First EU Debate NI event launched in Belfast City Hall
The first EU Debate NI event was launched in Belfast City Hall by Deputy Lord Mayor Alderman Guy Spence on Friday, 5 February. It brought together representatives from across business, public and community sectors to discuss the issues that need to be considered in Northern Ireland in relation to the upcoming UK referendum on continued EU membership.
EU Debate NI is a programme of the Centre for Democracy and Peace Building (CDPB). CDPB are taking a neutral position in this debate, seeking to stimulate and inform debate on the issues in this referendum.
Conor Houston, Programme Director at CDPB commented following the event that “it was a lively, engaging and interactive event. We had round table discussions together with interactive polling allowed for diverse opinions and a range of views to be debated – including issues around trade, cross-border, immigration, effect on peace-funding and many other topics.”
Amplifying voices of respect and tolerance across Northern Ireland
Author: Nick Pickles
Every day, Twitter is used to promote social change, challenge viewpoints and discuss the most pressing issues facing communities across the globe.
As a public platform, our users’ power to challenge prejudice and division is a very real phenomenon, as recognised in a study from academics Orna Young and Paul Reilly, commissioned by the Northern Ireland Community Relations Council. They found that “social media provided a ‘safe space’ or distance for individuals and groups to express their views on what may be viewed as emotive issues.” The authors describe the importance of creating opportunities to hear alternative viewpoints and positions that may not be available ‘offline’.
This is why we work directly with NGOs across the UK, training hundreds of community groups and activists on how to make the most of Twitter as platform for amplification. These groups are committed to challenging prejudice and discrimination, building stronger communities and calling out those that seek to create division.
Last week in Belfast we took this philosophy one step further.
Working alongside our partners in the Centre for Democracy and Peace Building (@CDPB_NI) and the Washington Ireland Program (@WIPLive), we asked what campaigns need to be created, what ideas have not been discussed and what more can be done to ensure that the loudest voices belong to those who want a peaceful and tolerant future in Northern Ireland.
https://blog.twitter.com/2016/amplifying-voices-of-respect-and-tolerance-across-northern-ireland
Professor Heenan joins CDPB’s Board of Directors
We are delighted to announce the appointment of Professor Deirdre Heenan to the Board of Directors of the Centre for Democracy and Peace Building. Professor Heenan is joining Lord Alderdice, Rt Hon Jeffrey Donaldosn MP and Liam Maskey.
Professor Deirdre Heenan was appointed Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Communication) and Provost (Coleraine & Magee) as of 1 September 2012.
A distinguished researcher, author and broadcaster, she is a member of the Institute for Research in Social Sciences and has published widely on healthcare, education policy, social care and devolution. She is a co-founder and former co-director of the Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey.
In 2001 she was the recipient of a Distinguished Teaching Award and this was followed by a prestigious National Teaching Fellowship by the Higher Education Academy in 2006. In 2008 she secured an ESRC fellowship and spent nine months as policy adviser in the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister.
In 2011 she was appointed by the health minister to join a five strong panel of experts to oversee a radical review of Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland. In 2013 she was commissioned by The Kings Fund to write a piece on Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland as part of a comparative review on Integration. Together with her colleague Professor Derek Birrell she has just been contracted by MacMillan to write a book on Integration of Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland.
In 2012 she was appointed to the Irish President’s Council of State as one of the seven personal nominees of President Michael D Higgins.
She is a director of ILEX, the Derry~Londonderry urban regeneration company and a school governor on the Board of Foyle College.
Professor Heenan has responsibility for corporate and institutional communications together with public affairs (including the Media & Corporate Relations team). As campus Provost for Coleraine and Magee, she also has responsibility for oversight of the general affairs of each campus including: service standards, pastoral care of students and staff, interaction with the wider community and for the Riverside Theatre.
At the invitation of Ivan Lewis, Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Deirdre Co-Chaired the Heenan-Anderson Independent Commission into the Northern Ireland economy. She is a Board member of the British Irish Association. Since its formation in 1972, it has made a significant contribution to the progress made in Northern Ireland over the past decades and it continues to set the agenda on how to build on that achievement.
She is a member of the Working Group on Higher Education in the 30% Club. This group focuses on diversity in universities and higher education establishments.
