In September of 2007, the John Joseph Moakley Chair of Peace and Reconciliation of the John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies sponsored a conference: “Truth and Reconciliation Commissions: Do They Do Justice to Justice.” For three days representatives from El Salvador, Chile, Guatemala, and South Africa, all countries that had established reconciliation commisions following years of violence, met at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

They offered what they had learned in the process of attempting conciliation through a commission to the Northern Irish who have ceased their armed struggle and are no longer at war but are not yet at peace. Mark Thompson from Belfast was there. A strong advocate for a commission in Ireland, he made himself heard on this and other subjects. He then told of how Relatives for Justice had, over the last decade, encouraged the creation of a project called the Remembering Quilt to acknowledge loss and pain as a first step in the healing process.

Early in the summer Mark Thompson and Clara Reilly, President of Relatives for Justice, brought the quilt to Boston and spent a week speaking with various groups. Their powerful stories about those who inspired the quilt are extraordinarily moving. Their pamphlets, available at the exhibition, portray tragic examples of violence and sacrifice. And each of the quilt squares that hangs on the walls of this exhibit tells its own deeply moving story.

Belfast is not so very far away from Boston. We have had our own troubles in our own neighborhoods. And so we have invited the summer students of UMass Boston’s Urban Scholars Program to view the quilts, think about their own communities and how memorials can aid the process of healing. These students have created their own project as part of this exhibition.

We invite the Boston community to contemplate how we might best pursue the good work begun here. Relatives for Justice describes the quilt process:

“The journey we embarked on . . . when we began the quilt has been one of wonder, of deep sadness, of tremendous joy, and of incredible compassion. Family met family, listened, and understood. The Greek word ‘pathos’ is difficult to translate fully into English, but it is used in Greek translations of the Bible to describe Jesus’ compassion and understanding of suffering. It combines those qualities with love and acceptance. Every single time families came together, shared their experience, helped each other with designs and sewing, the true meaning of that word was seen and known.”