Jo Berry was honoured to take part in a workshop in Eastern Ukraine with participants from Russia and Ukraine. This opportunity came from the extraordinary time at Global Youth Rising 2016 in Romania. She shared her story and then answered questions from the participants who were very interested in the process of transforming pain and how empathy can be a useful tool. As young people they were born into a hugely difficult complex situation yet were there to explore how…
Jo Berry and Patrick Magee spoke to the Scarriff Foroige Youth Club as part of the Scariff Festival in Country Clare, Ireland. Tracey Doyle, the youth leader, wrote after, ‘It was an absolute pleasure to meet you both and listen to your story. Our members are carrying on the valuable conversation that was started during your workshop. I hope that they continue on to make the world a better place and continue to be ambassadors for peace and resolution following…
Jo Berry and Patrick Magee visited Corrymeela in Ireland where they were filmed for a Basque documentary. Corrymela is a special peace centre which means so much to me. Jo Berry Corrymeela is Northern Ireland’s oldest peace and reconciliation organisation. We began before “The Troubles” and continue on in Northern Ireland’s changing post–conflict society. The organisation grew organically from the original Community members, and today almost 40 full–time staff and dozens of volunteers work alongside the eleven thousand people who…
In early June 2015, the Norwegian government hosted a two-session conference on countering violent extremism (CVE) in Oslo. The event was organised by the UK-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD). The first session showcased the work of civil society projects from around the world, and later held working session discussions that included gender perspectives and the role of young people in CVE. Jo Berry spoke about the work of Building Bridges for Peace On the second day European government and…
Jo Berry joined Lekha Singh for an Australian tour of the award winning documentary Beyond Right & Wrong Screenings and panel discussions were held in Sydney, Melbourne, South Perth and Western Australia Hear Jo talking on ABC Brisbane Radio
It is with great sadness we announce the sudden death of Anne Gallagher who died on August 7th, 2013 in Dublin,. She made a huge impact around the world and her story can be seen here. Jo Berry, Pat Magee and others close to her share their tributes. Jo Berry “I first met Anne in 1985 when I went to Northern Ireland to make sense of my Father’s death from the IRA in 1984. Anne warmly welcomed me and introduced…
We were very happy to contribute to a 5 day programme looking at the Empathy Dynamics in Conflict Transformation. The project was the inspiration of Dr Lynne Cameron who is a Professor in Linguistics and analysed the metaphor in our language back in 2002. She started a project ‘Living with Uncertainty- Metaphor and the Dynamics of Empathy in Discourse’ in 2006 and now partners with Birmingham-based NGO Responding to Conflict. The workshop was part of a ongoing project to create…
In April Pat Magee and Jo Berry went to Israel and Palestine for a 8 days speaking tour. It was a huge success with a mixture of talks and workshops, visiting projects and many meetings. “We spoke to some groups which were just Israeli, some just Palestinian and some with participants from both communities. We also spoke to a leading newspaper and a internet media and we were told that, ‘I’m pretty confident we’ve reached tens of thousands Israelis, possibly hundreds of thousands…