International students have travelled to Northern Ireland to learn about the Good Friday Agreement

追加: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]I will say that Ireland taught me that peace is not just based on the absence of disagreements. It's based on how to continue dialogue despite the differences, despite the disagreements.

[00:00:15]But the focus is really on Northern Ireland. It's a conflict transformation program. And the idea is to learn lessons from this historic conflict, how it's playing out 28 years later, but how that applies to their lives in their country at a local and international local, national, and international level.

[00:00:32]>> Over the past 3 days, we have a very well-organized program.

[00:00:37]We have a guided tour in Belfast where we explored the the areas of conflict and the development of the city post-Good Friday Agreement.

[00:00:46]>> Even though we are divided politically in our world, I at the end of the day, we are all human beings. We all want the best for our community. And even when those views diverge, it is still important that we come together because at the end of the day, we are not citizens of a party, we are not citizens of a group, we are citizens of our country, and we are citizens of our world. Yeah, very emphasized by our staff leader here, Reverend Dr. Gary Mason. He mentioned that it takes about 50 years to implement a peace process.

[00:01:15]And considering the Good Friday Agreement was drafted in 1998, we are still about halfway through that peace process. And it's incredible still to see the results here in Belfast. The people in Belfast are lovely.

[00:01:26]It's it's quite funny. Almost everybody that you talk to after you said hi will always say how are you or ask how you're doing, how your day day has been, what you're doing here. It's been incredibly friendly to talk to almost anyone who's here. So, the people are lovely and the city is lovely.