Trip to Dublin along with The HUBB

Abhaile Aris the republican ex prisoner group based in Letterkenny spent last weekend in Dublin on a residential with Loyalist ex prisoners from the Hubb Project in North Belfast.

The residential was the result of ongoing engagements by both groups over the last 18 months which culminated in the residential. The groups were facilitated by Eamonn Deane of Holywell Trust and Mick Rafferty and Patricia from Community Technical Aid a Community Project based in Dublin’s North Inner City.

Abhaile Aris Outreach Worker Gerry Mc Monagle said the Dublin trip was by far the best engagement we have had yet. There were 18 of us, nine loyalists and nine republican ex prisoners. Mick Rafferty had a great line up for the Saturday beginning with a walking tour from Trinity taking in all of the political and cultural sites which have played a major part in shaping the Political and Cultural history of not just Dublin but the whole island.

We visited Trinity the bastion of Protestant Education the GPO were Pearse declared the Republic through to Christchurch were we visited the site of a Viking village. After lunch in Dublin’s oldest Pub the Brazen Head we headed for the Unitarian Church at St Stephens Green there we were given the history of local people who had founded the church and the beliefs they had held. We then visited the National Museum in Kildare Street before going on to a reception hosted by the Mayor of Dublin Cllr Emer Costello at her official residence in the Mansion House.

The Mayor warmly received us at the Mansion House and gave us a guided tour of the House pointing out all the significant artefacts of history dating back to the time before partition. There where many sculptures and paintings of previous Mayors and Lord Lieutenants who ruled Ireland for the British before 1922.

The Mayor was very interested in the history of both our groups and the work that we were involved in congratulating us on the initiatives we had taken together. We then had a general discussion around the work that we were both involved in and how that work is impacting on our respective target groups and in turn impacting on the wider community.

Through our dialogue together we have discovered that we have much in common and pledged to continue to work together in the future helping to build better relationships between both our communities. We thanked the Mayor for hosting the reception and she wished us well in our future engagements.

On returning to the hotel we held a plenary session and discussed the events of the day and how the day’s events had impacted on us as a group and also as individuals. The one common thread that ran through our discussions was the quality of our engagement and the enjoyment of the day’s activities. It was generally agreed that the day was a huge success with its very special blend of humour and craic despite their being some very serious subject matter visited and discussed.

On Sunday morning we headed for St Patricks Cathedral built in honour of Ireland’s patron saint, Saint Patrick’s cathedral stands adjacent to the famous well where tradition has it St Patrick baptized converts on his visit to Dublin.
A church was built on the site in 1191 and in 1991 celebrated 800 years of worship.

On entering the Cathedral you could not but be struck by its size and the history of the place. We were met by the Dean who took us on a guided tour of the Cathedral. Outlining to us the extensive history of this beautiful cathedral and the artefacts it held. Many of the regiments of the British Army who had taken part in many of Britain’s colonial wars across the world were given pride of place with many memorials erected to them throughout the cathedral including their regimental colours.
Down through the years the great and the good were buried in the cathedral and their crypts are there for all to see.

After our tour of the cathedral we had a short bus trip to our next destination which was Kilmainham Gaol a very different place from the cathedral but equally important in historic terms especially in relation to our political past.

Kilmainham Gaol was the jail were the IRA Volunteers captured after the 1916 Rising were imprisoned and the leaders executed by the British in the courtyard of the Gaol. The execution of the leaders of the 1916 Rising which included Padraig Pearse, James Connolly and Tom Clark sparked outrage amongst the people of Ireland and was the spark that lit the fire of revolution that swept the country in the following 6 years which directly led to the Free State Being born which in turn led to the partition of Ireland.

During our tour of the gaol the group spoke openly to one another about their own experiences of imprisonment and how Kilmainham was very much like Crumlin Rd gaol in Belfast. We could all relate to our tour guide’s description of the conditions the prisoners who found themselves in Kilmainham had to endure. Once again we found common ground for discussion.

At the end of our weekend together we all agreed that through visiting our past and experiencing each of our cultural and historical backgrounds together that it gave us a better understanding of each group’s heritage and history, it also helped us to develop an understanding of our shared history and has set the tone for our future engagements.