Monitoring as a response to racial tension in Northern Ireland
The Migrant Centre NI https://migrantcentreni.org/ recently ran a training series for monitoring (a k a observing) in situations of racial tension; the idea is in part to be able to report factually what happens, if anything, and deter violence by being present. Facilitation for the training was provided by INNATE – and ironically one of the training sessions took place the day after racist rioting. The Migrant Centre will provide time-limited follow up and it is possible Mediation Northern Ireland www.mediationni.org which in the past had an extensive monitoring involvement in situations of community tension, in partnership with TIDES and Belfast Interface Project, may pick up the baton. For further details contact julia@migrantcentreni.org INNATE will continue to promote monitoring, contact innate@ntlworld.com See also photo album on monitoring and accompaniment at https://www.flickr.com/photos/innateireland/albums/72157629555375796/
New Glencree CEO, NextGen4Peace
Dr Aisling Hearns is the next Chief Executive Officer of Glencree and has just taken up the role. She was previously Director of Services at Towards Healing, where she provides leadership for a national counselling and support service for survivors of religious, clerical, and institutional abuse; she previously held a senior leadership position with Spirasi – the Centre for the Care of Survivors of Torture, where she led therapeutic services supporting survivors of torture and forced displacement from diverse backgrounds. Her work has involved extensive engagement with refugees, survivors of human rights abuses, and communities navigating the challenges of trauma, identity, and social exclusion. See more at https://glencree.ie/news/
l Meanwhile Glencree has launched its joint programme with Mediation Northern Ireland, NextGen4Peace, which will bring together people from across Northern Ireland and the border counties, with a particular focus on those from marginalised communities. The programme aims to strengthen relationships, foster mutual understanding, and support the development of a more peaceful and inclusive society. https://tinyurl.com/mw5af6yu and Mediation NI is at https://mediationni.org
War in Sudan: IPB briefing offers clarity
While there has – rightly – been a mass movement in Ireland regarding the war on Gaza and on the Palestinian situation in general, and the war in Ukraine is continually in the news, another war which is more difficult to get to grips with has been taking place, with brutal consequences, in Sudan. A very useful 14-page briefing on the Sudanese civil war is available from the International Peace Bureau/IPB at https://ipb.org/ipb-situational-brief-the-sudanese-civil-war/
This includes a summary look at the background, the international support for the two sides, the perpetrators, the victims, and the lifeline of the 800 ‘Emergency Response Rooms’ (ERRs) providing all sorts of humanitarian support to the civilian population in the absence of state support. The report also looks at the failure of the international community to respond adequately and makes recommendations in a situation where over 12.5 million people have been displaced and upwards of half a million killed.
IPB is calling on the international community, among other things, to recognise and protect ERR volunteers as humanitarian actors under international humanitarian law, ensuring that protection is enforced and that both warring parties are held accountable for attacks on civilian aid workers: Pressure all foreign states – in particular the UAE – to cease arms transfers to parties engaged in documented genocide and war crimes: Support the expansion of ICC jurisdiction and the existing Darfur arms embargo to cover all of Sudan: Urgently restore and increase humanitarian aid funding for Sudan, reversing the devastating cuts of 2025: Call for an immediate, unconditional ceasefire and the protection of humanitarian corridors.
Éamon Ó Cuív on neutrality
Éamon Ó Cuív, senior Fianna Fáil figure – and grandson of Dev – spoke at Lex Innocentium’s Can Ireland remain neutral? conference in Dublin in March. While INNATE would not agree with his stand on a variety of issues, he was strongly opposed to ditching the Triple Lock (removing UN authorisation on the deployment of more than 12 Irish troops overseas) which the current Irish government is hell bent on doing. With 20 Fianna Fáil TDs raising questions about the move more recently, the issue is still running. His talk at the Lex Innocentium conference is available at https://innatenonviolence.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Eamon-O-Cuiv-paper-on-neutrality.pdf and the Lex website is at https://lexinnocentium21.ie with their conference recording at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEkw7PJ20Ug and Éamon Ó Cuív coming in at 1.22.25.
