Participants from Birmingham at the interfaith dialogue workshop in Dalgan Park. Photo: Fr Pat Colgan
Following a visit to the Columbans in Birmingham early this year to learn of their works in interreligious dialogue, the Dublin City Interfaith Forum (DCIF), of which Columban Fr Pat Colgan is a member, reciprocated in kind and hosted the British delegation to Ireland for a peace symposium. Fr Pat reports on this interfaith event from Dublin.
On 24 September 2024, a group of 17 faith leaders from the cities of Birmingham, Edinburgh and London arrived at Dublin Airport to be brought (by special Garda Siochana [Police Service] escort!) to Mansion House, official residence of the Lord Mayor of Dublin. Here, colleagues from the Dublin City, Northern Ireland and Midwest Interfaith Forums, the Irish Humanist Association, Garda Community Policing Officers, academics, an Anglican group from Co Mayo, and children and teachers from The High School, Rathgar awaited them to jointly take part in a symposium called “Building Peaceful and Resilient Communities in Our Cities”.
Ireland had experienced its first major anti-racism riots (on 23 November 2023), and both countries were then rocked by further unrest due to the stabbing of three young girls attending a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Stockport, Liverpool, on 29 July 2024. This violence was falsely blamed on “Muslim immigrants” (the assailant was in fact a naturalised non-Muslim British citizen of Rwandan origin), and social media disinformation stoked unrest throughout the UK, including Northern Ireland. (The Columban Missionaries in Britain released a statement in response to the riots, which you can read here.)
In his words of welcome, the Lord Mayor, Cllr James Geoghegan, said:
“Due to migration, our hospitals run better, our universities are enriched, communities have extended their expertise, and we want to make sure that Ireland, and its capital, continue to be centres of welcome. When migrants arrive in a new country, they automatically look for their place of worship, as an oasis of friendship and safety […] Your event today is of immeasurable importance to this, and all modern cities, and I wish you every success.”
At the symposium, we heard stories from Belfast-based Muslim academic Dr Naomi Green about the relentless and continuing (often unreported) attacks on Muslim businesses and houses.
Dr Johnson McMaster of the Irish School of Ecumenics at TCD, Dublin added: “I have since heard comments from many otherwise middle class and ‘respectable’ people such as ‘Perhaps these rioters have a point’; ‘Immigration has gone too far; it needs to be controlled’; ‘Christianity is under siege in our islands’; ‘These people [sic] are clogging up our hospitals and schools’ etc. These sentiments, I contend, are equally destructive to social cohesion, and give tacet, if unintended, ammunition to more violent and/or malignant actors.”
Other academics who addressed the symposium stressed the need for civic education, myth-busting, reining in the power of social media, rediscovery and loud visible proclamations of our values. Ms Mahmooda Qureshi,of the The Faith and Belief Forum, Birmingham shared: “I have never seen such tension among people of faith, largely due to recent international events, and I have had to turn to friends of other faiths for advice, because I simply don’t know what to do […] I do see hope, and that hope comes precisely from people like us, trying to be honest and loving with each other – these ripples can and will change the world.”
On the following day, our Birmingham visitors were welcomed in four worship centres in South Dublin, namely Ahlul Bayt Islamic Centre (Al Hussain House), The Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland – Clonskeagh, Gurdwara Guru Nanak Darbar, and finally the Dublin Progressive Jewish Synagogue. In each place the leader spoke of the challenges and hopes of their respective communities. A repeated theme was that, despite the rapid rise of "far right" ideology in Ireland, relationships on the ground are still largely both intact and good. Since Islam is experiencing a phenomenal growth rate (from 3,000 to 100,000 in three decades) in Ireland, the imams have emphasised engaging with local communities and the police on matters of mutual concern, such as parking, making spaces available for vaccination, shared sports, and education.
Participants of the peace symposium visit Ahlul Bayt Islamic Centre (Al Hussain House), The Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland. Photo: Fr Pat Colgan
On the final day of their trip, visitors came to Dalgan Park, headquarters of the Columban missionaries in Ireland. Guided by ecologist Elizabeth McArdle, we spent some time outside appreciating (in the rain!) the Dalgan oak grove, the holly and ragwort plants and paying a visit to our two donkeys! We then heard from two Birmingham-based Muslim members of the genesis and contents of Al Mizan (A Covenant for the Earth), launched in Nairobi in February 2024, which has been called the “Islamic Laudato Si”. We also had reflections from the Hindu and Baha'i traditions.
There was a strong sense that participants did not want these three days to be simply become a ‘pleasant memory’ but a stimulus for common action going forward.
Al Mizan quotes the Quran (Surah Ah-Rum 41): Corruption has spread on land and sea as a result of what people’s hands have done, so that Allah may cause them to taste the consequences of some of their deeds and perhaps they might return to the Right Path.
There is still time to repent, to restore and renew creation, if we do it wholeheartedly and together.
Columban Fr Pat Colgan.
Related links
- Read more from the current Columban Interfaith eBulletin
