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Although the lights are on and people are coming and going, with the centre taking on a quiet buzz of life again in recent times, people all across Fermanagh could be forgiven for wondering what, exactly, the centre is being used for.
That’s a position that Keith McNair – who took over the lease of the centre in 2020 – is keen to address, with Mr. McNair passionate about building on the hope and promise of the centre’s official opening more than 20 years ago to reinforce the Clinton Centre as a key pillar of cross-community peacebuilding in the town, today.
In 2002, the centre was officially opened to much fanfare by President Bill Clinton, who gave his name to the building in dedication to peace and prosperity.
However, over the years, the once thriving facility became dilapidated as one by one the different businesses housed within departed. Eventually, its doors closed, and it didn’t reopen – until recently.
Since taking over the lease, Mr. McNair – through his organisation, UISCE – has been working behind the scenes to not only restore the building physically, but also its dedication to peace and prosperity.
UISCE, pronounced ‘ishka’, is an acronym from the Irish word for ‘water’, and stands for Understanding Ireland: Socially, Culturally & Economically.
With UISCE, Mr. McNair’s aim is to creatively and sensitively explore the resistances to peacebuilding as resources for transformation.
This newspaper was last given a tour of the Clinton Centre building in May, 2021. At that stage, Mr. McNair and a number of volunteers had begun working to fix up the building, which was in a poor state after lying derelict for a number of years.
As he guided us around the building this time, ongoing improvements were evident.
For example, the gallery is now fully operational, and is open daily to the public for viewings of its ‘Water of Life’ exhibition.
Organised in partnership with the Devenish Gallery, this is the first exhibition in the space since the closure of the Fermanagh and Omagh District Council-run Higher Bridges Gallery in 2017.
Festival
The opening of the exhibition on Friday, November 3 also marked the launch of the Water of Life Arts Festival, which has been running every Friday throughout November, featuring musical and literary performances.
“The really important thing is that this space is available now for anybody who wants to use it, particularly for young artists, whether they’re visual or performing, or musicians or drama or whatever, to come and use this space for rehearsals, and then also to cut their teeth on performing,” said Mr. McNair as we stood amidst the works of artists Rachael Johnson, Margaret McKenzie and RJ Brian Coulter which are currently displayed on the gallery walls.
Noting that the space is to be inclusive, he added: “There’s no ‘Up the ’RA’ or ‘Kick the Pope’ [-type content]; that’s excluded.”
Despite the work that has been completed, Mr. McNair is aware that there is still much more to be done.
Leading us down steps to the lowest level of the building, he pointed out that the area is currently out of bounds to volunteers for safety reasons.
As we walked around, he pointed out damage caused to the space as a result of a leak, noting that at one point the floor had been completely flooded.
Although he hopes to fix up the area soon, to make it fully usable as an additional living space for volunteers, this is dependent on whether funds will be available.
Currently, as a not-for-profit organisation, UISCE relies on donations.
However, relying on donations wasn’t Mr. McNair’s original intention for UISCE. He explained how he had a business plan set out which was “blown to smithereens” by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“When I signed for here, the original intention was to have 10 [American] college groups coming in for a month each, and doing what they call ‘study abroad’.
“They’d have been based here doing their studies, and that would have provided the economic engine that would run here.
“And that would then provide the money that I could [use to] do some of the UISCE work,” said Mr. McNair, briefly outlining his original business plan.
“So I signed for here [the Clinton Centre] at the end of January, 2020; went to the States in February to meet with client schools, went back in March to meet other people, and to follow up with client work – and then Covid-19 broke out when I was there.
“That [pandemic outbreak] just destroyed that business plan. We’ve had no sales income in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023.
“We have been totally dependent on donations,” he said, emphasising: “We are entirely dependent on donations. We get no grant aid or support from any organisation.”
He noted that he also has a small tour business, Discovery Tours. “If that makes any money, that goes into here, and then there’s individual donors who are very kind to us.