BE THE CHANGE: Creative Workshop with Twitter | 21 January
The Centre for Democracy and Peace Building in partnership with Twitter (UK) invite you to the
BE THE CHANGE creative workshop
on 21 January 2016 from 2pm to 6pm
at the MAC Belfast, St. Anne’s Square, Belfast
to develop an online campaign to address social issues and drive positive change in Northern Ireland
To register go to www.getinvited.to/cdpb/twitter
2pm – 2.15pm:
Introduction by Nick Pickles, Head of Policy, Twitter (UK)
2.15pm – 3pm:
Ideas Session
3pm – 3.30pm:
Presentations and Initial Selection
3.30pm – 3.45pm:
Coffee Break
3.45pm – 5.30pm:
Campaign Development
5.30pm – 6pm:
Presentations and Final Selection
6pm:
Pizza, Drinks and Networking
The strongest campaign ideas will be developed further with support from the CDPB and Twitter (UK).
CDPB and the Institute for Irish Studies launch the Leadership Academy series in London
The Centre for Democracy and Peace Building (CDPB) and The Institute of Irish Studies, University of Liverpool, in partnership with the Centre for the Resolution of Intractable Conflict, at Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford, are launching a series of lectures to share the knowledge and experience of conflict and conflict transformation in Northern Ireland and beyond and its relation to dissent and risk in contemporary British society.
The lectures bring together leading academics and practitioners to impart expertise and experiences that are relevant to policy makers, communities at risk and politicians in Great Britain.
There will 6, three-hour sessions, monthly between January and June, each featuring academic and policy presentations, responses from practitioners and workshops.All sessions will be held at the University of Liverpool’s London Campus (33 Finsbury Square, London EC2A 1AG).
Particular emphasis will be upon conflict transformation, social justice, challenging ethnic asperity and analysis of the causes of violent extremism and how it can be undermined by progressive social change and thinking.
Programme
- 26 January 2016: Engaging with Communities at Risk
- 23 February 2016: Hate Crime and Community Policing
- 23 March 2016: Social Media as a Driver of Conflict/Conflict Transformation
- 26 April 2016: Understanding and Countering Violent Extremism
- 25 May 2016: Challenging Conflict: Including Women
- 28 June 2016: Conflict and Culture
Speakers include Lord Alderdice, HE Dan Mulhall, Irish Ambassador to Britain, Professor Peter Shirlow, Blair Chair and Director, The Institute of Irish Studies, Jennifer Hawthorne, NI Housing Executive, Debbie Watters, Northern Ireland Alternatives and Vice Chair NI Policing Board, ACC Stephen Martin, PSNI, Paul Giannasi, Cross-Governmental Hate Crime Programme, Professor Deirdre Heenan, Ulster University, Nick Pickles, Twitter UK, Glenn Patterson and others.
To register please go to www.getinvited.to/cdpb/leadership
Speech at Queen’s University Belfast to mark the 20th Anniversary of the visit of President Bill Clinton to Belfast
Speech at Queen’s University Belfast to mark the 20th Anniversary of the visit of President Bill Clinton to Belfast
7.12.15
Great Hall, QUB
President Clinton is someone who continues to greatly inspire me – from his Presidency through to his work at the Clinton Foundation.
Like myself, he was a recovering lawyer and then dedicated himself to inspiring change around the world. He embodies any definition of leadership and service to humanity. He took up the President John F Kennedy mantra of asking us all to do what we can for the betterment of our world.
I continue to work on realising my potential and purpose through my work as a peace builder at the Centre for Democracy & Peace Building and in my social entrepreneurial work with Young Influencers.
Young Influencers created a vision 2030 – “that by 2030 NI will be one of the greatest places in the world to live, work, create and visit.”
20 years from now will be 2035. I will be almost the age that President Clinton was when he first came to Northern Ireland.
So tonight, I thought it would be more appropriate to consider what someone who is 20 might say of the Northern Ireland we have created by then.
Well as chance would have it, I do know someone who will be 20 in 2035, my 3-month-old nephew Ollie.
I imagined the letter that Ollie might write to President Clinton on the cusp of his 90th birthday to thank him for the 2035 Northern Ireland in which he now lives.
So here it is, Ollie’s letter to President Clinton dated 30th November 2035:
“Dear President Clinton
I hope this letter finds you and Mrs President Clinton well.
It is hard to believe that 40 years have passed since your historic first visit to Northern Ireland – the first of any U.S. President to my home.
My great-grandfather Bernard, who I am told was a proud Derry man, used to say: “20 years is a long time looking forward, but nothing looking back.” Being 20 I know what he means! And I’m sure Mr President you truly understand it!
