Peacebuilding a shared Northern Irish society
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 →
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 →
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: 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 →
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 →