The barracks in Glencree Valley, Co Wicklow, which houses the Centre for Peace and Reconciliation, has had anything but a tolerant history. It was built in 1806 by the British army in response to the 1798 rebellion, and used from the mid-1850s as a reformatory for boys.
But since the mid-1970s the barracks has been a focal point for peace studies. It is now undergoing restoration costing £1.3 million which will include the building of a Museum of Tolerance, dedicated to all who suffered in the conflict in Northern Ireland.
The museum is to be run by the Centre for Peace and Reconciliation, which already occupies the remaining buildings at the barracks, from where it has been running its courses in peace studies.
However, over the past few years, particularly since 1994, the centre has played an important part in bringing members from both sides of the sectarian divide in Northern Ireland together for dialogue in public - and some very private - sessions.
Among the distinguished people who have visited the centre at the head of the Glencree Valley just off the Sally Gap Road, are the former Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Dr Mo Mowlam, presidents Mary Robinson and Mary McAleese, and the Canadian Prime Minister, Jean Chretien, as well as numerous politicians, church leaders and those involved in "waging peace" in the north. President Clinton has written praising the work that is carried out in the remote Wicklow location.
Many secret meetings between protagonists have been held here in the recent past, but the centre also hosts schoolchildren and other community groups from all parts of these islands in its peace-building courses. "We are aware that the political process must involve the public and that is what the museum will be about," says Ian White, executive director of the Glencree centre. The museum hopes to engage the public further in challenging their own prejudices, as well as educating those seeking a greater understanding of what living in the midst of the Northern conflict is about.
It is to include a conference centre accommodation and a coffee shop. "One of the ideas we are toying with is that there would be a white door, labelled `entrance for the bigoted' and a blue door labelled `entrance for the not-bigoted', only the blue door would not open." The point is that everybody is bigoted, whether they realise it or not.
Other plans are for a computerised database of each person killed in the conflict. As visitors proceed through the museum they would carry a card which, when inserted in interactive computers will give them more information on the beliefs, attitudes and personalities of the deceased. The barracks continued as a reformatory the until the 1940s when it moved to St Conleth's, in Daingean, Co Offaly. It served briefly as an Oblate noviciate before passing into the ownership of the Ministry of Supply.
Since 1974, as the Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation, it has offered courses to communities and refugees from Northern Ireland. In 1994, the reconciliation services began focusing on day and short courses for a wide variety of groups - including transition-year students - and actively facilitating dialogue between the different traditions in the North. In the future, this role will continue, according to the centre manager, Naoise Kelly. He also aims to develop the conference centre and accommodation facility.
But an immediate requirement is for £300,000, he explains, to add to the £1.3 million committed by the Office of Public Works, the centre's landlord, towards the restoration. It is hoped the building work will be finished this summer and that the museum will open by the end of the year.
With hardened positions in the North softening in recent times, White says he hopes the museum will challenge everyone's position, adding that he himself is merely "a bigot in recovery".
