PBI Ireland

PBI Ireland Releases Annual Report for 2019-2020

PBI Ireland is pleased to share its annual report for the past year, with a special focus on how we have adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic. You can either read more about what kinds of activities we have been undertaking and how the lockdown has changed our work by clicking through the report below below, or follow this link to a high-quality PDF of the report.

Peace Brigades International Ireland Announces New Consultant Coordinator

Peace Brigades International Ireland is pleased to announce the appointment of Eimhin O’Reilly as our new Coordinator.  Eimhin has taken over this role from Karen Jeffares, who initiated and founded the PBI Ireland country group in 2014 and was Coordinator until April 2020.

Eimhin has recently returned from volunteering with the PBI Honduras Field Project. Prior to that, he volunteered with PBI Ireland and served as Communications Coordinator with the Latin America Solidarity Centre. Eimhin has worked extensively in the Irish NGO sector, on issues ranging from financial justice to global health. Elsewhere, he has worked as a translator and writer, covering human rights issues throughout Latin America.  PBI Ireland looks forward to working with Eimhin as our new Coordinator in supporting PBI volunteers and PBI field projects to help protect human rights defenders around the world.

PBI Ireland Statement on the Invaluable Work of Karen Jeffares

PBI Ireland would like to pay tribute and give our heartfelt thanks to Karen Jeffares, who recently left the role of Coordinator of PBI Ireland. Karen gave unstintingly of her time and effort in establishing and developing the PBI country group in Ireland.

Karen initiated PBI Ireland in 2014 after returning from three years as a volunteer with the PBI field projects in Guatemala and Colombia. Karen spent five years in total (2008 - 2013) working and volunteering in Latin America with different projects and organisations. This included work on a variety of community-based peace projects and social justice interventions in Colombia, Guatemala, Nicaragua and on the U.S.-Mexico border in addition to her time with PBI. Karen also served on PBI International’s Strategy Development Committee for three years (2014-2018) and helped develop the PBI Global Strategic Plan (2018-2023). She has been involved in the design and delivery of development education programmes in Ireland, including a five-week peace education programme provided by PBI Ireland, a six week introductory course to the Israel/Palestine conflict as part of the Israel/Palestine Development Education Group at Comhlámh, and in her role as Schools Liaison Officer with the Spiritan Education Trust.

I first met Karen as a student in the MPhil programme in International Peace Studies at Trinity College Dublin, which she completed before she went to Latin America. Karen was an enthusiastic participant in one of the modules I teach as part of this programme, on “Conflict Resolution and Nonviolence”. This course introduces students to protective accompaniment as a form of nonviolent action and international human rights solidarity, using PBI as an example, as well as other topics connected to the theory and practice of nonviolence.

Karen is a keen practitioner and teacher of yoga, and this is the focus of her next project, Síolta Chroí (Seeds of the Heart), based on a farm in County Monaghan. Síolta Chroí offers workshops and training in yoga and meditation as well as in ecosystem restoration, regenerative agriculture systems and permaculture. More information about Karen’s exciting new project can be found on its website. We wish Karen all the best with this new initiative dedicated to the well-being of nature as well as human beings, and we look forward to visiting her in Monaghan.

Iain Atack, Chairperson, PBI Ireland