Episode 75: Jo Berry Bridges can be built - Disarming a terrorist who killed your father using empathy and forgiveness

”Inspire Us” with J. Paul Nadeau

There are terrible acts of injustice and violence happening across the globe every day. In today's episode, we visit one such case that occurred in 1984 in the IRA conflict. Five people were killed and several more injured during a terrorist bombing. Our guest lost her father during that bombing. But instead of blaming and hating, she decided to meet the man accused of killing her father to see if there was some humanity left in him.

This episode talks about how we should all treat one another, despite some of the terrible things that have happened. Perhaps if we did that those terrible things would stop happening and people's lives will be changed. I can attest that that does happen more than you might know.

Jo's bio:

Jo Berry is an inspiring speaker who works to resolve conflicts around the world. Sixteen years after an IRA bomb killed her father in 1984, Jo first met with the man responsible, Pat Magee. This initial three-hour meeting led to them speaking on over three hundred occasions on a shared platform worldwide. Their unusual relationship has been told in the BBC documentary “Facing the Enemy”, was featured in the film “Beyond Right and Wrong”, and inspired “The Bomb”, a play by Kevin Dyer.

The founder of the charity ‘Building Bridges for Peace’, Jo, advocates that unbounded empathy is the biggest weapon we have to transform conflict. With political, religious and racial divides deepening as global and local events unfold, her words offer a message of hope and encourage us all to see the humanity in others.

Jo is frequently invited to address international conferences and seminars on themes of reconciliation, conflict resolution and sustainable peace. She has spoken and facilitated workshops worldwide, including Lebanon, Rwanda, India, Ireland, Palestine, South Korea, Israel, and throughout Europe. She has also spoken in venues in the UK and joined panels and discussions forums on radio and TV. Her unique work in reconciliation has become a source of learning for many studying peace studies and conflict transformation worldwide.

Over the few last­ years, Jo has developed workshops and courses in the workplace on ‘finding the gift in conflict’, ‘having a difficult conversation’ and ‘dealing with uncertainty’ and now works virtually as well in person. She is a TEDx speaker and a Visiting Fellow with the University of Nottingham (Research Primary Area in Rights and Justice).

Jo's website: www.jo-berry.com