Trinity honorary degrees honour those crucial to the Good Friday Agreement
Michael Bolton
To mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, four individuals who played significant roles in these historic events were conferred today with honorary degrees of the University of Dublin at Trinity College Dublin.
Senior political adviser Martin Mansergh, former Downing Street Chief of Staff Jonathan Powell, activist Monica McWilliams, and American foreign policy strategist Nancy Soderberg received Trinity’s highest honour from Trinity’s Chancellor Dr Mary McAleese at a ceremony conducted in Latin in the historic Public Theatre.
Martin Mansergh’s career has seen him serve as a Senator, a TD and a Minister of State. In 1994, he was co-winner of the Tipperary Peace Prize with Fr. Alec Reid and Rev. Roy Magee and in 2018 he was elected a Member of the Royal Irish Academy.
Mr Mansergh was a backchannel to the Republican Movement and contributed to the negotiation of the Downing Street Declaration and the Good Friday Agreement. To Sinn Féin and the IRA he was known simply as ‘the man’ and it was he who was able to persuade them to take the path of peace.
Monica McWilliams is a Emeritus Professor in the Transitional Justice Institute at Ulster University and sits on the Independent Reporting Commission for the disbandment of paramilitary organisations in Northern Ireland.
She secured key outcomes such as restitution for victims, inclusion of reconciliation, integrated education, shared housing, and a civic forum in addition to addressing other key issues for the peace agreement. Ms McWilliams is also one of two female signatories of the agreement.
From 1997-2007, Jonathan Powell was the Downing Street Chief of Staff and was the chief British government negotiator on Northern Ireland. For a decade he sat with unionist and republican leaders at the heart of the Northern Ireland peace process
Gerry Adams has written about how effective Powell was saying that ‘He was constantly engaged with the Irish problem. He was in and out of here secretly on numerous occasions. He was someone you could pick up the phone to and he was always available and there were times when I rang when I knew it wasn't opportune because I could hear children in the background or whatever, but he would always take the call.’
Nancy Soderberg was Bill Clinton’s Chief Advisor on Northern Ireland, and played a crucial role in the development of the peace process in the 1990s. She worked to create the conditions for peace and then worked tirelessly on the ground, on both sides of the border, to create a lasting second ceasefire.
In particular in January 1994, at a difficult stage in the peace process, and on Soderberg’s advice,Bill Clinton issued a visa to allow Gerry Adams to enter the United States, a move which was heavily criticised at the time. Ms Soderberg argued that without symbolic gestures of this time, it would be far more difficult for the IRA to call a ceasefire.