“I spoke to a couple of people I’ve known for many, many years who know where my heart lies in regards to this work. I put up half the lease fee, and they put up the other half of the lease fee.
“Since then, it has been fundraising appeals. It’s very, very tight. It’s very challenging,” he said.
When asked why he hasn’t returned to that business plan now that the pandemic is effectively over, Mr. McNair explained that American schools haven’t had permission to travel.
“They are only getting permission now to travel for next year,” he said, noting that he has college students planned to come over in the new year.
“They will be here next spring break, and then there’s others coming in the summertime,” said Mr. McNair, noting that his current business plan has changed from the original.
“The original business plan was 10 schools [over] 10 months [which would provide] a little bit of profit; and a little bit of time to do UISCE programmes.
“Now, the bulk of our time is actually given to developing and researching UISCE [peace] programmes. I have 25 of them that I want to roll out.”
In the meantime, as Mr. McNair prepares his new business plan, UISCE has been hosting volunteers who work and stay in the Clinton Centre building.
He explained that there are three categories of volunteers. Firstly, there are ordinary UISCE volunteers who are mostly young people in their teens or early 20s who come to help with cooking, cleaning, site work or office work; then there are UISCE interns; and finally, UISCE scholars who tend to be post-graduates who would engage with specific research that ties in with UISCE’s studies.
“[Volunteers] do everything and anything. It’s kind of like ‘jump in and do what you can’,” said Mr. McNair, adding: “We have a French girl who is studying a Masters in marketing, so she’s been helping with the marketing of this festival.
“We also have folk from South America who are helping to staff the gallery during the day.”
As mentioned previously, the volunteers over the past few years have also been paramount in helping to fix up the building, which has been leased to UISCE by Fermanagh University Partnership Board (FUPB), the organisation that originally built the Clinton Centre.
Master lease
“There’s a master lease, which is like 150 years or something, which FUPB hold and they have leased it to UISCE. The building is also demised to UISCE, which means that UISCE is responsible for the building.
“Any structural work comes back to UISCE,” said Mr. McNair.
“That would bring up the question of the memorial,” he added, referring to the memorial to the victims of the Enniskillen Bomb which was erected on the exterior wall of the Clinton Centre in October, 2022.
Prior to this, the memorial had been in storage following its original unveiling in 2017.
“That’s an issue that’s yet to be properly resolved, because that memorial does not have permission to be here,” said Mr. McNair, commenting that there’s planning permission for the memorial, but no legal permission. “The people who put it up know that, and I keep asking them to come talk to me, but they haven’t, as yet,” he claimed.
Mr. McNair explained that planning permission is attached to the building, but it doesn’t actually authorise anything until the people or parties agree.
“And there’s no agreement,” he said, adding: “The fundamental issue is that this is private property, and a third party came along and put their property on another person’s property without permission.”
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He continued: “That’s the fundamental legal thing. That shouldn’t have been done.”
He said he has thoughts about the memorial that he wants to communicate with those who put it up.
“I will only say two things about the memorial at this stage. First of all, it is profoundly inadequate, and secondly, it is potentially counter-productive, and that’s not because it contains the word ‘murder’.
“I write to them on a regular basis for them to come and talk to me, and they will have to address it.
“I want to meet with them in here; I want to explore options,” said Mr. McNair, adding: “It doesn’t have to be an argument, it can be a good discussion.
“I’m not here to get up their nose. What they experienced, as every person who’s experienced [trauma] as a result of The Troubles, I’m not detracting from that at all.”
When asked if the memorial could be removed, Mr. McNair replied: “Everything’s possible, but I’m not advocating its removal. I am not wanting to annoy folk.
“I want them in here talking. We need to move beyond being stuck in our respective ruts. We need to engage with a new way of thinking.”
With UISCE, Mr. McNair aims to engage across the full spectrum of people in Northern Ireland.
