On a sunny Saturday morning in March (southern hemisphere Autumn) 2025, Ronan Browne visited and enchanted a gathering of around fifty souls with a message of peace in the Irish language – and a lovely traditional Irish air. Despite the fact that he did not visit physically, but in digital form, Ronan touched the heart’s of all who had gathered at Zuvuyaland, a peaceful nature reserve that is a short distance from the great lake Taupō in the central North Island of New Zealand.
The purpose of this gathering revolved around the Peace Poles at Zuvuyaland. A Peace Pole is a monument that displays the message “May Peace Prevail on Earth” in the language of the country where it has been placed, and usually some additional translations. The message is often called a peace prayer. On this particular day eight new translations in Irish, Bengali, Danish, French, Czech, Greek, Russian and Ukranian were added to the poles. At the gathering were members of the Zuvuyaland society, the local community and twenty members of the Sri Chinmoy Oneness-Home Peace Run who were visiting Taupō for the weekend.
Ronan had been invited to offer a translation in Irish of “May Peace Prevail on Earth” by the organisers and he kindly recorded a message and a tune for the ceremony. When it was played, it was as though Ronan was standing there among us – it was quite special. And how lovely it was to hear him playing the traditional Irish air Bonny Portmore on his Martin Doyle flute.
So we are very grateful to Ronan for his efforts and to his friends who helped with the translation. It is sometimes difficult to exactly translate an English phrase into some languages. The Irish words for May Peace Prevail on Earth, Síocháin do Chách, Anois is go Brách, translates back to English as “Peace to All, Now and Forever” – an equally fitting phrase to the original.
We invite you to enjoy this precious moment that was captured on video.
Zuvuyaland is also a member of the Sri Chinmoy Peace-Blossoms programme that was founded by the spiritual Master Sri Chinmoy.
Since 1986, many significant landmarks around the globe – from natural wonders to entire nations – have been dedicated to peace as part of the Sri Chinmoy Peace-Blossoms programme. The Peace-Blossoms family offers an opportunity for different communities to share in mankind’s common quest for peace.
“What does peace do? Peace blossoms. What else? Peace spreads. What else? Peace illumines. What else? Peace fulfils.” – Sri Chinmoy.
Article offered by Shardul.
