Peacebuilding a shared Northern Irish society
Developing respect in our politics: Leaders' debate @FeileBelfast by Allan LEONARD for Shared Future News 8 August 2018 The high level of respect displayed by the audience and speakers at St Mary’s University College for a leaders’ debate organised by Féile Belfast belied that of the current political situation in Northern Ireland. Representing seven parties... Continue Reading →
I had a couple of hours to pass while waiting for my new spectacles to be fitted. Walking about Belfast city centre, I captured a few moments of street photography. But I missed the image of the day. Approaching Donegall Place from Castle Lane, suddenly a woman in a wheelchair, aged in her 30s, turned... Continue Reading →
“To change the riverflow of history”: Constitutional pasts and futures @UCDdublin #GFA20 by Allan LEONARD for Shared Future News 8 May 2018 Political and legal scholars, peacemakers and peacebuilders convened at the Royal Irish Academy to review and discuss potential constitutional relationships between Ireland and the United Kingdom, especially vis-a-vis Northern Ireland and the Belfast/Good... Continue Reading →
Book review: A Job to Love (The School of Life) by Allan LEONARD 28 April 2018 I acquired A Job to Love by The School of Life (founder and chairman, Alain DE BOTTON) when I had pretty much decided to enter the job market of the freelancer. So perhaps this read was for self-affirmation. The... Continue Reading →
Two minutes with Allan LEONARD by Allan LEONARD for Northern Slant 24 April 2018 Want to find out more about the Northern Slant team? Every week we put 10 questions to our community of contributors – about them, their interests and hopes for Northern Ireland’s future. This week’s interviewee is Allan Leonard. You can follow... Continue Reading →
SmugMug+Flickr: An esprit de corps? by Allan LEONARD 21 April 2018 Flickr has announced that it is being acquired by SmugMug. At least that provides an answer to the question of what would happen next, after Flickr was spared the sunsetting list but not endorsed like Yahoo’s purchase of Tumblr. And a better outcome than... Continue Reading →
Do wars really end? A Mother Brings Her Son to be Shot (Sinead O’Shea) by Allan LEONARD for Shared Future News 19 April 2018 A Mother Brings Her Son to be Shot, a film directed by Sinead O’Shea and screened at the Belfast Film Festival at the Queen’s Film Theatre, is a story about Philip... Continue Reading →
Ensuring trustworthiness, quality and value in all our work by Allan LEONARD for FactCheckNI 12 April 2018 The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) hosted an information seminar at Belfast City Hall, for staff from government organisations in Northern Ireland who have responsibility for statistics in their work (creating and/or applying). The audience was... Continue Reading →
Film review: Photo City by Allan LEONARD 13 April 2018 Photo City is a documentary film by John Murphy and Traolach Ó Murchú, about the story of Rochester, New York, becoming the Silicon Valley of photography, with the clustering of image-based companies such as Xerox, Bausch and Lomb, and Kodak. And how this industry has... Continue Reading →
Ephemera to direct our future: Introduction to the Peter Moloney Collection by Allan LEONARD 10 April 2018 Peter Moloney, who collected Troubles-related ephemera for over 50 years, presented a personal lecture on how it began, why he decided to donate it all to the Tower Museum, and how he’ll keep on collecting. The negotiation to... Continue Reading →
Reflected Lives: Broadening the canvas of the past An oral history project at a Belfast interface by Allan LEONARD for Shared Future News 10 April 2018 Joe O’Donnell (Strategic Director, Belfast Interface Project) told the audience that the auspicious date for today’s exhibition launch was no accident. With reference to the much publicised conference at... Continue Reading →
Coming to terms with our interdependencies #GFA20 by Allan LEONARD 10 April 2018 On the 20th anniversary of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, it is easy to neglect the peace process that preceded it. My reference point is the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement, because I learned about the efforts of then Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald the year before,... Continue Reading →
