12 May 2026
Online
12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.
(Eastern Time – Ottawa, Canada)
In March 2021, the Jesuits in Ireland publicly named Joseph Marmion SJ (deceased) as a priest who had abused children sexually, emotionally, physically, and spiritually in three Jesuit run schools in Ireland in the sixties and seventies. It started a torrent of media coverage as a number of past pupils spoke, many for the first time, about the legacy of the abuse and its impact on them, decades later.
Barbara Walshe and Catherine O’Connell facilitated a two-year restorative process which engaged both past pupils/victims and the congregation in what happened, how it happened and what was learned. Recognition that victims were experts in their own lives, when given time and opportunity to articulate their needs was central to the process.
This also involved a series of facilitated engagements between past pupils and Jesuits which discussed the impact of silence, cover up, blind spots, conflict avoidance, clericalism and a challenge posed by past pupils to the Jesuits to ‘turn a mirror on themselves’ so that this would never happen again.
Barbara Walshe has had a varied career working in the fields of research, advocacy, training, community development, peace building and restorative work at local, national, and international levels. Her current work in Restorative Justice stems from a growing need amongst human beings, communities, and institutions to address and reflect on the effects of harm and how to repair it where possible.
Barbara Walshe has worked with former Supreme Court Justice Janine Geske, at Marquette University’s Restorative Justice Dept. in Wisconsin, United States. She managed the publication of Sexual Abuse and Trauma; Restorative and Transformative Possibilities (2014).
Ms. Walshe has facilitated dialogue with survivors of institutional abuse in Ireland. Between 2021-2023 she facilitated with colleague Catherine O’Connell a restorative process between now adult men who had been abused as children by a Jesuit priest in Ireland and the Jesuit congregation.
She is a former Chair of the Board at the Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation and works to promote dialogue between different traditions and faiths in Ireland and other contexts. She is currently working with the European Network Remembrance and Solidarity, based in Warsaw, Poland, an organization dedicated to promoting dialogue on history in Central and Eastern Europe.
Barbara Walshe has an MA in Community Development (NUI Galway), MA Reconciliation and Conflict Transformation, (Trinity College Dublin, Belfast based), and is a graduate of the Mastery School for Leadership and is a Certified Mediator and Trainer.
Catherine O’Connell is renowned for facilitating restorative processes with survivors and religious institutions, particularly with the Jesuits in Ireland. She is an accredited mediator, restorative dialogue facilitator, and CINERGY conflict management coach and trainer who lectured in mediation and conflict management at Maynooth University and the National College of Ireland (2014–2026).
Working across family and workplace contexts, Ms. O’Connell supports collaborative decision-making during conflict and change, addressing issues such as separation, caregiving, inheritance disputes, and workplace bullying or harassment.
Ms. O’Connell delivers training in mediation, restorative practice, and conflict management for leaders and organisations, and has led certified mediation programmes with the Irish Red Cross, prisons, and Traveller communities. Her peacebuilding work includes training ex-combatants in Northern Ireland, contributing to research on restorative responses to trauma and institutional abuse.
