CapeCodToday Featured Event

International Peacemaker Padraig O'Malley returns to Cape Cod Community College

Expert on reconciliation to speak at the college Sunday, September 20

Internationally renowned authority on reconciliation and peace negotiations Padraig O’Malley returns to Cape Cod Community College’s Tilden Arts Center Sunday afternoon September 20th at 2 p.m. to continue his “conversation” on peace issues across the world, especially in Iraq. He’s chosen “Insights To World Peace” as his theme.

The public is strongly encouraged to attend free of charge. A reception with the speaker will follow immediately after.

Prof. O’Malley (right) will have just returned from another series of talks in Helsinki with leaders of various factions in Iraq, having been encouraged to continue by conversations with President Barack Obama.

O'Malley is the John Joseph Moakley Distinguished Professor for Peace and Reconciliation at the McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston, and directs The Iraq Project, a collaborative between the McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies at University of Massachusetts and the Institute for Global Leadership (IGL) at Tufts University. The Iraq Project, with the assistance of the Crisis Management Institute (CMI), Helsinki, brings together leading figures from all the political parties and organizations outside the parliamentary process in Iraq with the leading negotiators from Northern Ireland and South Africa who were architects of their respective peace processes. Meetings take place at various locations in Finland for the purpose of facilitating political reconciliation among the political entities in Iraq as a prerequisite to national reconciliation.

A large group of Cape organizations have joined together to sponsor this event. The Rotary Club of Yarmouth is presenting the event in partnership with the College. Joining with Yarmouth are the Rotary Clubs of: Bourne/Sandwich, Harwich/Dennis Hyannis, Mashpee, Nauset, and Scituate.

Communities of faith are well represented by sponsors: Christ The King - Mashpee, Our Lady of the Assumption – Osterville, Our Lady of the Cape – Brewster, Our Lady of Victory – Centerville, St. Pius X -South Yarmouth, Pax Christi Cape Cod, Fellowship of Reconciliation - Cape Cod, and the Cape Cod Synagogue.

Community groups and organizations joining in sponsorship are: Academy for Lifelong Learning, Barnstable County Human Rights Commission, Cape Cod Chapter 041 Veterans for Peace, Cape Codders For Peace & Justice, and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.

Individual sponsors include Rotary District 7950 Past District Governor Barry Clayman and his wife Gail, Dr. Mir and Rafia Shuttari, and Dr. Kathleen Schatzberg.

The Rotary Club of Yarmouth is sponsoring a student essay contest for area high school and Cape Cod Community College students, and is very pleased to have Wendy’s of Cape Cod as a corporate partner in that effort as Student Essay Sponsor.

The afternoon’s program is expected to run approximately 90 minutes. Individuals requiring auxiliary aids or services to access this event may contact The O’Neill Center for Disability Services at the College: 1-508-362-2131 ext. 4533.

Padraig O'Malley was born in Dublin. He was founder and editor of the McCormack Graduate School's New England Journal of Public Policy at University of Massachusetts Boston for over 20 years.  He has authored many books, among them the award-winning Uncivil Wars: Ireland Today, Biting at the Grave, and, most recently, Shades of Difference, Mac Maharaj and the Struggle for South Africa. His twenty years of research on the transition from apartheid to democracy in South Africa, “Heart of Hope,” is available at www.omalley.co.za. O’Malley is recipient of the International Association of University Presidents Peace Award (1985) and the Chancellor's Award for Distinguished Scholars (1985).

In 1987 O'Malley initiated a meeting in South Africa between the chief negotiators from all parties to the Northern Ireland conflict and their counterparts from all parties in South Africa who had participated in that country's historic settlement in 1994. The event, known as the Great Indaba, was hosted by Nelson Mandela. In 2007, he became the first to hold the John Joseph Moakley Chair of Peace and Reconciliation at the University of Massachusetts Boston’s John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies. In this capacity he delivers lectures each semester and directs a number of projects; for example, he convened a conference, "Truth and Reconciliation Commissions, Do They Do Justice to Justice?" in October 2007, which brought representatives from Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, and South Africa, all of whom had participated in some form of truth recovery process, to meet with the Northern Irish as they consider such a process.

Release courtesy of 4Cs.