Michael Bingham SJ

What do I do?  The remit given 25 years ago to this work of the Irish Province in Portadown, Northern Ireland, where I have been based since 1998, was 'Community Development and Reconcilation'.  Even within these broad parameters it is difficult here to do both, since solidarity with one community implies, not reconciliation with, but alienation from the other.  But I enjoy the tension between the two.

For the first, I am, for instance, on the management of the local Drumcree Community Trust, which seeks to provide services and facilities to all age groups in this very nationalist/catholic neighbourhood we live in.  Though in many ways it is now a fairly mature community, after the traumas of the 'Troubles', there is still a certain amount of social need.