OD Project in Northern Ireland

        I was impressed when the Norwegians organized a secret meeting at a Norwegian ski lodge to help with the Middle East Peace Process. And, I wondered if the same thing could be done in Northern Ireland. So, in 1998 I invited three people from Northern Ireland to an all expenses paid meeting at a ski lodge in the mountains of New Hampshire. They were a Catholic priest, a Presbyterian minister and the first Catholic Lord Mayor of Belfast. After 6 days of discussion, we were told that the people in Northern Ireland were sick to death of do-good groups coming to Northern Ireland and then leaving with nothing having changed. Back in the in the early days of NTL we learned that when you give people an experience showing how things can be better but no tools and no back home support to make things better, good people get destroyed.  That year The 18th O.D. World Congress was held in Dublin, Ireland. We had planned to devote a portion of that O.D. World Congress to the Northern Ireland situation but no one from Northern Ireland came.
       We tried again the following year (1999) at a cattle ranch in Texas. We invited a different Presbyterian minister (Bill), a Councilman from the city of Derry (Gerry) and the new Lord Mayor of Belfast (a Protestant).  Gerry thought he could produce 2000 Republican participants for this project but it was less clear how many if any the others could recruit. Following a meeting in Hawaii in 2000, Bill sent a letter to all the Presbyterian ministers in Northern Ireland to see who might be interested in learning about what Organization Development had to offer. Only a few were interested and no one was interested in participating.
       In the meantime I had collected the names and addresses of 30 well trained O.D. people who would be willing to travel to Northern Ireland at their own expense if there was something of significance they could do. In early 2000, Sharon Thorne and I spent eight days in Northern Ireland on a Scouting Trip to better understand the situation there and see if we could help. Everyone was very cordial. We met only one person who had ever even heard of Organization Development. (The details of that visit are in The O.D. Journal   Vol:18, #2, Summer, 2000, pp.117-118.)
       We met again last July (2001) at a castle in Vienna, Austria that The O.D. Institute had rented for The 21st O.D. World Congress. Gerry brought with him a university professor with strong ties to the Unionists Party and a community organization worker from Derry. In Vienna Gerry seemed dubious about how many participants he could recruit for a O.D./Reconciliation Project in Northern Ireland.  As we talked, he thought it would be easier to recruit participants if it was for a program that would enable participants to make money. We talked about developing an O.D. training program in Northern Ireland. It would be partly based on the research from the famous Sheriff'  studies on a Connecticut farm,  My requirement would be that the training teams be composed of an equal number of Catholics and Protestants and that the program be held at periodically over a 1-2 year period in order  to reduce the feelings of abandonment. I was prepared to do the first module. No reply to that proposal has been received. I am not sure just what that means.  Is the project in hibernation or is the project dead?
       On a related matter: We are looking for a place to hold The 24th O.D. World Congress in 2004. We currently have invitations from the Canadians, the Australians and from Lithuania. I am wondering what it would be like to hold our 2004 O.D. World Congress in Northern Ireland. We usually meet in July during their marching season. We could organize the Congress so that there would be opportunities for people at the Congress to attend the marches. Our people would probably want to wear special T-shirts identifying us as non combatants. We would use this  opportunity to meet people from both sides  and identify some of the nonviolent folks. We might use this opportunity to recruit people for a large systems change project of  the Dannemiller, Sullivan, Weisbord, Lukensmeyer variety. We might create our own parade to which everyone would be welcome. If  we could get everyone involved in parading there would be no one left on the sidelines to create violence.
       In the Philippines when Marcos still controlled the Army and the people were in the streets protesting, they put nuns in the very front of the crowd. They fed cookies to the soldiers. And, the soldiers never fired. And, Marcos left the country. Where are all the non-violent people in Northern Ireland? It is common for people to feel powerless and alone unless they have some kind of group from which they can draw support.  In the State of Ohio not far from where I live we had the Kent State University riots in which four students were killed by National Guard troops. We have a lot to learn from what is happening in the Middle East and from what is happening in Northern Ireland.
       I am hoping this report will encourage some comments on next steps. Is the O.D. project in Northern Ireland dead or just in hibernation?  Is anyone interested in discussing next steps?

Don Cole