Tara Counselling and Personal Development Center

We asked Maura Twohig and Mary Daly, Co-Founders and Co-Directors of the Tara Centre, Omagh to share some background on the Centre and its vital role in the Omagh area. Maura, a native of Co. Cork, and Mary, a native of Co. Fermanagh, are Presentation and Mercy Sisters respectively who, at the time the Tara Centre was opened, had just completed two and a half years intensive training in the USA (MA in Psychotherapy). Prior to their American studies both had spent a number of years in education, administration, financial management and community service in Ireland, North and South, and had experienced life in other parts of the world. Their collective pool of experience has been an invaluable resource in the founding and development of the Tara Centre. This project is supported by The American Ireland Fund, The Australian Ireland Fund and The Ireland Fund of Great Britain.

Tara and the Omagh Bomb

The people of Omagh were among those who dared to hope that the new more promising winds of change had finally begun to blow when, on that beautiful sunny August day in 1998, the worst atrocity of the entire 30 years of the “Troubles” was visited on the unsuspecting town shoppers. Twenty nine people, including the mother of unborn twins, lost their lives in the infamous “Omagh Bomb” and hundreds of others were maimed for life, physically, psychologically, emotionally.

Tara was the only professional counselling service in the town at that time and the traumatised sought us out in their anguish of soul. Fortunately some among us had specialised training in trauma treatment and we gave of our best to as many as we could reach. One of our counsellors had the unenviable challenge of accepting a mother’s invitation to accompany her to the morgue on the night of the bomb to identify her 17 year old son, that counsellor’s former client.

Expansion of Services and Premises

It was at the time of the bomb that art therapy was introduced into the Centre for the first time. The youngest client to be presented by her mother was a three-year-old who had witnessed the full horror of the carnage on the street she used the therapy over a full twelve-month period, on a weekly basis, to rid her young soul of the anguish which translated itself into nightmares and gradually became transformed through use of the art materials in the course of her therapy. Later her art therapist was to share, with the parent’s permission; “All that Sue wanted to do during her first session was smear black and red paint all over her hands and face. What a moment of bliss it was when, many months later, she reached for yellows and blues and greens one day to share ‘a lovely dream I had last night.’ The nightmares were no more.”

It was also in 1998 that internationally acclaimed author, poet, TV personality, and seminar leader, John O’Donoghue, began what was to become an annual event at Tara—the presentation of an inspirational workshop to a packed hall. Recently he had this to say about the Centre:

“The dream of peace is realised through the awakening, healing and integration of all the dimensions of the human heart. The Tara Centre is at the frontier of this exciting transformation.”

Further Expansion

Sand play therapy, complementary therapies, group training in human energy healing, the practice of Yoga and meditation, seminars on self esteem, anger management, parenting skills, relationship skills, community dialogue, seminars on healing and forgiveness and a host of other interventions suited to the promotion of inner healing at an individual, group and community level were added, over the years, to the original range of services made available at Tara.

The expansion of services indicated above, of necessity, demanded more physical space from which to operate. This is an especially daunting challenge for the Voluntary/Community sector where money can only be found through grants, bequests, philanthropic donations and contributions for services based on a sliding scale, which keeps the door open with an equal welcome to the poorest of the poor and the person who can well afford to pay her/his way. This challenge to expand was however, one which, in the context of such great need and such ever growing evidence of confidence and trust in the Centre, could not possibly be ignored.

In September 2001 a magnificent new extension to the original premises was completed at a total cost of Stg£1.3m. By Spring 2007 a radical refurbishment of the original older building and the building next door which had been acquired in the year 2000, will be completed at a total cost of Stg£802k. We are deeply grateful to the Ireland Funds, Australian, British, Canadian and Irish, for the constancy of their support, at a personal level and in substantial financial terms which has played a very significant part in enabling us to translate the Tara Centre Mission statement into tangible action in the service of embedding the Peace Process here in Northern Ireland over the past 10+ years. We look forward with confidence to a continuation of that solid friendship as we utilise our enhanced premises to build on the solid foundations of the past decade and support the aspirations of the St. Andrew’s Agreement in the lives of the people of this island of Ireland in the years ahead.

Special Recognition for Tara

Over the years Tara has attracted the attention of persons “in high places”. In October 1999 one of the Centre’s Co-Directors, Mary Daly, accepted an invitation to an event at Buckingham Palace hosted by Queen Elizabeth. Mary’s invitation was in recognition of Tara’s services to the traumatised community in the wake of the Omagh bomb.

In December 2001 President Mary McAleese spent a half day at Tara where she paid eloquent tribute to the significance of the Centre in the peace building movement in Northern Ireland. The Centre’s two Co-Directors were this same President’s guests, on two separate occasions, at Áras an Uachtaráin in Dublin.

In October 2002 the Centre’s second Co-Director, Maura Twohig, accepted an invitation from Queen Elizabeth to an event in Buckingham Palace which was held in order “to mark the contribution of pioneers in the life of the nation.”

A long standing friend of Tara, Ireland’s Consul General in New York, Mr. Tim O’Connor, sent the following message of support for the Centre and its mission for inclusion in this article:

“I know of Tara’s work from my time in Armagh as Joint Secretary of the North/South Ministerial Council and in my current post as Consul General of Ireland in New York. I am deeply impressed with the work of Tara, under the inspiring leadership of Sr. Maura Twohig and Sr. Mary Daly. The quality of that work has been concretely recognised by the Irish Government in the form of a grant of €200k awarded to the Centre in 2005 by Mr. Dermot Ahern, the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Thankfully, through the Good Friday Agreement, and now the St. Andrew’s Agreement, Northern Ireland is on the road to a bright future based on the principles of partnership, equality and respect. Dealing with the legacy of the past in people’s lives is a critical part of the healing process and helps ensure that the promise of those Agreements is realised to the full. That is the essential work that Tara is engaged in and I wish them well as they continue to take it forward.”