Allan Leonard's Page

It was touch-and-go with the weather, but thankfully the rain stopped for the unveiling of Northern Ireland's first "peace pole", near the gates at Northumberland Street, west Belfast.

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I attended the annual Ulster Unionist Party conference, held this year at the Europa Hotel, Belfast. As part of my job, I make it to as many of the Northern Ireland political party conferences as I can, to affirm relationships across all the parties.

I found the main stage via a side stairwell, which was jus… Continue

I've arrived in Boston for a 3-day conference on divided cities, with delegat

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On today's BBC Radio 4 programme, Peace Work, Mark Devenport investigates how Northern Ireland's politicians are sharing their experiences of conflict resolution. Interviews include Professor Padraig O'Malley (University of Massachusetts, Boston), Quintin Oliver (Stratagem (NI)), Jeffrey Donaldson MLA (Junior Minister, OFMdFM), and Martin McGuinness (deputy First Minister). (Audio playback above)

Immediate disclaimer: I am assisting Prof. O'Malley in a forthcoming conference… Continue

Northern Ireland First Minister, Peter Robinson, and deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness, spoke at a press conference led by US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.

McGuinness described Northern Ireland as "one community", which I find remarkable, as the usual parlance is reference to "two communities":

And we don’t speak about two communities. We represent – although we represent different parties, we represent one comm

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