Ag treabhadh le chéile, working together for peace, we shall overcome.
Recently, while reading a Christmas card that arrived by snail mail, a WhatsApp message pinged its arrival in the inbox. The Christmas card has the following apt message from Thomas Merton: “Peace demands the most heroic labour and the most difficult sacrifice. It demands greater heroism than war. It demands greater fidelity to the truth and a much more perfect purity of conscience.” The WhatsApp message contained a newspaper article from The Guardian dated 5 December 2024 entitled: The Guardian view on humanities in universities: Closing English Literature courses signals a crisis. A key message contained in the article stated: “University should be concerned with encouraging rational enquiry and the free play of the intellect.”
Carlow College, St. Patrick’s is a College dedicated to the study of the Humanities and Social Sciences. The Humanities can be described as the study of how people process and document the human experience. Since humans have been able, we have used philosophy, literature, religion, art, music, history and language to understand and record our world. These modes of expression have become some of the subjects that traditionally fall under the Humanities umbrella. Knowledge of these records of human experience affords us the opportunity to feel a sense of connection to those who have come before us, as well as to our contemporaries.
As a community of learners, it is incumbent upon us to do our research and educate ourselves, be it about Gaza, Syria, Ukraine, climate change in order to avoid being victims of misinformation, disinformation or mal-information so prevalent about these, and other, serious matters affecting our world.
Carlow College, St. Patrick’s stands firmly on the side of the oppressed and condemns, in the most direct way possible, aggressive actors committing atrocities against innocent civilians. Two very pertinent examples are the Palestinian people in Gaza and the people of Ukraine. Recent events in Syria provides hope for the world, but this hope can only be realised if all the people of Syria are included in a future Syrian State.
History matters! Context matters! Especially in difficult and complex crises, where nothing is black and white and enmities go back decades if not millennia. Everyone agrees that war has to stop and, for human beings, political negotiations are the only way forward. At this moment millions are yearning for and working for peace in Ukraine, in Gaza, in Syria. All over the world there are Muslims, Jews and Christians and people of no faith coming together to work for peace.
The Humanities can contribute to an informed sense of community by enabling us to learn about and become participants in a common culture; shareholders in our civilisations. But our goal must be more than a common culture, but rather a culture rooted in civilisation’s lasting vision, its highest shared ideals and aspirations, and its heritage. Charles Frankel, the American philosopher, said that it is through the Humanities that a civilised society talks to itself about things that matter most.
In a civilized society peace is about using a creative tension that transforms the world with love. In a peaceful world people still argue and disagree, but they do it respectfully. Our study of the humanities informs us that injustice is at the root of our problems. If we want peace, we have to want justice. To be a peacemaker is to challenge injustices. Peace takes a lot of faith, and hope and courage and commitment.
At the many recitals of Handel’s Messiah in the lead up to Christmas, the following words from Isaiah will be sung, “For there is a child born to us…and this is the name they will give him: …Prince-of Peace.” (Is 9: 5-6). In his acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize for Literature in Oslo 1964, Martin Luther King said: “I still believe that we shall overcome. This faith can give us courage to face the uncertainties of tomorrow.” Ag treabhadh le chéile, working together for peace, we shall overcome.
Gach rath is beannacht i gcóir 2025.
Fr Conn Ó Maoldhomhnaigh
College President
