Today was quite a busy day. We split the team in the morning; one van departed with a team of runners to run the miles towards our final destination of Wexford in the rain.

The runners in the other van had the much more pleasurable task of meeting with all the lovely people in the Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation. Nestled in the heart of the Wicklow Mountains, the Glencree Centre was founded in 1974 in an effort to find ways to reconcile the parties to the conflict in Northern Ireland.

Over its 33-year history, it has developed a variety of programmes, ranging from peace education in schools to creating a space to host dialogue about different perspectives on the conflict. It is now sharing its considerable expertise in bringing people together with people from other conflict situations, such as Haiti and Afghanistan. Sean O'Boyle, who is in charge of this international programme, gave us a very impressive talk of the centre's history and its current programmes, and we had a very inspiring discussion which lasted quite a bit longer than anticipated (we didn't mind one bit!). We related some of our experiences travelling through Europe and how they brought home to us that human goodness and kindness is something that is the common currency of people in every country. We then took a photo outside with the World Harmony Run crew, Sean and some of his colleagues from all around the world: Kari and Megan from the USA, Majorie and Eslin from Haiti and Yukari from Japan.

We made our way to catch up with the other team of runners. On our way we discovered the second best way to travel through Ireland (after running, of course). Keith and Sally were rambling through the mountains in a colourful caravan led by a lovely horse called Waterloo, and were more than happy to have us climb aboard.

We caught up with the van shortly before its arrival in Wexford, and we crossed the famous Wexford Bridge together.

Our first visit of the afternoon was to St. Johns Primary School, where the pupils had formed a guard of honour to show us into the school. The Mayor of Wexford, George Lawlor was on hand to greet us, before we went into a hall full of cheering children.

They had made some great artwork in anticipation of our visit!

We had a very nice ceremony, complete with some very kind words from the Mayor himself. We then went outside where the Mayor ran a few steps with the torch, followed by all the children.

We then went the short distance to the Mayor's office, where we were accorded a civic reception, the second highest honour that the town can bestow on an individual or organisation. Each of the runners received a beautiful a watch with the crest of Wexford town on it. It was a gesture that touched the runners very deeply.

The Run went on to the Irish National Heritage Park on the outskirts of Wexford, where Jimmy O'Rourke was kind enough to give us all a very entertaining tour of the history of Ireland from Stone Age times right up to the Norman period.

Of course there was always time to make some new friends....

We are very grateful to Maura from the Heritage Park for helping organise the tour; she even gave us a little brooch in the shape of an Irish high cross as a memento of our visit! By way of expressing our appreciation, we sang for her our World Harmony Run Song composed by the founder of the Run, Sri Chinmoy. In addition, the road leading into the park was dedicated in the name of friendship and understanding between people and nations. It was a very fitting end to five action-packed days in Ireland; yet again, the Irish public have overwhelmed us with their goodwill and kindness, and we look forward to having an even bigger and better Run when it returns to Ireland in 2008.

Distance: 88km

Team Members:
Colm Magee, Shane Magee, Gary Foran and Ambarish Keenan (Ireland), Ondrej Vesely, Rosta Vagner and Katka Prusova (Czech Republic), Mathias Eckerle (Germany), Ieva Kurzemniece and Anette Klavina (Latvia), Vytautas Reinikis (Lithuania), Martin Leitner (Austria), Jarek Werner (Poland).

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