Chair: Professor Richard English (Queen’s University Belfast)

This seminar will explore two related issues concern armed groups and the peace process in Northern Ireland:

The process of armed groups ‘transitioning’ from violence

and

The ways in which armed groups can be encouraged to address past harms for which they were organisationally responsible

Issues to be discussed will include:

• The ‘state of play’ regarding armed group transition in Northern Ireland
• The legal and policy issues related to the deproscription of paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland
• Learning from past experiences including armed group engagement with the International Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains
• Learning from international experience including the disbandment and decommission of Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) in the Basque country.
• Armed Groups and addressing the past in the light of the UK government’s promise to repeal the Legacy Act

The speakers at this event each have significant practical experience in the field of engaging armed groups as well as the legal, policy and political challenges associated with such work and include:

• Professor Richard English, Director, Mitchell Institute, QUB (Event Chair)
• Daniel Holder, Director of the Committee on the Administration of Justice
• Professor Geoff Knupfer CMG MBE, Honorary Professor of Practice, QUB
• Professor Chris Maccabe CBE, Honorary of Professor of Practice, Mitchell Institute, QUB
• Professor Kieran McEvoy, Senator George J. Mitchell Chair in Peace, Security and Justice, Mitchell Institute, QUB
• Professor Monica McWilliams, Co-Founder of the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition political party and Emeritus Professor, Ulster University

Speaker Biographies

Professor Richard English

Richard English is Professor of Politics at Queen's University Belfast and Director of the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice. Professor English's research focuses on the history of political violence, terrorism, and nationalism, with a particular focus on Ireland and Britain.  He is the author of eight books including Does Counter-Terrorism Work? (Oxford University Press, 2024) and Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA (Pan Macmillan, 2003).  

He is a Fellow of the British Academy, a Member of the Royal Irish Academy, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, a Member of Academia Europaea, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

In 2018 he was awarded a CBE for services to the understanding of modern day terrorism and political history.  In 2019 he was awarded the Royal Irish Academy Gold Medal in the Social Sciences. 

Daniel Holder

Daniel Holder is the Director of the Belfast-based human rights NGO, the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ) since April 2023, having previously been the organisation’s Deputy Director since 2011.  He is also the Co-Convener of the Equality Coalition – a network of equality NGOs and trade unions jointly convened by CAJ and UNISON.

Prior to this he worked in the NI Human Rights Commission in Belfast, ran a migrant worker equality project in county Tyrone and worked as a linguist in Havana, Cuba.

Daniel has a primary degree in Spanish and Sociology and an LLM in Human Rights Law, both from Queens University.

Professor Geoff Knupfer CMG MBE

Professor Geoff Knupfer was previously a Detective Chief Superintendent in Greater Manchester Police, working on a number of high-profile cases including as Deputy and later Head of the reinvestigation of the so-called Moors Murders.

In 2005 he was appointed consultant forensic scientist to the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains (ICLVR) to undertake a review of procedures.  

The Commission was established by the British and Irish governments to help locate and return the remains of those murdered and ‘disappeared’ during the Northern Ireland conflict.  In 2006 the role was extended to include creating and leading the ICLVR’s Investigation Team and its proactive operations, reporting directly to ICLVR’s Commissioners.  Geoff held that role until 2023, when he was awarded a CMG by HM King Charles III, in recognition of his work for the Commission.  In 2024 he was appointed Honorary Professor of Practice by Queens University Belfast (QUB).

Professor Chris Maccabe CBE

Professor Maccabe was previously a Private Secretary to the Chief Minister of Northern Ireland during the short-lived power sharing Executive in 1974, and Private Secretary to the Deputy Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from 1975 to 1977.

He was a former Special Assistant to the Chief Constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary and later Director of the Northern Ireland Prison Service. From 1992 to 2008 he was head of Political Affairs in the Northern Ireland Office, and subsequently its Political Director and British Joint Secretary of the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference. During that time, he was deeply involved in the negotiations that led to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, including intensive dialogue with the associates of various paramilitary groups.

In recent years he has given advice and assistance to the governments of Sri Lanka, Kosovo, Tanzania, Colombia and Cameroon on peace processes and political development.  He was also a member of the International Verification Commission in Spain's Basque Country that monitored ETA's 2012 ceasefire and eventual total disarmament in April 2017.

Chris is an Honorary Professor of Practice at the Mitchell Institute.

Professor Kieran McEvoy

Kieran McEvoy is the Senator George J. Mitchell Chair in Peace, Security and Justice at the Mitchell Institute and a Professor of Law and Transitional Justice at Queens University Belfast.

He is currently a Leverhulme Major Research Fellow (2023-26) working on ways in which armed groups can be held accountable for past human rights violations and encouraged to apologise for and acknowledge those past harms. 

He has been working on issues related to the legacy of the conflict in Northern Ireland for over twenty years.

He has authored or co-authored four books, co-edited eight books or special issues and over seventy journal articles and scholarly book chapters.

He has been elected as Fellow of the British Academy (2020) and a Member of the Royal Irish Academy.

Professor Monica McWilliams

Professor Monica McWilliams co-founded the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition political party in 1996 and was elected to the multi-party peace negotiations leading to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

She was a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly until 2003 and Chief Commissioner of the Human Rights Commission from 2005 until 2011, drafting the advice on a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland.  

She was on the monitoring team for prison reform and currently serves on the Independent Reporting Commission for the disbandment of paramilitary groups and the Governance Board of Operation Kenova.

Her memoir Stand Up, Speak Out’ (Blackstaff Press, 2021) charts her activism on women’s rights, peace, and equality in Northern Ireland and beyond.

Monica is Emeritus Professor in the Transitional Justice Institute at Ulster University, a member of the Royal Irish Academy, a recipient of the JF Kennedy Library Profiles in Courage award and several honorary doctorates.

Monica is speaking in a personal capacity at this event.