“Making Peace with the Enemy”
With Jo Berry
Room 8, Lambeth Town Hall, Brixton Hill, London SW2 1RJ
15th December 2009 at 6.30pm
Room 8, Lambeth Town Hall, Brixton Hill, London SW2 1RJ
15th December 2009 at 6.30pm
Jo’s father Sir Anthony Berry MP, was killed by the IRA in the bombing of the 1984 Tory Party conference in Brighton, and her talk is about the emotional journey that she has gone through in order to reconcile and make friends with the bomber Patrick Magee. It should be a fascinating evening and we hope that you can join us.
Jo Berry made a inner commitment, 2 days after the bomb that killed her Father, to find a way to bring something positive out of the tragedy. She chose to not blame the ‘other’ but sought to understand. In 2000 she met the man who planted the bomb. Pat Magee, and they sat together in a room talking for over 3 hours. Jo wanted to see the man behind the enemy and to hear his story. The first meeting led onto many and the next meetings became the subject of the Everyman documentary, Facing the Enemy, broadcast in 2001. Since then they have spoken over 60 times, at peace conferences, schools, universities, internationally as well as nationally. Jo now calls Pat her friend though there are still challenges,: it is a unusual friendship. Jo now knows through listening to him deeply that if she had lived his life she may have made the same choices, and with that understanding there is nothing to forgive. Recently for the 25th anniversary, they spoke together at the House of Commons to the all Parliamentary groups on Conflict issues and also Jo launched the Charity she founded, Building Bridges for PeaceThere will be time for questions after Jo has spoken.
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