Conflicts of Interest
The Conflicts of Interest programme is a conflict transformation package utilising speakers, DVD footage and facilitated workshops combined with structured conflict resolution training. The aim of the package is to enable the participants achieve a rounded picture of conflict and how it may be peacefully resolved focussing largely on the “Troubles” in the north of Ireland but also referring to other contentious areas throughout Europe.
The objective of the programme is not to proselytise or justify any particular viewpoint but to offer the participants on the course an opportunity to hear a range of interpretations and to learn from them. On the understanding that there is rarely one truth in terms of human relations and societal interaction, this course sets itself the aim of illustrating the contending positions and opinions that were honestly held by different sections of society (and the State) throughout the past century in Northern Ireland.
It is, moreover, important for participants to place Northern Ireland in a wider international context. While it has its own specific history and conflict inducing circumstances, Conflicts of Interest seeks to persuade that Northern Ireland is not a unique aberration in European history but can be contextualised within a European framework.
Taking a lead from thinking that inspired the détente between the European powers post World War II, Conflicts of Interest takes the view that conflicts, generally speaking, have their origins within material factors. Conflicts, therefore, can be analysed more dispassionately and this often offers an insight to a potential solution.
This package will, therefore, adopt a number of themes ranging across issues germane to the topic. The themes will include:
1). Origins of conflict and potential for distorted perceptions
2). The course of a conflict and its impacts
- Armed conflict. Just War. State monopoly on coercion
- Human rights/human wrongs. Prison experience.Killing & dying. Human dimension
- Sectarianism: reprisal or primordial? No first strike
- Justice, community & State
3). Post-conflict situation necessitating reconciliation
- Truth recovery: reconciliation or recrimination?
In order to accomplish this programme, Conflicts of Interest will deliver an eight x three hour module course. The course will involve a number of different forms of input including:
a). Speakers from a range of viewpoints including former combatants, the bereaved, academics, civil servants and politicians.
b). DVD presentations which will include TV footage of seminal events and filmed interviews with a range of protagonists.
c). Facilitated workshops where the participants will be encouraged to discuss the material they have watched and to comment on the address they have heard and to elaborate on the theme being focussed on during that particular module.
d). Conflict resolution training which will allow participants an opportunity to acquire the basic, generic principles relating to the peaceful management of conflict.
e). A review of three different zones of conflict within Europe including; World War II and its aftermath (leading to the formation of the European Union), conflict in the Balkans (examining the break-up of a forced or contested union) and conflict on the Iberian peninsula (two models of autonomy, Basques and Catalonians).
Format
| Mod.1… Origins of conflict and potential for distortions | |||
| 7:00 – 8:15
Presentation outlining potential for distortion created by media and protagonists |
8:15 – 8:30
Tea break |
8:30 – 9:30
Conflict transformation training |
9:30 – 10:00
Facilitated workshop |
| Mod. 2…Armed conflict. Just War. State monopoly on coercion | |||
| 7:00 – 8:15
DVD + speaker |
8:15 – 8:30
Tea break |
8:30 – 9:30
Examination of situation in the Balkans |
9:30 – 10:00
Facilitated workshop |
| Mod. 3… Human rights/human wrongs. Prison experience | |||
| 7:00 – 8:15
DVD + speaker |
8:15 – 8:30
Tea break |
8:30 – 9:30
Conflict transformation training |
9:30 – 10:00
Facilitated workshop |
| Mod. 4… Killing & dying. Human dimension | |||
| 7:00 – 8:15
DVD + speaker |
8:15 – 8:30
Tea break |
8:30 – 9:30
Conflict in the Iberian peninsula |
9:30 – 10:00
Facilitated workshop |
| Mod.5… Sectarianism/reprisal/primordial/No first strike | |||
| 7:00 – 8:15
DVD + speaker |
8:15 – 8:30
Tea break |
8:30 – 9:30
Conflict transformation training |
9:30 – 10:00
Facilitated workshop |
| Mod. 6… Justice, community & State | |||
| 7:00 – 8:15
DVD + speaker |
8:15 – 8:30
Tea break |
8:30 – 9:30
Post World War II Europe…EU |
9:30 – 10:00
Facilitated workshop |
| Mod.7… Truth recovery: reconciliation or recrimination? | |||
| 7:00 – 8:15
DVD + speaker |
8:15 – 8:30
Tea break |
8:30 – 9:30
Conflict transformation training |
9:30 – 10:00
Facilitated workshop |
| Mod.8 …. Field trip to Belfast and graduation | |||
| 1.) Field work…Visit to some of the landmarks in Belfast e.g. Linen Hall Library, City Hall, Customs House.
2) Guest speaker 3) Graduation |
|||
Format
|
Mod.1… Origins of conflict and potential for distortions |
|||
|
7:00 – 8:15 Presentation outlining potential for distortion created by media and protagonists |
8:15 – 8:30 Tea break |
8:30 – 9:30 Conflict transformation training |
9:30 – 10:00 Facilitated workshop |
|
Mod. 2…Armed conflict. Just War. State monopoly on coercion |
|||
|
7:00 – 8:15 DVD + speaker |
8:15 – 8:30 Tea break |
8:30 – 9:30 Examination of situation in the Balkans |
9:30 – 10:00 Facilitated workshop |
|
Mod. 3… Human rights/human wrongs. Prison experience |
|||
|
7:00 – 8:15 DVD + speaker |
8:15 – 8:30 Tea break |
8:30 – 9:30 Conflict transformation training |
9:30 – 10:00 Facilitated workshop |
|
Mod. 4… Killing & dying. Human dimension |
|||
|
7:00 – 8:15 DVD + speaker |
8:15 – 8:30 Tea break |
8:30 – 9:30 Conflict in the Iberian peninsula |
9:30 – 10:00 Facilitated workshop |
|
Mod.5… Sectarianism/reprisal/primordial/No first strike |
|||
|
7:00 – 8:15 DVD + speaker |
8:15 – 8:30 Tea break |
8:30 – 9:30 Conflict transformation training |
9:30 – 10:00 Facilitated workshop |
|
Mod. 6… Justice, community & State |
|||
|
7:00 – 8:15 DVD + speaker |
8:15 – 8:30 Tea break |
8:30 – 9:30 Post World War II Europe…EU |
9:30 – 10:00 Facilitated workshop |
|
Mod.7… Truth recovery: reconciliation or recrimination? |
|||
|
7:00 – 8:15 DVD + speaker |
8:15 – 8:30 Tea break |
8:30 – 9:30 Conflict transformation training |
9:30 – 10:00 Facilitated workshop |
| Mod.8 …. Field trip to Belfast and graduation | |||
|
1.) Field work…Visit to some of the landmarks in Belfast e.g. Linen Hall Library, City Hall, Customs House. 2) Guest speaker 3) Graduation |
|||
