Video: Brian Rowan introduces the Northern Ireland Ceasefire 30 anniversary project
Thirty years ago, in Northern Ireland – or in the North – it was hard to believe in peace. The horror of one week in October 1993 is implanted in our memories. A bomb on the Shankill Road in Belfast. The dead of that day, and what followed. Within weeks, a huge arms shipment destined for loyalists was intercepted. Then, news broke of secret contacts between the British Government and the IRA. There was talk of a sell-out, and of more war. And in that darkness, peace was unimaginable. Yet, within a year, the IRA and the Combined Loyalist Military Command had announced ceasefires.
I was a BBC correspondent in Belfast then, reporting the headline moments of those statements in August and October 1994. Three decades later, “Ceasefire 30” is an analysis of the long process of peace, drawing on the thoughts of some of those who made it possible. As the story of those thirty years develops, we arrive at a moment when history meets a new generation.
“Impossible Peace”
Impossible Peace was published by Brian Rowan in August 2024. The project is a marrying of spoken and written words that help tell the story of what the former Clinton adviser Nancy Soderberg describes as a ‘miracle’ emerging out of leadership and vision; that moment, to borrow a thought from Miriam Reynolds, daughter of the late Albert Reynolds, when an impossible peace began to look possible.
Listen to the Ceasefire Tapes
Photo gallery - the faces of “Impossible Peace”
Impossible Peace 2: Explore the collection
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28 July 2005: 4 o'clock and all is well
Read now to access more details of 28 July 2005: 4 o'clock and all is wellThe archive follows the next phase of the Northern Ireland peace process through the years 2005-2010 and what happened after the IRA decision to end its armed campaign at 4pm on Thursday, July 28th 2005.
Level: 1 Introductory
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Impossible Peace 2: Introduction
Read now to access more details of Impossible Peace 2: IntroductionThis publication builds on our previous work -‘Impossible Peace’. Our focus now is the period 2005/10, and what happened after the IRA decision to end its armed campaign at 4pm on Thursday, July 28th 2005.
Level: 1 Introductory
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Impossible Peace 2: Tea for two
Read now to access more details of Impossible Peace 2: Tea for twoThe old receipt takes me back twenty years to a Saturday morning - July 23rd 2005. I was in one of those meetings of words and silences; sitting with Richard McAuley a senior aide to then Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams.
Level: 1 Introductory
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Impossible Peace 2: Thrown to the political wolves
Read now to access more details of Impossible Peace 2: Thrown to the political wolvesA seismic shift. A rapid sequence of events. What were the sentiments around the decision to demilitarise?
Level: 1 Introductory
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Impossible Peace 2: "The taigs are getting everything"
Read now to access more details of Impossible Peace 2: "The taigs are getting everything"Tense conversations. Lists of grievances. A day of rage.
Level: 1 Introductory
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Impossible Peace 2: On a wing and a prayer
Read now to access more details of Impossible Peace 2: On a wing and a prayer"The job is done. It can't be done twice." What were the doubts and narratives around IRA decommissioning?
Level: 1 Introductory
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Impossible Peace 2: The bunker in the peace
Read now to access more details of Impossible Peace 2: The bunker in the peaceNew steps and ideas after 2006: "How do you build new policing on that battlefield?"
Level: 1 Introductory
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Impossible Peace 2: Bullets in their socks
Read now to access more details of Impossible Peace 2: Bullets in their socksBrian Rowan reflects on trying to make the pieces of the peace process narratives fit together.
Level: 1 Introductory
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Impossible Peace 2: The murders at Massereene
Read now to access more details of Impossible Peace 2: The murders at MassereeneMarch 7th 2009: another murder scene painted onto the canvas of an imperfect, troubled, tortuous peace.
Level: 1 Introductory
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Impossible Peace 2: The missing legacy voices
Read now to access more details of Impossible Peace 2: The missing legacy voicesBrian Rowan reflects on the voices and stories of those no longer with us.
Level: 1 Introductory
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Impossible Peace 2: Where have all the leaders gone?
Read now to access more details of Impossible Peace 2: Where have all the leaders gone?The peacebuilding project took leadership - where are the leaders today?
Level: 1 Introductory
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Impossible Peace 2: An everyday kind of miracle
Read now to access more details of Impossible Peace 2: An everyday kind of miracleThe afterword to the project archive by Declan Lawn - the screenwriter and director behind BBC's "Blue Lights".
Level: 1 Introductory
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Impossible Peace 2: Much more than an archive
Read now to access more details of Impossible Peace 2: Much more than an archiveThis project, under its heading Impossible Peace, is intended to do more than log detail and analysis. It is about taking all of that information into a wide conversation to discuss moments of history and learning and the different perspectives.
Level: 1 Introductory
Funded with support from the Reconcilliation Fund
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