Book excerpt: In this work, Mary McAleese shares her deepest beliefs about the way to lasting peace. She provides a perspective on the origins of violence and also the painful cure for it. She writes with the authority of a woman who has herself suffered sectarian violence but who has been actively involved for many years in the search for peace in Northern Ireland. Her insights draw on deep religious faith, the practice of meditation, and the irrepressible hope that is born of these. She illustrates her ideas with telling stories from her personal life and family, as well as her political experience.