Peacebuilding a shared Northern Irish society
Monitoring peace progress in Northern Ireland: a wellbeing frameworkby Allan LEONARD4 March 2025 While much of the media coverage of the launch of the Northern Ireland Executive’s latest Programme for Government (PfG) rightly focused on the specific, quantifiable targets (or lack thereof), a complementary “wellbeing framework”, with dozens of regularly updated metrics, has received little comment. The... Continue Reading →
Peacemakers’ ball: woven Belfast storiesby Allan LEONARD8 February 2025 In coloured chalk on a black board, a sign outside Belfast’s city centre communal space at 2 Royal Avenue invited passersby to come in and participate in Peacemakers, a craft exercise to make stitches with alternating colours of yarn on an oversized French loom, then return to... Continue Reading →
Kosovo revisited: crucial role of civic conversations remainsby Allan LEONARD5 September 2024 On the desk of my hotel room in Pristina was a postcard inscribed, “Dear Allan, Welcome back to Kosovo! As a returning visitor we’re sure you’ll enjoy your time here!” It was signed “AJK Team”, from the Association of Journalists of Kosovo, the... Continue Reading →
Impossible Peace: a conversation with Brian Rowan by Allan LEONARD 5 September 2024 In a room packed with dozens of guests at the newly established Black Mountain Shared Space, journalist Mervyn Jess facilitated a conversation with Brian Rowan about his Impossible Peace project, to marry old cassette tapes with a document archive to mark the... Continue Reading →
Took me a while to produce this podcast episode, but Dympna's call for a vision for our collective future remains true. And watch out for more episodes! #NorthernIreland #SharedFuture #peacebuilding https://x.com/SharedFuture/status/1759961714747953589
‘Imagine a time we can draw hope together’: dreams and visions from Korean children by Allan LEONARD 8 January 2024 From 8–12 January, Ulster University hosted at its Belfast York Street campus an exhibition of drawings by children of Korea and its diaspora. The drawings were created as part of programmes in partnership with Okedongmu... Continue Reading →
Free press crucial for transformative justice in Venezuela: a talk with Luis Carlos Díaz by Allan LEONARD 30 October 2023 Luis Carlos Díaz, an accomplished journalist from Venezuela and deemed a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International, was a guest keynote speaker at an event organised by the International Conflict Research Institute (INCORE) at Ulster... Continue Reading →
GRACE: measuring trust for better community relations by Allan LEONARD 21 September 2023 On the International Day of Peace, as part of Good Relations Week, research undertaken through a partnership between the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations (Coventry University) and Community Relations in Schools (CRIS) was launched. The research examines the role of... Continue Reading →
Addressing the evil of sectarianism: Bill Shaw on life, faith, and hope by Allan LEONARD 20 September 2023 The retreat and conference centre run by the Passionate community, Tobar Mhuire, was the venue for a guided interview with Bill Shaw, presented as an opportunity “to explore their experience of life, faith, and where they find... Continue Reading →
Important to acknowledge and commemorate the work of the Opsahl Commission, helping #NorthernIreland #peacebuilding efforts. Kudos to @andyjpollak and @IrishSecretari1 for organising this event. My summary 👇 https://x.com/SharedFuture/status/1683388625847812096
Opsahl Commission 30th anniversary: ‘civic poetry’ still yielding insights by Allan LEONARD 4 July 2023 Laurence Simms (joint secretary of the British-Irish Secretariat) hosted a reception to mark the 30th anniversary of the Opsahl Commission, which invited and gathered oral and written submissions from individuals and civil society organisations about their suggestions for the way... Continue Reading →
‘It’s about life and death’: Frampton vs Kielty by Allan LEONARD 25 June 2023 As the finale event of the Docs Ireland film festival, boxing legend Carl Frampton and comedian/presenter Patrick Kielty had a one-to-one conversation with an audience of over a hundred at the Cineworld complex, interspersed with clips from their documentary films and... Continue Reading →