THE KUKMIN DAILY

Peace Agreement was Just a Beginning: Interview with Dr. Johnston McMaster

“The Belfast Agreement was not the end. It was just a beginning.” Dr. Johnston McMaster, professor emeritus of the Education for Reconciliation Programme at the Irish School of Ecumenics, Trinity College of Dublin, has been working for the reconciliation and healing process ever since the Belfast Peace Agreement of 1998. On November 8, he visited Kukmin Ilbo to share his experience with Koreans, who yearn for a peace treaty on the divided Korean Peninsula. This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Korean Armistice Agreement.

Northern Ireland also has had a painful history of intense conflict. During the 30 years before the Agreement, 4,000 people died and more than 40,000 were injured in the conflict between native Irish Roman Catholics, and Protestants who had moved there from England. “Bringing about reconciliation and peace is a very difficult process and spiritual experience,” Prof. McMaster says. “The role of religious people is important.

He has participated many times in the process where both victims and attackers share their experiences. “Everyone was hurt physically and mentally in the fight. They ask, ‘Why me?’ Surprisingly, people do not want revenge. They all are eager to learn the truth.”

“While sharing their experiences, each party comes to understand the other as a human being, not as a monster or an enemy,” he says.

He emphasizes the importance of storytelling, in which personal experiences and specific events become part of a larger story. Concluding a story is never easy, however, because it is extremely difficult for people to overcome the decades-long dichotomy of wrong and right. Every time a new fact has been revealed around a historical event, Northern Ireland people’s attitudes have changed.

“Here it was important to know who was trustworthy for both parties. It had to be someone who could bring both parties to one place, someone to whom people could talk from the bottom of their hearts, someone who could embrace different views with a flexible approach, and someone who could caress their wounds.”

“In Northern Ireland, the church also lost credibility,” he said, “because when the church took sides politically, the other side was hurt. And people who were eager to fight turned away from churches that talked about reconciliation and peace.”

“The problem and the solution both lie in the fact that we all are just human beings. Because we’re human beings, we’re tempted to pursue power and employ violence. But because we’re also human beings of conscience, we ask for God’s grace of love to free us.” He explains, “For those who had fought in the name of justice, coming to understand the position of the other, repenting their violence, and looking for new ways was a spiritual event, just as Christians return and repent before God.” He adds, “To leave violence behind, understand each other and build a world filled with God’s love is our task for a lifetime. In the Korean Peninsula as well, the role of Christians will be important, in asking God’s grace to end the war and violence.”