About The Peacemaker:

When I first came across Padraig O'Malley's story I found it remarkable.  It was on the eve of 36 Sunni, Shia and Kurdish Iraqi leaders, from all the major parties and religious sects, flying on a clandestine flight to Helsinki Finland. There they would be joined by former enemies from Northern Ireland and South Africa so that those leaders could share their stories with the Iraqi's and facilitate an agreement to ease the tensions that had been at their apex.  A patchwork of financing and relationships was hastily put together to support the meeting and, with the help of a few others including a businessman who owned a retail furniture company, Padraig O'Malley was able to get the Helsinki Agreement signed by all the key Iraqi political parties. 

During my research I found this wasn't the first time Padraig had found himself between intractable foes. That he indeed had been a key figure, however unheralded, in the Northern Irish peace process. That he also became the national memory of South Africa, documenting the fall of Apartheid and later reconciliation through tape recorded interviews with the broadest cross sections of South African private and political life. A unique position for an outsider who soon became a trusted back-channel. (Here is a section of Nelson Mandela's website dedicated to Padraig discussing when he brought all parties to the Northern Irish conflict to South Africa to meet with Mr. Mandela.http://www.nelsonmandela.org/omalley/index.php/site/q/03lv01508/04lv01509/05lv01511.htm

I wanted to understand how Padraig was able to accomplish much with so little and continuously find himself a part of history.  I also wanted his story to be heard so that others could learn from it. His process seemed so intuitive coming from a man in recovery; cultures in conflict are in the best position to understand and help each other, as an alcoholic is in the best position to help another alcoholic, because only they can truly understand each other.  If Iraqi's needed help, who other than the Northern Irish and the South African's, who had been through as much, had better standing to talk to them.

In addition to the "how," during the course of filming a second fascinating question emerged; Why does he do it?  Padraig does not have the luxury of a government mandate nor does he have the deep pockets of a large private organization. He walks into these conflict putting his financial and physical well being often at risk. 

The Peacemaker will try to answer these questions as it explores the life and work of one man on the vanguard of the peace and reconciliation movement.

What we need to fund:

So far we have filmed about 80 hours of footage and we have an important event coming in May we need to film.  Padraig O'Malley's current project, The Forum For Cities In Transition, is being held in May in the city of Derry/Londonderry Northern Ireland.  There, elected officials and members of the civil society of the 12 divided cities (9 cities met last year in Kosovo at the inaugural conference) will come together for a week.

Representatives from all sides of each of the following divided cities will meet: 

Jerusalem - Israel,  Beirut - Lebanon,  Kirkuk - Iraq,  Mitrovica - Kosovo,  Mostar - Bosnia,  Nicosia - Cyprus,  Haifa - Israel,  Belfast - Northern Ireland,  Derry/Londonderry - Northern Ireland  Ramallah - Palestine (West Bank),  Kaduna - Nigeria  and Berlin - Germany   

The purpose of the meetings is for these divided societies to come together to help each other overcome the similar issues they face.

The purpose of our Kickstarter campaign is to fund filming in Northern Ireland and pay a few critical crew who have been working on the project.  Anything beyond our initial goal will go towards translation, transcription, building a website, hiring an editor or additional travel

Can we exceed our goal?

Yes, the $12,000 goal was set because it fills our immediate minimal funding requirement to continue with the project, but there are additional costs for this trip and there is much to do after May including transcribing footage, translation, building a website, hiring a full time editor and other travel.  Anything raised beyond our initial goal will go directly to fill these critical needs.

Where can I learn more: 

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We greatly appreciate you considering the backing of our project! Thank you.