http://www.washington.edu/alumni/learn/2012history.html
Great lecture tonight: Peace Versus Forgiveness in Northern Ireland Today. For me, so many flashbacks to South Africa/HFB (10-year celebration dinner last week) and to ROM (Tihomir was just here, although I did not go to his talk). And then he played, "There Were Roses" (which has been on my ipod a lot lately). I keep seeing Theron at these things. And Dr. Coutu is now involved in a conflict resolution program, too. I can't help but conclude that there must be some sort of connection between all of these and some reason all of these pieces of my past are colliding right now. Hoping...
Abstract:
Between 1969 and 1998, Northern Ireland, the only part of the island that remains part of Britain, suffered the loss of roughly 3,600 civilians in a vicious dispute over who rightfully "owns" its 1.5 million people. Everyone lost in this barbaric contest, from hard-line Protestant "loyalists," to equally fierce Catholic "republicans," to often perplexed British soldiers. The much-celebrated Good Friday Accord of April 1998 marked what some have called the beginning of the end of civil war in the North. Today, Northern Ireland is generally classified as a "post-conflict society." But what really happens when the shooting stops in a place that has known only mayhem for a generation? Can there be real peace without personal forgiveness? What is the way forward in the six counties of Northern Ireland? And what can the tortuous path toward peace in Ireland suggest about our expectations for healing in other fractured lands?
About Professor Behlmer
George Behlmer is a UW Professor of History and Director of Undergraduate Studies. Author of three books and several prize-winning articles, he has taught modern British and Irish history at Stanford, Yale, and the University of Washington since 1977. He holds a Ph.D. and M.A. from Stanford, and a B.A. from the University of California at Santa Barbara. His classroom contributions were recognized with the University of Washington's Distinguished Teaching Award in 1982.
