There will also be a separate Internet introduction half-day course and a lecture on the background and analysis of the Northern Ireland Troubles. The basic cost of each course is £300 (a few bursaries). Further details are available at INCORE's web site www.incore.ulst.ac.uk including booking form, or contact Lyn Moffett, INCORE, Aberfoyle House, Northland Road, Derry/Londonderry BT48 7JA. Tel: 028 - 71 375500, Fax: 028 71 375510 (new NI codes), E-mail lyn@incore.ulst.ac.uk

Consorting Together for Moral Purposes (CRTLC)
The Community Relations Training/Learning Consortium (CRTLC) is a membership based organisation originating from needs, expressed by groups and individuals active in the community relations training sector in Northern Ireland, for greater co-operation, networking, information sharing and quality proofing.

In partnership with practitioners involved in the facilitation of community relations training, CRTLC encourages individuals, communities and institutions to address issues of equity across a wide range of networks. The Consortium is working to promote quality learning opportunities and enhance working practice. In 1999 the Consortium was successful in securing funding, allowing staff to be recruited and the opening of an office in Dungannon. The Consortium has, to date, registered over 80 members.

VSI Film Festival and Workshops
VSI (Voluntary Service International) is holding its 6th Voices from the South Festival of Films from Africa/Asia/Latin America in the Irish Film Centre in Dublin from 10 - 12 March; enquire for programme. Alongside this it is running two workshops:

Details from VSI, Tel: 01 - 855 10 11, e-mail vsi@iol.ie or at 30 Mountjoy Square, Dublin 1.

Earthwatch
If we had an award for the best political issues magazine in the whole of Ireland then Earthwatch quarterly magazine, from Earthwatch (Irish Friends of the Earth) would be a very worthy winner. In 40 pages of A3 it dissects, comments and analyses local and global environmental issues in a remarkably comprehensive way. Did you know the Irish drive the most by car of all EU countries (over 12,000 km per person)? 

Included in the latest issue is detailed info on incinerators, superdumps (no, there is a separate Northern Ireland page!), by-passes, quarries, bogs, whales, global warming, wind power, a new Amnesty International page, trade, sustainability, the World Trade Organisation, farming, Genetic Concern, books and contacts. Excellent value at £1.00. Or you can receive it as part of Earthwatch membership, individual £15, unwaged £7.50, to Earthwatch, 7 Upper Camden Street, Dublin 2, Tel: 01 - 497 37 73. E-mail foreire@iol.ie The address for the magazine is Dromore, Bantry, Co Cork, Tel: 028 - 31853, E-mail ewmag@eircom.net Website under construction http://www.iol.ie/~foeeire

International Women's Day for Peace and Disarmament
This is on 24th May and once again the IFOR Women Peacemakers Program has published a pack jointly with the International Peace Bureau (IPB). This year the main focus is on African women building a culture of peace but with other reports and worldwide contacts. The 24 page A4 resource pack is available at UK£3 or US$4.50 (bulk discounts available) from the IPB or from IFOR (International Fellowship of Reconciliation), Spoorstraat 38, 1815 BK Alkmaar, Netherlands, Tel: +31 - 72 512 30 14, fax 515 11 02, Email office@ifor.org

Pax Christi AGM
Pax Christi's AGM will take place in Dublin on Sunday 9th April with business in the morning and speakers on the theme of reconciliation in the afternoon; Terence McCaughey on the South African experience and Michael Ritchie on conflict resolution and transition in Ireland. Subscriptions to Pax Christi are minimum £15 waged and £5 unwaged. Pax Christi, 52 Lower Rathmines Road, Dublin 2. Tel: 01- 496 52 93, Fax: 496 54 92.

Get Yourself Permacultured
Kilcranny House, Coleraine, are running an introductory course on permaculture, 24 - 26 March, £55 residential (£30 concession), £40 non-residential (£20 concession). Contact Kilcranny House, 21 Cranagh Road, Coleraine BT51 3NN. Ph/Fax 01265 -321816. E-mail info@kilcranny.thegap.com

'No Alternative? Nonviolent Responses to Repressive Regimes'
This book, edited by John Lampen (ex-Derry) looks at what is a particularly difficult area for nonviolent activists. What do you do when the going not only gets tough but extremely violent and genocidal? Growing out of the bombing of Serbia in 1999, but not focused especially on Serbia or Kosov@, this book brings together 13 mainly British-based authors to look at different aspects of dealing with large-scale violence. It is a valuable addition to the field.

Peace News on Truth, Forgiveness, Reconciliation
The latest issue (March-May) of Peace News has 22 pages on 'Truth, forgiveness, reconciliation' as well as its usual features. PN, 5 Caledonian Road, London N1 9DY. Single issue £3 inc post /£4 outside UK (£2.50 cover price), subs £10 min UK, £15 elsewhere.

`Striking a Balance’
Accord issue on Northern Ireland peace process
The Good Friday/Belfast agreement could be described as a woolly jumper, in a couple of different senses. Woolly in that it was unclear about some aspects of decommissioning of arms. A jumper in the hurdles it had to get over before devolved government arrived. But it did seem to keep people warm (= satisfy them) in the short two months devolved government operated. This, however, is a detailed study of the peace process through to devolved government being up and running and is a valuable contribution for several reasons. The outsider will get a detailed but comprehensive analysis. The insider will get eyewitness accounts by activists on various sides of key stages in the process, and summaries of what has been a complex and extremely demanding process. Accord issue 8, edited by Clem McCartney, 105 pages A4, published by Conciliation Resources, 173 Upper Street, London N1 1RG, Tel: +44 (0)20 7359 7728, E-mail accord@c-r.org It's priced at £15 including post (or you can argue for a complimentary copy on evidence of involvement in conflict resolution activities).

Heading Them off at the Impasse Again
An Editorial
The suspension of Northern Ireland's two-month old governmental structures was bad news for those working to ensure that the future lives and works. If the immediate blame fell on the IRA for its refusal to decommission its arms - and by the Good Friday Agreement they had a few months time to go - the issues are far wider and indicate the depth of work which needs to be done. From a nonviolent point of view, the guns of the IRA were certainly not the only 'guns in government' but it would be naive to expect unionists of many shades to stand by and continue arrangements which made them feel so compromised. The broader question of why the IRA felt unable to relinquish its arms asks questions about the whole of society and the extent to which violence for certain ends is an accepted fact among the vast majority of people (just just wars and all that).

Where we go from here is the perennial question and one which is perhaps even more difficult to answer when the devolved government train has just arrived and so swiftly departed. The poor second best option may be to maximise the continuation of what structures can be salvaged and also maximise civil society's input to decision making. So much has been on hold for years waiting on devolved government, and the new ministers were only getting their teeth into their areas of work, that cutting short the new structures is brutally disappointing. True strength grows from confidence in what we are and can achieve; the power that grows from the barrel of a gun, any gun, cannot achieve what needs done in Northern Ireland. But for those who believe in peace and co-operation, tiocfaidh ar lá, because so many people are working for it in different ways.