Ms Naoimh McNamee:

It does, absolutely. I thank the Senator for her kind words. The question she asked is a very important one. Similar to what the Senator said, we often find through the different types of work we do that when one is bringing people together, it is a humanising experience. They do not see themselves as "the other" any more and they connect on the issues and the similar challenges they face.

That differs from the type of work we are doing from group to group or the different types of dialogue we do. I am mindful of one example from last year around legacy. We had two women from very different communities but they connected over the fact they both had lost their mother. They were the elder daughters in the family and it was about how that changed their lives. This was powerful in respect of the barriers it brought down between those two women and the connection it forged between them. These were two women from communities which would never, or would refuse to, go into a room together because of the various backgrounds or perceptions. That is just one example.

We are very mindful as to where our skills lie. It is in mediation and facilitation. Similar to the example that was given, one of the facilitators we work with is a qualified psychotherapist, and we prepare by making sure that all the different support services are available. There is the training of our staff and the reflective practice for them. With certain skills and certain preparation, you need to go in having tried to prepare and plan for this and having tried to have a lot of engagements with the individuals you meet, testing them with questions such as "What if this comes up for you?" or managing expectations around having preconceived notions come into the room. For us, the key to success is preparation, preparation, preparation, no matter how long it takes and no matter how many cups of tea you have to drink. I am sure Mr. Hynes would echo that as regards the level of investment in those relationships and bringing them on.

The expectation management is very important and, from a mediation or facilitation principle, it is a matter of people's self-awareness in the room and the ground rules as to how they will treat one another and come together. We often look for co-facilitation or co-mediation where there is more than one in the room, so there might be two or three mediators. There may be a lead, a number two and someone who is part of the circle dialogue and who is just watching for the different reactions. If someone is having difficulty, you can have a quiet word one to one, maybe on a break. They might feel more comfortable in a quiet environment, away from the circle dialogue.

Then there is the aftercare and the follow-up. With some people there can be a lot of emotion. It can be very difficult and raw, and they can really get into it. When they go home afterwards, they might regret sharing so much. It might have landed differently. Sometimes they go back to communities that ask who they were meeting or why they were down there. All of that care is so important. It is all the detail. The great success of it is in that preparation.

The Senator made a really important point about the humanising aspect of this. Our differences tend to slip away when we connect over aspects of trauma, aspects of experience or things where we are worried about the future of our children or worried about the environments in which they are growing up, with criminal gang control or other aspects. That is hugely powerful and was probably fundamental to the beginning of Glencree 50 years ago, with people coming down from the North for respite. Dialogue was born out of that.

Mr. Hynes, as a practitioner, might have something to add to that.