Congratulations to Mitchell Institute alumna Dr Deirdre MacBride who recently received a Quiet Peacebuilder Award from the John and Pat Hume Foundation.

The John and Pat Hume Foundation was established in 2020 to honour John and Pat Hume, who worked side by side for decades to bring positive change to the lives of the people of Derry/Londonderry and Northern Ireland, and to support and inspire leadership for peaceful change.  As part of the Peace Summit 2024, the John and Pat Hume Foundation, with the support of the International Fund for Ireland, hosted an event on Tuesday 26 November 2024 at the Guildhall in Derry/Londonderry, to recognise the Quiet Peacebuilders who, during the Troubles and today, quietly and courageously promoted peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland.

Deirdre has worked extensively on regeneration and integration in North Belfast.  She served as the Chief Executive with the Belfast European Partnership Board from 1997 to 2003 and was an Independent Member of the first Belfast District Policing Partnership from 2003 to 2007.  Latterly she was on the NI Policing Board from 2007 to 2008, and as Programme Director of Cultural Diversity with the Northern Ireland Community Relations Council.

Supervised by Emeritus Professor John Brewer and Mitchell lnstitute Fellow (Legacy) Professor Marie Coleman, Deirdre’s PhD research was on Popular Memories of the Rising and the Somme: Northern Ireland 2016: a case study.  She is currently engaged in tentative discussions about the issues of remembering the Troubles based on her PhD thesis and her previous practice at the Community Relations Council with the decade of centenaries and the Remembering the Future Roundtable.