Watch our new film; Enough Now; Peace is Possible

New focus on Northern Ireland’s message, some 30 years on

LONDON: Nearly 30 years after the end of Northern Ireland’s violent conflict over religious, sectarian and political differences, survivors have reaffirmed that deep polarisation need not mean forever wars.

“Peace is possible,” said Marissa McMahon, a Catholic who lost members of her family, including a 17-year-old aunt, in the IRA paramilitary group’s long struggle to end British rule in Northern Ireland.

“We’ve come a hell of a long way in a short time, realistically, and people don’t want to go back,” said McMahon in reference to the violence that marked the time before the 1998 Good Friday Peace Agreement.

William Redpath, whose Protestant faith put him firmly in a different camp to Belfast Catholics, said peace was won in Northern Ireland because “people have gone up and said, ‘Enough Now’.” He added: “Regular people do make a difference, maybe the biggest difference of all”.

Redpath, who owns an events management company and McMahon, a housing activist, acknowledged the benefits of the peace dividend in a new documentary titled ‘Enough Now: Peace is Possible’.

The eight-minute film has been put together by peace activists and inter-faith groups to offer a hopeful template to people caught up in seemingly endless violence in the Middle East, Ukraine, Sudan and elsewhere.

This is the second time in the last year that Northern Ireland is being held up as a template for polarised communities, including in America. US public broadcaster PBS recently aired two episodes (here and here) on what America could learn from Northern Ireland about overcoming sectarian divides.

In the film, eight people from either side of the harsh dividing line that runs through Northern Irish life, went on camera to describe the pain and agony of violent conflict and the rush of joy when peace finally came.

In a poignant retelling of the moment of sheer disbelief that there was peace rather than bombs going off, Linda  Ervine, a language rights activist, described an ordinary evening in Belfast after the Good Friday Agreement. “I was coming across the road, there were all these doctors and nurses, and I thought, oh my goodness, something must have happened, there’s been a bomb or a shooting or something. Then I realised there were all dressed up for Halloween.”

She added that “these things were so new” to people in Northern Ireland and it was lovely to have “what do you call it, normality?”

The film was conceived by former US diplomat Michael Macy who was involved in the run-up to the peace agreement during his UK posting. Methodist minister Gary Mason, who founded the Belfast-based peace initiative Rethinking Conflict, was instrumental in the project.

Macy, who set up an initiative called Enacting Peace three years ago, said “the film showed that incredible things can happen when politicians, community leaders and ordinary people decide that peace is not only possible but essential. I wanted people to see that peace is possible and they have the power to create it.”

TV producer and director Suki Javle, who donated her time to travel to Belfast and film the interviews before editing them, said it was a privilege to be involved in the project. Javle, who usually works on shows such as ‘Love Island’ and ‘Strictly Come Dancing’, said it was “inspiring to hear the stories and to be given the chance to offer up a little hope to the world. It was an opportunity I didn’t want to miss!”

Enough Now: Peace is Possible is available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khw7ijq5Cwk