Link up between Tipperary and Texas Rotary clubs for promotion of peace
A leading US humanitarian and peace advocate visited Clonmel this month to strengthen ties between the Rotary Clubs of San Antonio and Clonmel in their joint effort to promote peace and reconciliation.
The county Tipperary club, and that in the Texas city, are part of a new Rotary initiative to promote peace through a new programme at the Corrymeela Peace and Reconciliation Centre in Ballycastle, county Antrim.
JC Clapsaddle and his wife Andra, both retired colonels in the United States Air Force, visited Clonmel Rotary Club at the invitation of club president, Fil Guida, and outlined to members how the initiative, called Seeds of Hope, will work.
Col. Clapsaddle and his wife had just returned from a humanitarian visit to Ukraine, where they saw at first hand the efforts that Rotary International are making in the war-torn country.
CORRYMEELA PROJECT
At a Rotary lunch in the city, he was briefed on the Corrymeela project, and the pioneering role that the San Antonio club had played in it, and asked if Clonmel would be interested in becoming involved as one of the first participants from the Republic of Ireland. Clubs in Dublin and Cork had already committed to the project as had clubs in Belfast and Derry.
The idea was enthusiastically endorsed by the Clonmel club which has now joined over forty clubs worldwide that have committed to the programme to establish a peace academy. Clonmel has also supported the venture financially and club president, Fil Guida, made a cheque presentation of €500 to Col. Clapsaddle during his visit.
Col. Clapsaddle, who commanded military hospitals in Germany and Qatar, that cared for ill and wounded service personnel from combat operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Horn of Africa, has wide experience in humanitarian and international affairs. He served on the US Senate as a National Defence Fellow and advisor on international and defence affairs, and after leaving Capitol Hill, transferred to the Pentagon where he continued to work with Congress. His wife, Andra, also has wide experience in the US military as a colonel in the Civil Engineer Squadron.
During his talk in Clonmel, he outlined how they had travelled to Ukraine in September, visiting the cities of Lviv and Kyiv, as part of a Rotary aid convoy. Ambulances and cars had travelled from Ireland and the UK across Europe to Ukraine where they were modified for use on the front line. The vehicles had carried vital supplies and then re-used again in the defence of the country.
WORK DONE IN UKRAINE
Col. Clapsaddle said how immensely proud he was of the work done by Rotary in Ukraine, and thanked all the clubs for their efforts. He was hugely impressed that a one-day collection in Clonmel following the outbreak of the war raised over €4,000 towards relief in Ukraine, and how the Clonmel club had been the main facilitators at a rest centre for Ukrainian refugees at the Dr. Pat O’Callaghan Sports Complex last year.
And he added that his time in Ukraine tied in with Rotary’s latest initiative in Northern Ireland – literally from war to peace.
Seeds of Hope will revive what Corrymeela Peace Centre did in the 1970s through to the 1990s, bringing cross community groups of young people together to work towards peace. They will come from a cross section of society and from different countries, many affected by conflict, to study peace and reconciliation.
It is hoped that the programme will aid the unfinished work of reconciliation in Northern Ireland, and also that international students who attend will return to their own country as leaders in peace and reconciliation.
“They will then go back to their own countries in a leadership role in an effort to stop wars like that in Ukraine happening again,” said Col. Clapsaddle.
Club president Fil Guida congratulated Col. Clapsaddle on his role, and that of the Rotary Club of San Antonio, in initiating the project, and added that Clonmel was delighted to be part of this now worldwide programme.