Global leaders to attend major conference to mark Belfast Agreement anniversary

A major conference is to be held in Queen’s University, Belfast next month to mark the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Belfast Agreement.

Global political leaders past and present will attend the three-day event, which will take place from April 17th-19th.

Speakers are due to be announced in the coming weeks, but it is likely the former US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton - the university’s current Chancellor - and Senator George Mitchell, who chaired the peace talks which led to the signing of the Agreement and a former Chancellor, will be involved.

The aims of the conference are to mark the achievements of the signatories of the Agreement, recognise the role of women in peacebuilding, promote the next generation of young leaders and create a dialogue to consider social and economic solutions to the major issues impacting Northern Ireland in the next 25 years.

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Tickets will be available to the public through an online ballot.

The Belfast Agreement, which was signed on Good Friday 1998, was the landmark peace deal which ended the North’s Troubles.

Professor Ian Greer, President and Vice-Chancellor of Queen’s University said the event would “bring together key global figures to share their experiences and expertise in peace building.

“This signature event to mark the anniversary of the Agreement offers the opportunity to reflect upon and recognise the achievements of 25 years ago, which has led to significant progress in Northern Ireland, delivering greater prosperity and a safer and more inclusive society.

“We also want to look forward to how we address the major issues impacting society today so we can build on the current peace over the next 25 years,” he said.

The Tánaiste, Micheál Martin, said the conference would be a “moment of reflection on the peace and on remaining challenges” which would being together “people from these islands, and further afield, to consider how we can work together into the future, to fully deliver the potential of the Good Friday Agreement.”

The Northern Secretary, Chris Heaton-Harris, said the conference would bring together “young people, business leaders and global political leaders past and present” and “provide a chance for architects of the Agreement and those benefiting from the Northern Ireland it helped to create to discuss progressing peace and prosperity.”

Ulster University has also launched a programme of events to mark the 25th anniversary of the Agreement across arts, business, tourism and other sectors.

It will include a new arts commission, Agreement, by artist Andrea Dunsmore, which features “14 epic-scale video portraits of community and political leaders behind the Good Friday Agreement sitting in silence” and which will go on display in the university’s Belfast campus.

The university will also host a leadership programme to support 25 “leaders of tomorrow”, a tourism summit and “Lyra’s Literary Legacy”, a youth project in Derry in memory of Lyra McKee which will explore the role of journalism and creative writing in peacebuilding and reconciliation.