars for any one year. It also allows you to bring one guest free to every meeting or webinar.