Mediators live up to Gandhi's philosophy

STEVE BOGGAN

Brendan McAllister and Joe Campbell allowed themselves a comradely, if exhausted, hug yesterday after brokering the deal that averted a full- scale riot in Portadown.

Behind them, in the Belfast offices of the almost unknown Mediation Network for Northern Ireland, was a poster bearing the words of Gandhi: "I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary - the evil it does is permanent."

It had been more than 24 hours since they had been called in to mediate between the Orangemen, the residents of Garvaghy Road and the RUC in an impasse that threatened the very heart of the peace process. But the men - more used to settling disputes between neighbours - had succeeded where others failed.

Mr McAllister, 38, a Catholic father of three from Newry, is director of the network, a body he set up in the mid-1980s to reduce conflict in the area. In 1991, the organisation attracted funding from the Belfast Community Relations Council and the Joseph Rowntree Trust. Now, with the additional help of the Rockefeller Trust, it has a budget of pounds 111,000, employs six full-time staff and 14 volunteer mediators, and runs mediation training courses.Mr McAllister is a former prison and probation worker and peace campaigner. Mr Campbell, 48, his partner yesterday, is a Presbyterian elder who became a full-time mediator in March.

They are normally camera-shy but found themselves in the spotlight yesterday after their spectacular resolution of an apparently insoluble problem.

"I feel very gratified that we were able to facilitate dialogue, but the parties themselves solved the problem," Mr McAllister said. He got a call to help from the RUC at 3.30pm on Sunday and shuttled between all three parties with Mr Campbell until a settlement was reached at about 10.30am yesterday.

"There were a lot of frayed tempers and there were times when I thought we would fail," he said.