Course Leader:  Prof. McDonagh

Course Date:  Thursday 27 February

Course Options:  £34.00 (Early Bird £29.00 - Deadline: 27/01/25 )

Course Timings:  7:30pm - 9:30pm

Course Code:  T0225

Course Information:

During the talk Prof. McDonagh will look at the logos of Reconciliation:

1. Reconciliation is made possible by a new beginning

2. “Peace is a true idea” and has a basic pattern

3. The ‘micro’ and the ‘macro’

4. ‘Establishing the wider common good’

5. Helsinki plus 50

1. Reconciliation is made possible by a new beginning

St. Paul uses the term logos or  “true account” of reconciliation (2 Corinthians, 5: 17 -21, 8:13-15, 9:13).  Borrowing this idea from St. Paul, I will argue that the path to reconciliation can be explored in terms of ethical and political propositions accessible to reason.  Above all, a “true account” of reconciliation involves the search for a new beginning and a forward-looking vision of justice. “A new beginning for everyone” was cited as the principle of reconciliation in South Africa.

2. “Peace is a true idea” and has a basic pattern

Speaking in Belfast in April 2023, US Senator George Mitchell stated that “peace is a true idea.”  In other words, the Good Friday Agreement is not just a “political fix” or a collection of ideas strung together skilfully to please various constituencies. The Agreement is coherent and makes sense; it reflects in some way the logos of reconciliation; something has changed. I will argue that inclusive politics in Northern Ireland is the compass of the 1998 Agreement, a core commitment supported in a systemic way by many other creative elements – and that it is possible to describe in a similar way the logos of other peace processes.  

3. The ‘micro’ and the ‘macro’

John Hume believed that a common factor connects the truth of the “micro” situation in Northern Ireland to the “macro” of the European project.  We have an urgent need, as the 21^st century advances, to visualise a “counterpart” at the global level to the peacebuilding we want to see in East Asia, the Korean peninsula, Sudan, and other situations of actual or potential conflict including of course Ukraine. A vacuum of values at the “macro” level impacts on the prospects for peace in each individual context.

4. ‘Establishing the wider common good’

In 2022, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, published The Power of Reconciliation (London: Bloomsbury).  The Archbishop identifies “cases” in which our shared future depends on reconciliation, including the “human conflict with the planet” and “racial and ethnic differences and divisions.” Under the heading of racial differences, Archbishop Welby addresses the legacy of slavery and empire (pp. 252 – 257). Given widening inequality and deteriorating climatic conditions, and the relevance of ‘western’ colonial history, I will argue that the most achievable form of “transitional justice” is to invest in a broadly-conceived post-2030  agenda for social and economic transition

5. Helsinki plus 50

I propose to explore as well the possibility of using the forthcoming 50^th anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act in 2025, “Helsinki plus 50,” to initiate a process that would look something like the beginnings of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) in 1972. As participating States in the CSCE, we committed ourselves to “cooperating in the interest of mankind.” At this liminal moment, the UK as a major European actor outside the European Union can make an important contribution to peace by reflecting on certain key issues that have disempowered European diplomacy in recent decades.  

Course Leader:

Philip McDonagh was born in Dublin and educated at schools in Copenhagen and Dublin and at Balliol College, Oxford, where he studied classics. As an Irish diplomat based in London, Philip played a significant role over a five year period in developing the Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement. Both as a serving diplomat and afterwards, Philip has been involved in initiatives bringing lessons from the Good Friday Agreement to other situations, including India/Pakistan, Sri Lanka, the Korean peninsula, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Colombia, and the current war in Eastern Europe. Some of these were joint British–Irish projects. Philip has worked in several multilateral frameworks (including the EU and the UN) and has served as Ambassador in India, the Holy See, Finland, Russia, and the OSCE. Currently, Philip is Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Humanities at Dublin City University and Director of the Centre for Religion, Human Values, and International Relations.  Philip’s volumes of poetry include  The Song the Oriole Sang  (Dedalus Press, Dublin, 2010) and Gondla, or the Salvation of the Wolves  (Arlen House, 2016), an adaptation of Nikolay Gumilev’s verse drama on an Irish theme. He is co-author of On the Significance of Religion for Global Diplomacy  (Routledge, 2021).  Philip is married to Dr. Ana Grenfell McDonagh. They have two daughters.