Fraternity: interpersonal relationships – An Irish Story

Speakers: Alison, Mrs. Barbara Ward, Conleth

Hello, I’m Alison from County Meath, Ireland where I attend Secondary School.

In Ireland various Runs 4 Unity, an initiative organised by the Youth for Unity Movement, took place when a world wide series of relay races was run  during which a baton for peace and solidarity was passed from one to another.

The final event in Ireland was held in Belfast on 12th  May 2012. On the same day at the same time in 340 cities of the world, over 100,000 young people generated this worldwide event. This is the fourth time one of these global events has taken place.

On all of these occasions the main objective has been to witness to the commitment for peace by living out  the Golden Rule “Treat others as you would like them to treat you”. This message was spread along with “the baton” to those who participated. Six Maths symbols summarized the proposals to put this into practice through thousands of different initiatives:

• use all our energy in order add more  love more (+),
• take away suffering by relieving the pain of others  (-),
• multiply the amount of love (x),
• learn to divide and share  (:-),
• trust in God so that if we do 1% he can do the 99% (%).
• The result will be equal (=) to a world united in fraternity.

The initiative was presented to leaders  for education at a national level one year before the event and many wanted to support the initiative. The project was included in the annual programme of events in many secondary schools.

Here with us is Mrs Barbara Ward, the Head teacher of Cross and Passion School, one of the schools which was involved.

I was immediately aware the Run 4 Unity was a different kind of initiative with the potential for involving our students in something which would perhaps be difficult but which could bring with it a lively incentive to develop that sense of community and belonging which is the aim of our school community as it is for every learning environment.

One of the the third year classes where most of the students are about fourteen years old  took on the role  of raising awareness of the project through school assemblies with the proposal of changing the way we live out those little everday actions in school and they spoke to the teachers and other school staff.

We could already see the seeds of change in the school after a few months – and especially in the class which took on the initiative. There were difficulties in some of the relationships. Not everyone felt part of  the group or valued within it. This could be seen  in the divisions, in-fighting, arguments in the group. Over the course of the three or four months with the proposals they had set themselves these young people had matured in  many ways. There is now a strong sense of solidarity  and loyalty to one another and each individual is valued in the relationships between them.

They are continuing their commitment to the school and have now founded a new social justice group called MAD (make a difference!).

Hello, I am Conleth from Northern Ireland and I am a student at the College.

Together with the others involved in Youth for Unity I was involved in the planning for the Run 4 unity and helping to produce a promotional DVD. As I was doing this I said to myself : “ But what is the point in carrying this initiative ahead in other schools if I don’t do something in my own school?

To tell you the truth I was a bit worried about what would be the reaction of my classmates.

I presented the idea to the headteacher. She was enthusiastic and so that was the first step! The next step came when the moment came to present the project to the class.  I wondered what would they think? I was quite anxious.  They didn’t know that I would be featured on the DVD.  Would they laugh?  As we were watching the DVD my classmates saw that I came up on the screen and this encouraged their interest. They asked to see the DVD again to find out more. They lked the idea of the race and together we managed to involve about 100 students in the run for a united world and  we even composed a song for peace. We sang this during the run 4 unity  on the stairway of the Government buildings for Northern Ireland where the historic Peace agreement was signed between Unionists and Republicans. It was a significant place to which we could  take our message for fraternity to  politicians from the different political parties who enthusiastically participated with their  presence and encouragement.