In some parts of Northern Ireland whole communities live in enmity with each other while in many other places whole communities are estranged from each other. Either way, between and within the nationalist and unionist traditions relationships have been damaged or estranged and, in many cases, destroyed by conflict. One of the most basic ways for people to build new relationships is by communicating with each other. However, communication becomes difficult when people are estranged or hurt with each other, or, indeed, do not trust each other. There are hard things which need to be said and hard things which need to be heard if conflicted relationships are to progress.
Mediation helps people have difficult conversations.
I have an elaborate definition of mediation as being about assisting communication between individuals or groups in conflict in order to manage or overcome estrangement and effect positive change. That last bit is important. To be effective, the activity of mediators must assist a conflict to change in a positive way, however minimal. The practice of mediation varies from place to place and, unfortunately, the term is used and abused and even cynically exploited. Therefore, it is useful to apply a kind of checklist, against which to guage the credibility of those purporting to mediate.