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In 'The Peacemaker,' Padraig O'Malley Seeks Salvation For Himself And The World

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Padraig O'Malley, the subject of the new film "The Peacemaker." (Courtesy Central Square Films)
Padraig O'Malley, the subject of the new film "The Peacemaker." (Courtesy Central Square Films)

The award-winning documentary "The Peacemaker" portrays the life of international peacemaker Padraig O'Malley.

The film takes the audience from O'Malley's isolated life in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to some of the most dangerous crisis zones on Earth –- including Northern Ireland, Kosovo, Nigeria and Iraq -– as he works a peacemaking model based on his own recovery from addiction, attempting to find salvation for both himself and the world.

Here & Now's Robin Young speaks with the film's director, James Demo (@james_demo).

Interview Highlights

On how he came across O'Malley’s story

"I came upon Padraig's story in a little bar called The Plough and Stars in Cambridge ... which he was owner of, and I heard the story of how the owner of The Plough and Stars was in Iraq. He was getting all the parties — Sunni, Shia and Kurds — to a table, and he was bringing in other cultures. He was bringing in the chief negotiators from South Africa, the chief negotiators from Northern Ireland to teach the Iraqis their stories of reconciliation."

"Padraig's success often is that he gets people to the table to talk when otherwise they wouldn't."

James Demo

On O'Malley’s ability to win over people’s trust and get countries in conflict to talk when they ordinarily wouldn’t

"Padraig is amazing at developing relationships with people that are experiencing severe conflict. That scene is in Kirkuk, Iraq. There is a delegation from Baghdad that's walking out, it's a reconciliation in the middle of an extremely violent part of Iraq.

"I think the reason why Padraig is so effective in these circumstances is that he's able to win people's trust. I think Padraig is often seen when he goes into a conflict as ideologically neutral. He earns trust over time, he's willing to put his own sweat equity in going there, staying there for months, getting to know the people. Padraig's success often is that he gets people to the table to talk when otherwise they wouldn't."

On how O'Malley being Irish has helped him as a peacemaker

"I think there is something about Padraig that is very Irish that allows him to win people over. You know, he says, ‘Everyone knows that at some point in time, the people of Ireland have suffered.’ That's true, and Padraig uses that in a way to disarm people who are also in conflict."

"Padraig was the first to see the connection between cultures in conflict and how they could be helped by other conflicts that were further along in reconciliation."

James Demo

On O'Malley's method of connecting cultures in conflict with cultures that had previously been in conflict to foster peace agreements

"A year before the Good Friday Agreement, Padraig brought all sides of the Northern Irish conflict, all the chief negotiators from the extremes, to the middle to meet Nelson Mandela. That gave Padraig many contacts within that conflict, because he delivered on something that ... was a groundbreaking moment in a Northern Irish peace process.

"This idea that they could learn from the South Africans, that they could look outside their own conflict and get perspective that way, was a brilliant idea. Padraig's model of bringing other cultures into a conflict was very unique in the late '90s. Today, the South Africans and the Northern Irish rightfully go around the world and tell their stories. Padraig was the first to see the connection between cultures in conflict and how they could be helped by other conflicts that were further along in reconciliation."

"I think he's very much a man who helps make peace for others but struggles to find it for himself."

James Demo

On O'Malley's struggle with alcoholism and the existential themes in the movie

"I think he's very much a man who helps make peace for others but struggles to find it for himself. As I continued making the film, the 'why' he was doing the work became a lot more fascinating, a lot more interesting to me than the 'how.'

"Ultimately to me, the film is about this peacemaker, but it really is existential. This idea of what Padraig is doing to give him, his life, some sort of meaning manifests itself in this amazing work, and it's not so much that the better angels are driving what he's doing. That he has these addictions, he's this brilliant individual and he's able to see conflicts in a way that others can't and figure out a way to help the people in those conflicts start talking to each other — I think that's why this story to me is very much bittersweet.

"It's sweet in the sense that he's had so much effect on these conflicts, at least getting the seeds planted for some sort of peace or reconciliation. Yet, Padraig is someone who I think suffers in his own day-to-day life ... That's why this story is incredibly bittersweet."

This segment aired on August 21, 2018.

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