Boston College hosts an event discussing the future of Northern Ireland as it celebrates 25 years since the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, but has also recently faced significant political instability relating to the Brexit transition. The event will bring together scholars from different disciplines at Queen’s University Belfast to discuss the relative success of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement in ending conflict in the region, but also the limited effects of the peace process in reconciling the two main communities there. In addition, it will consider the renewed debate about Northern Ireland’s constitutional future post-Brexit, and the issue of dealing with the region’s troubled past, which also remains a divisive subject.

Panelists:

Prof. Dominic Bryan, Anthropology, Queen’s University Belfast

Prof. Bryan is a Fellow at the Senator George J Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice and is an expert inpolitical anthropology, with particular emphasis on public ritual; public order and policing; symbolism; commemoration; ethnicity; nationalism and group identity. This work has led to important articles in journals such as Éire-Ireland, Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, and the British Journal of Social Psychology. Prof. Bryan was co-Chair of the Flags, Identity, Culture and Tradition Commission (2016-2021) and he is presently Chair of the Action Group on Processions in Scotland.

Dr Cheryl Lawther, Law, Queen’s University Belfast

Dr Lawther is a Fellow at the Senator George J Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice and former Director of the Human Rights Centre at Queen’s University Belfast. Her works focuses on transitional justice, truth recovery and dealing with the past in Northern Ireland. She has written articles for leading academic journals including Political Geography, the Journal of Genocide Research and The International Journal of Human Rights. She is also author of Truth, Denial and Transition: Northern Ireland and the Contested Past (Taylor and Francis: 2014). 

Dr Peter McLoughlin, Politics, Queen’s University Belfast

Dr McLoughlin is a Fellow at the Senator George J Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice and was a visiting Fulbright Scholar at Boston College in 2019. His work addresses international dimensions of the Northern Ireland problem, such as US and EU influences. He has published widely, with articles appearing in journals such as Diplomatic History, Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, and Contemporary European History. He is also author of a book on the Northern Ireland leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, John Hume – John Hume and the Revision of Irish Nationalism (MUP: 2010). He formerly served as editor of the Irish Political Studies journal.

Register for this event using the link below:

https://forms.gle/TkK7qZYKAo6Tfg6i7