My Scottish grandfather wrote two books, ‘The Roman Church, Is it Holy?’ and ‘The Jesuits. Are They Christian?’ My Irish grandfather, who had served in the British Army, was told at the time of Irish independence, ‘You leave Ireland by the end of the week or be shot.’

A St Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation and Peace will rise from the rubble.

Some might say that the autumn of 2000 was not a good time to return to England after 22 years in the United States.

‘Do you know why Bideford is not talking to Barnstaple?’ No,’ I admitted. His answer, ‘They didn’t send enough ships to the Armada!’

How far back should modern day societies go in renouncing the evils in their past? Can our shameful histories become an asset rather than a source of division?

The most productive and radical approach is to address what we can deal with and take responsibility for.

Australia is gearing up for the Olympic Games which will be held in Sydney in September. But the government is concerned that the media might concentrate on the degrading conditions in which too many Aboriginals still live and that this would undercut public support for some good things which are at last being done.

I thought that it was appropriate that my book, "Forgiveness: Breaking the Chain of Hate," was launched in England in Warrington. If any place illustrates what I call the value-added dimension that forgiveness brings after tragedy, it is the northern England city of Warrington.

This year is the 25th anniversary of the beginning of Lebanon's civil war, and the tenth anniversary of its end. Until now Beirut has had no public memorial for the victims of that war. The competition is organized by a Lebanese company entrusted with the reconstruction and development of the historic core of the city.

In 1999, as its last formal act of the millennium, Liverpool City Council passed unanimously a resolution apologizing for the city's role in the Atlantic slave trade.