GFA and Windsor Framework ‘tributes to complexity’: McDonagh at JHISS

GFA and Windsor Framework ‘tributes to complexity’: McDonagh at JHISS by Allan LEONARD 24 July 2003 At the opening address of this year’s John Hewitt International Summer School in Armagh, Bobby McDonagh, former Irish Ambassador to the UK and Permanent Representative to the EU, explored themes of the nature of identity, the beauty of complexity, … Continue reading GFA and Windsor Framework ‘tributes to complexity’: McDonagh at JHISS

Overcoming closed borders: Opening up fact-checking solutions

Overcoming closed borders: opening up fact-checking solutions Interview with Giovanni ZAGNI (Director, Pagella Politica) by Allan LEONARD 24 November 2020 “I haven’t seen some of my colleagues in six months,” remarked Giovanni Zagni, director of Pagella Politica, based in Milan. Conducting this interview via Zoom was a salutary reminder of unprecedented times in which we … Continue reading Overcoming closed borders: Opening up fact-checking solutions

Never use memory (or lack thereof) to justify cruelty: Holocaust Memorial Day 2015

Never use memory (or lack thereof) to justify cruelty: Holocaust Memorial Day 2015 by Allan LEONARD 27 January 2015 For the Holocaust Memorial Day 2015, the Centre for Democracy and Peace Building, in cooperation with the Institute of Conflict Research, held a seminar event: “The Ethics of Memory and Community Recovery”. The speakers were Daniel … Continue reading Never use memory (or lack thereof) to justify cruelty: Holocaust Memorial Day 2015

Expressing identity, addressing division: CRC policy conference 2013

Expressing identity, addressing division: CRC policy conference 2013 by Allan LEONARD 20 May 2013 This year’s annual policy conference of the Community Relations Council (CRC) was held in Derry-Londonderry, a fresh change from the usual Belfast venues. Indeed, the Maiden City has demonstrated leadership in community relations for many years. In his introductory remarks, outgoing … Continue reading Expressing identity, addressing division: CRC policy conference 2013

20100319 Kosovo cover

Book review – Kosovo: What Everyone Needs to Know (Tim JUDAH)

I was once asked if I thought the Northern Ireland conflict was difficult to comprehend. Not really, I replied. What confounded me was that as so many people within Northern Ireland understood the various factors involved, why work towards any resolution took so long. Put another way, I found comprehending the geo-political situation of former … Continue reading Book review – Kosovo: What Everyone Needs to Know (Tim JUDAH)

Shared Future 20090108 - Ordinary Lives

Book review – Ordinary Lives

Book review: Ordinary Lives by Allan LEONARD for Shared Future News 8 January 2009 In recent years there has been an influx into Northern Ireland of new arrivals from east European countries, as well as more familiar western places of Portugal and Spain. The British Council organised the Ordinary Lives project, which explores stories of … Continue reading Book review – Ordinary Lives

Book review – Sophie Scholl and the White Rose

Sophie Scholl and the White Rose (978-1851685363), by Annette Dumbach and Jud Newborn, is a superbly well researched and presented account of an act of honour and bravery by conscientious young German students, who dared to stand up against the mind numbing machine of Nazism and the Nationalist Socialist movement during World War II. In 1989, I visited an exhibition … Continue reading Book review – Sophie Scholl and the White Rose