CAUTION IS ADVISED WHEN MAKING COMPARISONS BETWEEN AREAS AS COMPLICATED AND DIVERGENT AS NORTHERN IRELAND AND THE MIDDLE EAST. BUT AS THE VIOLENCE IN THE MIDDLE EAST INTENSIFIED, DIPLOMATS AND PEACE-MAKERS STRAIN TO FIND A WAY FORWARD BY EXAMINING THE DYNAMICS THAT SOLIDIFIED NEW POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS IN NORTHERN IRELAND AND BROUGHT A PEACEFUL SOLUTION TO A PROBLEM THAT THE … [Read more...] about George Mitchell on the Middle East & Northern Ireland
George Mitchell
George Mitchell
The Peace Maker
Former U.S. Senator George Mitchell has earned a hallowed place in the annals of Irish and Irish-American history for the crucial role he played in chairing the All Party talks in Northern Ireland that culminated in the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.
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On chairing the All Party talks: It's a labor of love and I mean it. I believe this is a moment of historic opportunity that … [Read more...] about George MitchellThe Peace Maker
The First Word: A Little Boy’s Cry
On a plane to San Francisco a young couple sit across from me with two boys. The younger one is kicking up a ruckus. As I reach for my ear-plugs I hear the wife say something to her husband, a trendy fellow with glasses and an earring. "Big Ian" she calls him. Belfast, I think to myself. The accent is that of my sister-in-law Elaine. That this family is from Northern Ireland … [Read more...] about The First Word: A Little Boy’s Cry
The Dawn of a New Peace
HISTORIC NI AGREEMENT GIVES HOPE FOR FUTURE: Deaglán de Bréadún, Northern Editor of The Irish Times, describes an epic week in the history of the North of Ireland culminating in the historic peace deal. ℘℘℘ I have been privileged to cover two truly epic stories in my career as a journalist. One was the mass migration of the Kurds from northern Iraq into Iran and Turkey … [Read more...] about The Dawn of a New Peace
Can This Man Bring Peace?
By Deáglan de Brádún
July/August 1996
Deáglan de Bréadún reports on former Senator George Mitchell's efforts to resolve the conflict in the North of Ireland. Dear shadows, now you know it all, All the folly of a fight With a common wrong or right. The innocent and the beautiful Have no enemy but time. Those words of the Irish poet W.B. Yeats referred to an earlier chapter in our national story: an earlier … [Read more...] about Can This Man Bring Peace?