“UISCE is a place for everybody. I do face stick about that,” he said, then elaborating further on why he faces criticism from some people.
“Somebody said to me, ‘Keith, we’re going to stay away from here, because you have IRA people in here’.
“Yeah, there have been IRA people in here – there also have been Chief Constables, British soldiers and the RUC. The full spectrum.”
However, he noted that there are a number of values which are fundamental to UISCE which are “non-negotiable”.
‘Full spectrum’
“UISCE engages across the full spectrum. It’s neither a Republican citadel, or an Evangelical temple. It’s across the full spectrum.
“I’m a committed Christian; I’m a member of the Methodist church. I’m a theologian by training, but everybody is welcome here,” he said.
He added: “We’ve had loads of Muslims, loads of Jews, loads of Atheists, loads of Catholics, loads of Protestants, loads of Agnostics.
“UISCE is the place for everybody, provided they engage with the aim, and the aim is to creatively and sensitively explore the resistances to peace building.
“If a person’s coming in here to dominate and say, ‘This is the only way’, we’ll say, ‘Hold on a second – let’s explore that’,” he added.
When asked what he would say to the victims of the Enniskillen bomb’s families who may not be comfortable going into a space where they know former IRA members are welcome, “so long as they don’t come with an agenda”, Mr. McNair paused for a moment before answering.
Gently, he said: “They don’t have to [come]; they’d be made very welcome to come on their own, and to communicate their story if they want. Nobody here is forced to meet with anybody at all.
“If they have views, opinions and thoughts that they want to communicate, they are 100 per cent welcome.”
Leaving the Clinton Centre and crossing the East Bridge, we entered the former Intec Centre, which is also being leased by UISCE.
As he gave us a short tour of this building, Mr. McNair explained that it was originally designed as a conference centre.
“I may be wrong about this, but for the first time ever, under UISCE, it’s now coming to be used in the way that it’s designed for.
“What we are intending to do here is, the Clinton Centre is the residential block. In March, I’ll have around 20 American students coming in with their teachers living there, and teaching will take place in this building,” he said, referring to the Intec Centre building, which will also be where Mr. McNair aims to host the 25 UISCE peacebuilding programmes and projects.
These 25 programmes include ‘In Another’s Shoes’ – an ongoing weekly public group that helps to develop empathy; ‘Release: What is Forgiveness?’ – monthly talks by people who faced the challenge of forgiveness; and ‘The Greenway Gallery’ – an exhibition and lounge to promote the Sligo Enniskillen Greenway, to name but a few.
Programmes
Talking in detail about another one of the programmes, entitled ‘The Island 2121’, Mr. McNair described it as a two-year youth art exhibition envisioning the future of ‘the island’, however the term is perceived.
“Now, ‘the island’ could be the island of Enniskillen. It could be the island of Ireland, or it could be the island of planet Earth and the galaxies.
“And the reason it’s [set in] 2121 is that’s 200 years after the foundation of Northern Ireland.
“We’ve had our decade of centenaries, but we want to create a visual and audio arts experience with young artists exhibiting in the entire [Intec Centre] building,” he said, adding: “There’d be exhibits on the stairwell; the whole thing would be art and audio exploring imaginatively the theme of ‘The Island 2121’.”
As he embarks on this mission of creatively and sensitively exploring resistances to peacebuilding from the Clinton Centre and Intec Centre, we asked Mr. McNair why he believes this is important.
He responded: “I believe that if you look at history, like the ebb and flow of tides, the return of violence is almost inevitable. So we need to engage with that. We’re stupid if we don’t.”
He questioned: “What social defences are we putting in place now that will equip us to deal with that? And so, that’s what UISCE is about.
“I have come to the conclusion that engaging across the full spectrum is absolutely essential. We cannot live, we cannot go forward as a society, by staying in our own little corners.
“Get out, debate, argue, explore. You might learn something; others might learn something as well,” he said with a smile.
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