People of all ages, occupation and origin held hands for a minute of silence in Dubh Linn garden at Dublin Castle at noon today for the 31st UN International Day of Peace.
The Circle of Peace event, which was planned by Instruments of Peace and university students in Dublin, set a record with number of people holding hands in a spiral for a minute of silence. Ireland is ranked number six amongst the top ten most peaceful countries in the world in this year’s global peace index.
“Without a doubt, we’ve had our share of strife in the past. The important thing is, how can we make Ireland’s peacefulness sustainable,” said Lord Mayor of Dublin Naoise Ó Muirí in a speech before the moment of silence. “We are a city hospitable to all cultures. We are a city of great thinkers and literary writers. And we are a city of young people who bring much to the area of peacemaking and opening up new ideas.”
For the moment of silence, participants were asked to hold hands and form a spiral beginning in the centre of the garden. At the conclusion, white doves were released from a chest placed in the middle.
“What originally inspired them was this idea of a circle of people holding hands together in silence,” said executive director of Instruments of Peace Rosemarie Lucero.
Rather than take on Japan’s record of 600 people joining hands in a circle for a minute of silence set in Hiroshima in May 2012, however, the students decided to set their own record with a spiral.
“We reached our goal,” Ms Lucero said. “It wasn’t a numbers game at the end of the day. It was the doing of it.”
Still attendee Noel Larkin expressed his regret that even more couldn’t have made it out to support the day of peace.
“It shows people that we have peace now after how many years of horrendous troubles up North and down South here in many ways,” said Mr Larkin. “If the Berlin Wall can come down and the IRA can have a call for peace, it can happen anywhere in the world.”
The minute of silence began Ireland’s first World Peace Weekend Festival. For more on this weekend’s events, visit peacebeginswithme.eu.