OUR STORY:
Annie’s Doves were first designed by my father, David Magee, at the start of the Northern Ireland peace process (1993 -1998). He named them after my sick grandmother who was a community worker and peace campaigner from Belfast.
He was inspired by participating in Mexican waves at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
Dad made and sent different designs of paper peace doves, to charitable, political, youth, religious, sports, music, media and cultural bodies to be copied and used at events to allow people,individually and as part of a group, to express a simple, symbolic, unified and universal message of peace from the people of Northern Ireland to the world.
One design, with the finger-strap, Annie’s Dove, was identified as being unique. A patent and design search was carried out by the Industrial Research and Technological Unit (IRTU) in Belfast (January 1994) and no matches were found (gallery). There were offers of grants to protect the design and monetize the idea (gallery). However, dad wanted the idea to be free for everyone to use. It has been in the public domain, free for public use, since 1994 (gallery).
Pictures of people holding dad’s doves’ designs became iconic images of the peace-process around the world (gallery). He also sent lots of requests (before email and texting and often handwritten) to radio stations to ask that they play John Lennon’s anthem, ‘Give Peace a Chance’ at critical times and days during the talks. He mailed many letters to journalists asking them to print the message: ‘Give Peace a Chance’ on those key dates too, very many in the media supported him (gallery).
‘Give Peace a Chance’ became the unofficial people’s anthem and slogan for the Northern Ireland peace process (see links). The Irish rock bands Ash and U2 even played it at a concert in Belfast, 1998. The idea to ask radio stations to play ‘Give Peace A Chance’ together at a given time was also recently used when hundreds of radio stations played it to promote peace in Ukraine in 2022. After Belfast Agreement was announced in April 1998, dad continued with his efforts to promote peace, for a short time.
Annie’s Doves were used by CND at Glastonbury Festival, UK in 2002, as well as at other international concerts, marches and events organized by NGOs working for peace. They were used during London Peace Week in 2004 and considered for use at the 2012 London Olympics (gallery). Dad received personal letters of thanks from two London Mayors: Ken Livingstone and Sebastian Coe, also letters of support and acknowledgement from presidents and VIPs including: The General Secretary of the UN, the UK Prime Minister, the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) of Ireland, and the President of the European Union among others (gallery). Annie’s Doves were displayed at several international ‘Peace’ and ‘Design’ exhibits and apparently, there are still some copies of the original design in a few museums around the world and many more photographs do exist, somewhere. However, with a young family and new career as a teacher to focus on, dad had much less time to spend on his pacifist pursuits.
Annie’s Doves and some documents were stuffed into a sport’s bag and forgotten, presumed lost, until almost two decades later, when I, dad’s teenage daughter and a Media & Communicationsstudent, rediscovered it by chance, in the attic of my aunt’s remote farmhouse in the west of Ireland, during the pandemic lockdown. I thought that as fate had brought Annie’s Doves back to me again, then I should honor the family tradition and heirloom and use my skills to resurrect and share Annie’s Doves for our contemporary challenges.
Annie’s Doves were originally designed, used then forgotten before the internet era or current eco-concerns. In addition to being a simple, beautiful and universally understood idea to promote peace, I realized the potential that the unique finger-strap design offered as a S.U.P.E.R. (Sustainable, User-friendly, Paper Eco’-Responsible) alternative to the mass-produced, unsustainable SUPs that we use to celebrate events. It is simply more sensible, safer, sustainable and symbolic to make and use your own paper design, attach it to your finger with the never-seen-before finger-strap design, free your hands, have fun, then recycle or reuse it. Nowadays, copies of the design can easily be sent to millions of people around the world, electronically and for free.
Free Your Hands - Make Celebrations Sustainable – Give Peace A Chance.
This year, 2023, marks the 25th anniversary of the Northern Ireland Peace Agreement and 75th anniversary of the armistice in the Korean War. As Annie’s Doves were first designed by my dad as a student to promote peace in Belfast almost three decades ago and I am now a student in Seoul, I thought it a nice idea to ‘give wings’ to Annie’s Doves and the unique finger-strap design again to commemorate the sustained and successful periods of peace in two countries I love so much.
As Japan gave the world the ‘Paper Crane,’ a simple piece of white paper, folded in a particular way to symbolize peace after the nuclear horror of World War Two (WW2), Northern Ireland gives the world ‘Annie’s Dove’, a simple piece of white paper, torn and worn in a particular way to share a simple, sustainable symbol of peace with the people of the planet after ‘The Troubles.’
Moreover, the United Nations has developed 17 Sustainable Development Goals (UN 17 SDGs, 2030) to make the world a better and safer place by 2030:
UN SDG 12: Sustainable Production and Consumption,
UN SDG 16: Peace and Strong Institutions,
UN SDG 17: Better Partnerships to Achieve the Goals.
Annie’s Doves shows that simple, sustainable solutions can be found and shared. It is my hope that they can be used to promote peace, to promote the UN’s SDGs, 2030 and to inspire others to seek and share sustainable solutions to build a better future.
Thank you for taking the time to read about the origins of Annie’s Doves. I hope that it was of interest. It is a simple, yet true story (see gallery) and idea resurrected and shared by me to continue a family tradition, to commemorate and celebrate a sustained peace in two countries I love dearly and to show how we as young people in the global community can combine old and new forms of media innovatively, individually and in partnership, to promote peace, find sustainable solutions, make change and achieve the UN’s 17 SDGs, 2030. Become a part of this story and help to help spread its wings and message around our world.
Free your Hands – Make celebrations sustainable – Give Peace a Chance.
Make the UN SDGs, 2030, reality.
Support and share SUPER alternatives - Boycott SUPs.
Make your own, put it on, take it home.
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