The Troubles - Alastair Kilgore and Dot Wilson

**This episode includes two separate interviews.**

Alastair Kilgore is a Northern Irish educator, peacebuilder, and longtime member of the Corrymeela Community, where he has been involved for more than fifty years. Raised in the Protestant tradition, Kilgore has dedicated much of his life to fostering understanding across religious, political, and cultural divides in Northern Ireland.

Inspired by Corrymeela founder Ray Davey, whose experiences during the bombing of Dresden shaped a lifelong commitment to reconciliation, Kilgore embraced the belief that "we are all the same" and has carried that principle throughout his work. As a teacher, community leader, and advocate for integrated education, he played an early role in supporting Lagan College, Northern Ireland's first integrated secondary school, helping pioneer efforts to educate Protestant and Catholic children together.

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Dot Wilson is a community-builder, peace advocate, and lifelong resident of Northern Ireland who has spent decades fostering connection across divides. Living in Ballycastle on the North Antrim Coast, Dot is a former probation officer, gardener, fused-glass artist, and grandmother of four children and several grandchildren. Deeply shaped by her involvement with the Corrymeela Community movement, she has dedicated much of her life to creating spaces where people from different backgrounds can live, learn, and grow together.

Alongside her late husband, Derek Wilson, Dot helped establish Mill Strand Integrated Primary School in Portrush during the 1980s, working with other parents to create one of Northern Ireland’s pioneering integrated schools. The effort required extraordinary commitment, including securing funding, overcoming community resistance, and even leveraging their homes to support the project. Today, she looks back on that work with pride as a tangible contribution to a more inclusive society.

Credits:

• Photos and text, John Noltner
• Field production, summer interns Kate West, Sawyer Garrison, and Kaitlin Imai
• Audio Engineering, Razik Saifullah

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