On 3 October Professor Kieran McEvoy, Mitchell Institute Chair and Theme Lead: Rights and Social Justice, addressed a conference held at the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin examining the relationship between political and constitutional conversations on reunification and dealing with the legacy of the past.

Held on German Reunification Day, the conference was organised by the German Embassy in Dublin, Maynooth University and the ARINS Project which involves the Royal Irish Academy, the University of Notre Dame and Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies.

Speakers at the conference included German Ambassador to Ireland Cord Meir-Klodt, Irish Minister of State for European Affairs and Defence Peter Burke, former RIA President Professor Mary E Daly, Former Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister Mark Durkan, Professor Jennifer Todd UCD and other academic and civil society stakeholders.  

Professor McEvoy addressed the issue of legacy and chaired a panel discussion comparing and contrasting the German and Northern Ireland contexts on addressing the past.

Commenting on the event Professor McEvoy said:

‘The debates on reunification as well as how to address the legacy of the conflict are two of the most important contemporary conversations on the island of Ireland.  However, to date, they appear to have been by and large happening in two distinct silos.

Informed by the German context – where reunification was accompanied by prosecutions, two truth commissions, the opening of the Stasi files and very active ‘from below’ mobilisation – this event felt like the beginning of a broader process of understanding the fact that the reunification conversation cannot be divorced from a much deeper engagement with how we address the legacy of conflict and damaged relations on both sides of the Irish border.

I am sure my colleagues and I at the Mitchell Institute at Queens will be keen to play our part in helping to frame those difficult conversations – that is part of our job.’