Columban Missionary Fr Pat Colgan is a member of the Dublin City Interfaith Forum. He attended the Forum’s recent annual ‘Peace Day’ lecture titled, ‘Seeds of Peace and Hope’, at the Mansion House and reports on the talks and insights of the day.
“Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing…”
Arundhati Roy
With this quote, Dr Sheila Curran, Mercy Sister and member of the Dublin City Interfaith Forum, concluded and thanked the many contributors and participants of the annual ‘Peace Day’ lecture.
It was hosted by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Ray McAdam, at the Mansion House on 15th September 2025 and titled, ‘Seeds of Peace and Hope’.
In collaboration with the Columban Missionaries, the Northern Ireland Interfaith Forum and Dublin City Council, the Chair of the Dublin City Interfaith Forum (DCIF), Archbishop Michael Jackson, guided us through a selection of speakers.
They gave a summary, through the prism of initiatives in Northeast Inner City Dublin[1] of the ‘seeds of peace and hope’ apparent in contemporary Ireland.
In his welcome, the Lord Mayor described peace-making as a “living, urgent responsibility” precisely at a time when war has returned to Europe.
He commended the many new and old faith communities’ commitment to hospitality, integration and support to Irish citizenry and in particular DCIF’s Safe Haven Programme with its practical training on what constitutes racism, the reporting of hate crime, and support for victims.
The keynote speaker, Professor Philip McDonagh of DCU, led us in a wide ranging and multifaith reflection on ‘Civilisational Diplomacy’ which the UN declared in 2024 to be crucial for maintaining global peace, shared development and enhanced human wellbeing.
Five years ago, Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar in their ‘Document on Human Fraternity’ declared that “Faith leads believer[s] to see in the other a brother or sister to be supported and loved… which is to be expressed by safeguarding creation and the entire universe… especially the poorest and those in most need”[2].
Pope Leo, in his 2025 message to the World Meeting on Human Fraternity, re-emphasised, “The world is currently marked by conflicts and divisions, which makes it all the more important that you are united by a strong and courageous “no” to war and a “yes” to peace…. ‘The willingness to face conflict head on, to resolve it and to make it a link in the chain of a new process’ (Evangelii Gaudium, 227) is the wisest path, the path of the strong…[3]”
Professor Philip McDonagh, Jonathan Dowling, Detective Chief Supt Brian Woods, Kelley Bermingham at Mansion House. Photo: Fr Pat Colgan.
On the brink of World War II, in her essay, ‘The Power of Words’, Simone Weil wrote: “Once all the real data of a problem have been revealed, [it] is well on the way to solution”.
If conflict is the ‘hyper-problem’ of the ‘polycrisis’ of issues presently facing humanity, the need for a civilisational dialogue to bring about a shared framework of values – parallel, but separate, from – the day-to-day work of politicians and peacemakers, is all the more urgent.
In his much awaited ‘Message for World Day of Peace 2026’, of which Pope Leo has currently only released its title: ‘Towards an Unarmed and Disarming Peace’, we hear the echo of Francis who in the last week of his life, wrote to an Italian newspaper asking us to “disarm our words in order to disarm our minds and disarm the earth[4]”.
The Conference also heard of an ongoing peace partnership between Youth Groups in North Dublin Inner City and the town of Pyla in the EU-administered/UN-security zone, between the Turkish and Greek-administered areas of Cyprus.
This collaboration, led by Detective Chief Supt Brian Woods of An Garda Siochana, together with Jonathan Dowling of Belvedere Youth Club and Kelley Bermingham of St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, has left a lasting impression on many Irish and Cypriot youth.
It is summed up by the recent comment of a young lady from Nicosia: “[If Ireland could attain peace], I now dare to dream that the unity of my city is not only possible, but within our reach.”
We continued our deep dive into the reality of the NEIC, with a second triad of activists, reflecting on ‘Faith, Race and Place’. These were presented by:
- Richard Carson who is Director of a faith-based AIDS and community group.
- Sophie Manaeva from the Jesuit Centre of Faith and Justice, who outlined the preliminary findings of her research into the role and depth of Faith Based Groups in the NEIC[5] highlighting their variety, creativity and irreplaceable role as ‘first port of call’ for newly arrived migrants seeking advice, security and community.
