Cultural Memory and the Good Friday Agreement

The Institute of Irish Studies at the University of Liverpoool: world-leading research and teaching in peace & conflict, women's studies, modern literature, medieval & modern history.

The Institute of Irish Studies

25 years after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, poets and writers discuss the cultural memory and legacy of this defining document.

University of Liverpool, Central Teaching Hub

25 years ago, The Belfast Agreement was signed. It had taken 25 years to get from the Sunngingdale Agreement to this peace settlement. The new accord was built on self-determinism and parity of esteem and would become known as The Good Friday Agreement. Signed between two governments and 8 political parties, how did this political behemoth affect those who had to live within its terms? What would the cultural memory and legacy of this defining document be?Moya Cannon - Irish poet Louise Durand - Connect Project manager for #IamIrishStephen Sexton - poet, and Lecturer, Seamus Heaney Centre, Queen’s University, BelfastGreg Quiery - Liverpool-based poet and historian originally from County DownThis event is part of <a href="https://www.liverpoolirishfestival.com/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Liverpool Irish Festival</a>, please go to <a href="https://www.liverpoolirishfestival.com/events/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">https://www.liverpoolirishfestival.com/events/</a> for a full listing of this year's events.

The Institute of Irish Studies is thankful to the <a href="https://www.dfa.ie/irish-consulate/manchester/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Consulate General of Ireland (Manchester)</a> for supporting this event.Moya Cannon’s Collected Poems (Carcanet Press, 2021) brings together poems from six previous books, Oar (1990), The Parchment Boat (1997), Carrying the Songs (1907), Hands (2011), Keats Lives (2015) and Donegal Tarantella (2019), more than three decades’ work, a poetry of individual poems which compose a memorable, unpredictable sequence of discovery.She was born and grew up in Co. Donegal, Ireland, spent most of her adult life in Galway and now lives in Dublin.In her poems, history, archaeology, pre-historic art, geology and music figure as gateways to deeper understanding of our mysterious relationship with the natural world and with our past.She has been a recipient of the Brendan Behan Award and the O’Shaughnessy Award and was Heimbold Professor of Irish Studies at the University of Villanova. She is a member of Aosdána.Louise DurandOriginally from Waterford, Louise has been living in London for a decade, she champions a lifestyle filled with health, laughter, and love. Formerly a secondary school teacher, she's grown passionate about alternative education and pastoral care. A past performer in the global show STOMP, she's now a reflexology-focused Body Worker, aiding both children and adults in enhancing their wellbeing. Committed to community support, she's volunteered to uplift young mothers and has assisted underprivileged families throughout her time in the UK. Louise joined the IamIrsh team earlier this year and is inspired by the incredible people she has connected with on the journey.Stephen Sexton’s first book, If All the World and Love Were Young was the winner of the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. He was awarded the E.M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 2020. He was the winner of the National Poetry Competition in 2016 and the recipient of an Eric Gregory Award in 2018. Cheryl’s Destinies was published in 2021 and was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection. Both collections will be published by Wake Forest University Press in 2023. In 2023, he was commissioned by the Northern Ireland Office to write a poem in acknowledgement of the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday AgreementHe teaches at the Seamus Heaney Centre, Queen’s University, Belfast.Greg Quiery - a native of County Down - was a community worker in Belfast during the early years of the troubles before coming to Liverpool in the 1970s. In Liverpool he has been a youth worker, secondary school teacher, and Head of Liverpool’s Virtual School, the education service for children in care. His book In Hardship and Hope is a history of Liverpool’s Irish community. He was chair of the committee which erected the Memorial to the Irish Great Hunger in St Luke’s Gardens in 1998. Greg was active in Irish Studies during the early days of the Institute, teaching in Irish Studies at Continuing Education and serving as a Fellow of the Institute for some years. He is a former board member of the Liverpool Irish Festival. He is an active campaigner on environmental issues and plays Irish traditional music. He has produced an album of his own comic songs and ballads in the Irish tradition. He has published two poetry books: Stray Dog Following, reflective of his experiences in both Ireland and Liverpool, and Oglet, which celebrates the wild environment which still survives close to Liverpool Airport.Please find below a video The Institute of Irish Studies commissioned to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement and which features some of the most meaningful excerpts of the Agreement, read out by people of all ages living in Northern Ireland.

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