THE GLENCREE Peace and Reconciliation Centre in the Wicklow mountains is shutting its accommodation and conference facilities because of a lack of funding.
The centre can no longer afford to keep the accommodation block functioning in the former British military barracks, which is now owned and managed by the OPW.
Glencree chief executive John Flood said the centre was suffering from the downturn, with a fall-off in corporate, individual and legacy donations, which provided much of its funding. It has also had its funding from the Department of Foreign Affairs cut. The offices and the cafe remain open, but meetings will have to be held off-site.
In the 1980s and 1990s sometimes sworn enemies, most notably those involved in the peace process in Northern Ireland, shared the accommodation block.
Mr Flood said the block was now “extremely difficult” to light and heat and showing its age. It was now up to the OPW to decide what to do with it, he added.
In recent times groups, including a delegation of Israelis and Palestinians, stayed in local hotels because the accommodation block was so draughty and cold.
While the closure of the accommodation centre may be bad news for the centre, it is good news for local hotels and guesthouses.
“We can still billet opposing factions if we have to, albeit a few miles up the road,” Mr Flood said.
He stressed that the centre would continue its work and had met the Department of Foreign Affairs on its programme for the next year.
“There’s nothing to stop us continuing our programmes,” he said.
“People who have a long association with Glencree have become quite upset about it and they think the heart of Glencree is going, but the heart of any organisation is its people or its skills.”
Glencree was established as a peace and reconciliation centre in 1974 at the height of the Troubles.
Its conflict resolution programmes, based on the peace process, have attracted groups from places as disparate as Afghanistan, Liberia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Haiti.
Though it will continue its work, the decision to close the accommodation and conference facilities has been criticised by Patricia O’Malley, who had booked in a group of transition year students for October, only to have her booking cancelled.
In a letter to The Irish Times, she asks if the closure is "another example of Government neglect and complete lack of foresight".
