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Contact: Iain Stewart
Iain.stewart@esrc.ac.uk
44-179-341-3032
Economic & Social Research Council

Political leaders to speak at major conference in Northern Ireland

Leading politicians and academics will debate the record of devolution in Northern Ireland and its prospects for the future at a major conference organised by the Economic and Social Research Council in early March.

The conference, part of the ESRC Devolution Programme, takes place just as talks resume aimed at breaking the political deadlock surrounding the 1998 Belfast Agreement.

Speakers will include the Ulster Unionist leader and former first minister David Trimble MLA and SDLP leader and former deputy first minister Mark Durkan MLA. A senior UK government member is expected to speak, as will the former Taoiseach Dr Garret FitzGerald.

The vice-chancellor of Queen's University Belfast Sir George Bain and the vice-chancellor of the University of Ulster Professor Gerry McKenna will be among those speaking. A host of leading academics, journalists and politicians will lead panel discussions and workshops during the day.

The conference will run from
09.15 – 17.30 on 4 March 2003
at the Stormont Hotel,
Upper Newtownards Road, Belfast.

Key papers to be presented include:

  • Dr Paul Carmichael (University of Ulster) on the review of public administration in Northern Ireland.
  • Roger Mac Ginty (University of York) on public attitudes to constitutional issues in a devolved Northern Ireland.
  • Gillian Robinson (University of Ulster) on deteriorating community relations since the optimism of the mid-1990s ceasefires and the Belfast Agreement
  • Robin Wilson (director, Democratic Dialogue) on post-conflict constitutional issues.

    For further information or to attend, contact Peter Sharpe at the ESRC Devolution Programme at the University of Birmingham on 44-121-414-2991 or email p.a.sharpe@bham.ac.uk.

    ESRC Press Office contact Iain Stewart on 179-341-3032 or iain.stewart@esrc.ac.uk

    NOTES TO EDITORS

    1. More information about the ESRC Devolution Programme can be found at www.devolution.ac.uk.
    2. The ESRC is the UK's largest funding agency for research and postgraduate training relating to social and economic issues. It provides independent, high-quality, relevant research to business, the public sector and Government. The ESRC invests more than £76 million every year in social science and at any time is supporting some 2,000 researchers in academic institutions and research policy institutes. It also funds postgraduate training within the social sciences to nurture the researchers of tomorrow. More at http://www.esrc.ac.uk.

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