Chornobyl: Adi Roche speaks out on another reckless attack
Chernobyl Children International founder Adi Roche has again felt obliged to speak out about another attack, by drone, hitting a nuclear waste storage facility at Chornobyl in early June. “I appeal, on behalf of all humanity and as a first-step towards peace negotiations, that the deadly and toxic Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant, with its thousands of tons and gallons of highly radioactive material, no longer be targeted, or used as an area of shelling, bombardment, and ground fighting. We must invoke the Hague Convention which defines any attack on a nuclear facility to be a ‘war crime’. My greatest fear in this conflict is that the next Chornobyl will be Chornobyl itself….In the name of humanity, in the name of the children, please stop this war and declare Chornobyl and all Nuclear Power Plants as ‘No War Zones’ as a starting point.” https://www.chernobyl-international.com/chornobyl-nuclear-power-plant-attacked-by-drone-statement-from-adi-roche/
World Beyond War: Call to Ireland on its EU presidency
World Beyond War and others have called on the Irish government to use its EU Council presidency for peace. The open letter to Thomas Byrne TD and Helen McEntee TD includes the steps to “Resist mandatory military spending benchmarks as an increasingly normalised condition for EU member states, and resist any weakening of EU arms export control frameworks under the pretext of ‘simplification’ and ‘efficiency’. Recommit the European Union to full compliance with international law and to its own founding values as a peace project……Place peace, conflict prevention and mediation on the agenda of the European Political Community summit, which will be hosted in Ireland in November 2026.” See https://tinyurl.com/mwtf7jbt
The CO issue becomes more critical
As militarisation progresses in Europe and worldwide, the issue of conscientious objection (CO) becomes even more critical with the possibiity of conscription coming to a country near you very soon. A new publication from four different organisations – Quaker Council for European Affairs, War Resisters’ International, Connection e.V., and Agir Pour La Paix – brings together testimonies of people who have refused participation in war and military service across different countries and contexts. Entitled “Voices of Peace – Stories of Conscientious Objectors from Europe and Beyond”, Türkiye, Israel, Russia, Eritrea, Belgium, Greece, Spain, and Finland all feature in this 64-page pamphlet. Available at https://wri-irg.org/sites/default/files/public_files/QCEA_Voices_of_Peace.pdf
What Pax Christi International has been up to, Hiroshima lanterns
You can read what has been happening with Pax Christi International (PCI) in 2025, its 80th year, in its extensive annual report at https://paxchristi.net/pax-christi-international-2025-annual-report/ You can also find information on the PCI interaction with Palestine and the Kairos II document, https://paxchristi.net/kairos-ii-and-pax-christi-international-from-reflection-to-concrete-action/ and about the campaign “Lanterns for Peace: from Hiroshima to the World”, developed by Pax Christi International and the Hiroshima Coventry Club (Touro Project). This is a global initiative inspired by the lantern ceremonies held each year in Hiroshima, the campaign invites communities around the world to organise local commemorative events using traditional lanterns as symbols of remembrance, peace, hope, and nuclear disarmament. See https://tinyurl.com/mu7awfav
ICCL: Facial Recognition Technology and the Garda Síochána
ICCL, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, is continuing to campaign on issues relating to FRT (Facial Recognition Technology) in the Garda Síochána (Recording Devices) (Amendment) Bill 2025 including tension with EU law. There is a petition form at https://www.iccl.ie/I-do-not-consent-to-frt/ and detailed analysis at https://www.iccl.ie/news/garda-ai-bill-iccl-trinity/
FOE: Blow ins and blow ups – LNG Clare terminal case
Friends of the Earth is continuing its campaign to oppose the proposed Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminal in Clare – with them quoting the head of an oil and gas company pushing for LNG to be brought to Ireland admitting he wouldn’t want to live beside such a facility for fear it would blow up! As FOE say “At a time when the Government should be pulling out all the stops to end our dependence on fossil fuels – the very reason why all of us are grappling with high energy bills – they’re pushing for (new) dirty, expensive fossil fuel infrastructure.” 26 county residents can sign a petition to keep Ireland LNG free at https://www.friendsoftheearth.ie/act/stop-the-lng-bill/
Peace and climate justice – inseparable
The Global Week of Action for Peace and Climate justice takes place from 21st – 27th September this year with the theme “Divest from War – Invest in The Just Transition!” This will address the links between war, militarism/militarisation and social, economic and climate injustice and aim to promote grassroots action and policymaking to confront both genocide and ecocide. https://climatemilitarism.org/weekofaction/
Global Education in Ireland book, podcasts
Global Education in Ireland: Critical Histories and Future Directions edited by Eilish Dillon, Niamh Gaynor, Gerard McCann and Stephen McCloskey is published by Bloomsbury Academic and available to order at https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk and also available in an open access format online at: https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/monograph?docid=b-9781350380417 Meanwhile the Centre for Global Education (CGE) has four new podcasts including https://tinyurl.com/mztx8j9s and click on ‘See all episodes’ to see the rest. CGE website is at https://www.centreforglobaleducation.com/
Amnesty calls for enquiry into faith-based child abuse, safeguarding
Amnesty International and a clerical abuse survivors’ group have called on Northern Ireland’s First Minister and Deputy First Minister to establish a public inquiry into clerical child abuse, implement all recommendations from a government-commissioned report into abuse in faith settings and meet directly with survivors. The organisations said the Jeffrey Donaldson conviction demonstrates why allegations of abuse disclosed within a faith setting must be subject to robust safeguarding processes and independent scrutiny. https://www.amnesty.org.uk/latest/northern-ireland-donaldson-case-exposes-urgent-need-for-inquiry-into-faith-based-child-abuse-and-safeguarding-failures/
2,999 and counting
The INNATE photo site at https://www.flickr.com/photos/innateireland now has almost 3k photos or entries in 57 ‘albums’ (the best way to see photos you are most interested is to go to the appropriate album). Recent photos include ones of an anti-racist rally in Belfast and the Doolough ‘Famine’ Walk organised by Afri.