I wasn’t born the first time you came to Belfast in November 1995 to light the Christmas tree for peace. My uncle Conor has told me that he remembers that night vividly. At that time he was growing up in Surrey, England. And that it was that very night as they watched images from Belfast on TV that my granny & grandad told him, my uncle Stephen and my mum that they were moving back home to live in Northern Ireland.
They came home to a place where “peace came dropping slow”. But it is a place they love and the place they still call home.
Belfast today in 2035 is an incredible place.
The old ways of ‘labelling’ and seeing difference as a threat are definitely a relic of the past. We proudly celebrate the British, Irish and Northern Irish of our entwined identities and the many other cultures and identities that make up our 2035 Northern Ireland.
This pride means Northern Ireland is now a driving force on these islands. Our politicians, business and civic leaders set the agenda on both the UK and Irish stage. The Prime Minister of the UK is of course a proud Derry man and the new Taoiseach is from just outside Ballymena. We understand our role as global citizens.
Stormont re-opened as the ‘Rory McIlroy Golf Club’ and our politicians now sit in the stunning ‘People’s Assembly’ designed by young designers from across Northern Ireland in the dynamic Titanic Quarter.
As you know, all our political parties came together during the ‘decade of centenaries’ to create a ‘Vision 2030’ to build a legacy rooted firmly in our young people and the future. And working together they have achieved that vision.
At the heart of the Vision 2030 were the 3 C’s: compassion, co-operation and collaboration.
The principle of compassion ensures that we are compassionate in our approach to each other and we used it to reframe all our conversation, discourse and debate. We are now a citizen lead society and this has assisted in making us one of the ‘equality centres of excellence’ in the world.
It has made us a people at peace with ourselves. We have learned to be a lot more gentle on ourselves and each other.
The principle of collaboration resulted in our reputation amongst economists as the ‘Hong Kong of Europe’ for our ability to act as a hub for international inward investment into the UK, ROI and European markets. We are also the launch pad for start-ups, innovators, entrepreneurs and creators.
Our schools, colleges and universities work in tandem with business, commerce and emerging technologies to ensure we maintain the most highly skilled, educated and knowledge based work force in Europe. This of course is lead by Queen’s University Belfast and Ulster University – leading the world in research, innovation and ideas.
I have benefited from a world class education – which focused on developing the potential of each child and their creative,technological, artistic, innovative and intellectual abilities. As a result I have secured an apprenticeship with Elon Musk’s SpaceX project which is opening its ‘Mars Coordination Centre’ in Northern Ireland next year, to manage the one million people who are now living there, as he promised back in 2015.
We’ve utilised our proud NI diaspora around the world who are our brilliant Ambassadors in every continent on earth.
And that’s where the third principle of co-operation has really come to help. We have used our economic prosperity to develop world-class infrastructure. Apparently it used to take two and half hours to travel from Belfast to Dublin, now it takes an hour. It’s also hard to believe that just 20 years ago the motorway from Belfast to Letterkenny via Derry didn’t exist!
As you know, the island of Ireland now generates all of its electricity through renewable energy harnessing the wind and tide from the Atlantic.
Our relationship with the U.S. is one of the great examples of co-operation – economically, socially and culturally. We also had a great Fourth of July Party this year to celebrate 240 years of the U.S. Consulate in Belfast. My uncle Conor assures me that the parties there were always legendary and that the Consul-General’s for Northern Ireland were always the elite of the U.S. State Department!
Of course it would be remiss of me not to mention our continued sporting prowess – Ireland winning the 2023 Rugby World Cup on home soil was one of the best days of my childhood, The U.S. haven’t won the Ryder Cup in my lifetime mostly thanks to Rory and the entire ‘Team Europe’ who come from NI! And is there a boxer in the world rankings who isn’t from here?! They epitomise how we proudly punch above our weight.
So our Vision 2030, our principles of compassion, collaboration and co-operation make this a great, welcoming place to live, work, create & visit and one of the most dynamic and innovative countries in our 21st Century world.
On that cold night in Belfast 40 years ago you helped our people believe in themselves. Believe that they had a better future. Thank you for giving us the gift of hope. Our home is your home. Thank you for all you have done for us, Mr President, and for helping to make the place I call home, well, home.
Yours truly
Ollie
Ps – good luck to Chelsea in the 2036 Presidential election!