• The Understanding Conflict Trust (UCT) was established in 1991 by Corrymeela Community member, Derick Wilson. The team has been and continues to be composed of Corrymeela Community members.

Nurturing Hope is an extensive five–book learning resource, written by Derick Wilson, Duncan Morrow, Jean Horstman and Dong Jin Kim. It grows out of the experience of people in Northern Ireland, and the wider world, who chose to hope in times of darkness. They chose to find a way forward that included standing together with those who had been scapegoated. It draws on the experience of the authors as Corrymeela Community members, and was developed with learning partners in South Korea and the U.S.A.

The Nurturing Hope resource is available as an open–source document. To request a copy, please email welcome@nurturinghope.net. Include in your email how you heard about Nurturing Hope, information about your experience promoting reconciliation, and how you might use the resource. UCT asks that those receiving the materials use them in the spirit of how they are shared: charging no fees and honouring the source.

You can learn more about UCT and Nurturing Hope at www.nurturinghope.net 2026 Nurturing Hope Learning Journey The Learning Journey is for those seeking to create spaces through which people who are divided can ‘experience the intimacy of our honest differences’.

The dates in 2026 are 8 – 13 July and the location is the Corrymeela Centre in Ballycastle, Northern Ireland. To learn more about the Learning Journey, visit www.nurturinghope.com.

Built around a hands–on, community–based learning approach that explores the stories and experiences of the participants, the Learning Journey offers space to:

• Understand the destructive relationships and structures in which we find ourselves and explore ways out.
• Consider relationships and structures that promote trust and in which hope can be nurtured and sustained.
• Explore the dynamics of desire, violence, and scapegoating unearthed in the work of Rene Girard, as well as reconciliation and restorative practices.
• Explore which practices might support reconciliation and the restoration of relationships.
• Build new relationships with others seeking to move from division to interdependence.
• Contribute to an intergenerational and trans–local learning community committed to building relationships and sharing learning with others in conflicted societies.
• Sing, dance, create, and play together—the craic is brilliant

History says, Don’t hope
On this side of the grave…
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed–for tide wave
Of Justice can rise up,
And hope and history rhyme.
So hope for a great sea–change
On the far side of revenge.
Believe that a further shore
Is reachable from here.
Believe in miracles
And cures and healing wells.

The Cure of Troy, Seamus Heaney