Irish Activist-Turned-Peacemaker Visits WSU Oct. 28 to Present Honors College Bhatia Lecture and Foley Institute Discussion
PULLMAN, Wash.—As a young man in Northern Ireland, Jon McCourt joined the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in 1969, intent on promoting civil rights on his home soil. On what became known as “Bloody Sunday,” Jan. 30, 1972, in his hometown of Derry/Londonderry, he narrowly escaped death when an armed British soldier stared him down then walked away with a shrug; nearby more than a dozen young people had been shot to death that violent day. He left the IRA in the mid-1970s, feeling it had moved too far from its civil rights agenda and was contributing to increased polarization and sectarianism. McCourt has become a community peace activist in the years since, working with victims of violence, community relations, and youth in criminalized areas. » More …