- Finally, Colleen Brown, whose group ‘Working Together for Peace’, like the JCFJ, understood the 23rd November 2023 Dublin riots to be a wake-up call for healing[6]. Colleen highlighted the ‘perfect storm’ of factors that stoked 23rd November, and the fact that often when a problem is in “mid escalation” it is growing so fast that we don’t even see it, and finally that we need to carry out remedial/reparative actions in a very timely way before conditions render even these impossible.
Interfaith Prayers at Mansion House. Photo: Fr Pat Colgan.
After lunch and a moment of multi-faith prayer on the theme of ‘Peace’, the Convenor of the DCIF, Adrian Cristea took up the baton as we broadened out to a consideration of ‘Climate Change, Migration and Conflict’. Our final triad of speakers for the day were:
- Dr Johnston McMaster of the Irish School of Ecumenics (TCD), who gave a masterful presentation on the triple historical ills of colonialism, nationalism and fascism, whose legacies continue to poison our body politic today. He stubbornly refuses to surrender hope, though, citing our human capacity for resilience, ability to recognise personal weakness, our courageous freedom to make peace, to imagine and work for a world where “we will work with each other, work side by side, guard each one’s dignity and save each one’s pride”. [7]
- Jane Mellet, Church Manager of Trócaire, who quoted extensively from Pope Francis’ 2015 clarion call for ecological conversion in Laudato Si’[8], as the backdrop for the Season of Creation which has taken place each September ever since.
- Edwin Graham, Executive Secretary of the Northern Ireland Interfaith Forum who highlighted their partnership with JoinTheDots.org, also being particularly focused on the Season of Creation[9].
In offering her concluding word of thanks to all participants, Dr Curran made the following pertinent points:
- “If we don’t look after the Earth, it will eventually kill us” (Indigenous wisdom teaching)
- Structural inequality/poverty is a primary driver of the rage and envy we hear in current political/social discourse
- We need to dream that another way is possible, otherwise it will never happen
- If people of faith do not have that dream, then what are we for?
- Non-violence is both active and costly.
- Climate Justice and Peace are mutually dependent and essential for planetary well being.
- the Synodal Pathway (of dialogue with ALL) opened up by the late Pope Francis offers a lasting and perhaps ‘last’, template of hope for the world.
Adrian Cristea thanked all for “lasting the pace” in what was a long, but rich day of spiritual and intellectual interchange. We look forward to many further such moments of encounter, noting its relevance for this Season of Creation 2025 whose theme is “Peace with Creation” based on Isaiah 32:14–18, with which we end:
“For the palace is forsaken, the populous city deserted…until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is deemed a forest. Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness abide in the fruitful field. And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever.”
[1] Afterwards, abbreviated to NEIC
[2] Abu Dhabi, 4th Feb 2019, Introduction
[3] https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/speeches/2025/september/documents/20250912-meeting-human-fraternity.html
[4] (Corriere della Sera, 18.3.2025)
[5] https://www.jcfj.ie/issue/95-the-voices-of-the-north-east-inner-city/
[6] Both for the 40% native born Irish of the NEIC who believe 23rd Nov further labelled and stigmatized their community as ‘racist’, ‘intolerant’ etc, and the 60% of “new Irish”, many of whom genuinely feared for their lives and livelihood on that day and afterwards.
[7] From the lyrics of “We Are One in the Spirit” – a hymn written in the 1960s by Catholic priest Fr. Peter Scholtes.
[8] For example, LS 25: “There has been a tragic rise in the number of migrants seeking to flee from the growing poverty caused by environmental degradation. They are not recognized by international conventions as refugees; they bear the loss of the lives they have left behind, without enjoying any legal protection whatsoever”; LS 165: “We know that technology based on the use of highly polluting fossil fuels … needs to be progressively replaced without delay. .. Politics and business have been slow to react in a way commensurate with the urgency of the challenges facing our world.”; LS 19: “ Our goal is not to amass information or to satisfy curiosity, but rather to become painfully aware, to dare to turn what is happening to the world into our own personal suffering and thus to discover what each of us can do about it…”
[9] See https://interfaithni.org/, including information on 3 Seminars on the theme of Peace/A Divided-Wounded Planet to be held within the next 2 weeks in Belfast/Hillsborough/online.