St Patrick's Symposium: A Vision for Peace

Following on from previous symposia examining the themes of modern slavery & migration, this year's St Patrick's Symposium will explore peacemaking on this island and beyond.

Speakers include:


Peter Osborne: Peter has been involved in political engagement, policy, participation, dispute resolution and reconciliation for over 25 years. A former chair of the Community Relations Council and the Parades Commission for NI, Peter is currently the chair of the regional board of ‘Remembering Srebrenica’.


Lana Prlić: Elected in 2018, Lana is the youngest MP at the Parliament of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2010, in December 2014, Lana was elected as VP of SDP B&H and became the youngest woman VP in the region.


Tony MacAuley: Tony was born in Lisburn and grew up in the Upper Shankill area of West Belfast. In 2008 Tony published a discussion about Northern Ireland’s peace walls. His fourth memoir ‘Little House on the Peace Line’ (2017) tells the story of how he lived and worked on the peace line in North Belfast in the 1980s. His first novel ‘Belfast Gate’ (2019) is a satirical comedy set in 2019 about a group of Catholic and Protestant women who start a campaign to take down Belfast’s 50 year old peace walls.


Rev Tony Davidson: Tony has been the Minister in First Armagh Presbyterian Church since 1994. He is a Past President of the Irish Council of Churches. Tony is the author of a book of poems entitled “Hanging in there.” He chaired the committee which was responsible for the publishing of “Considering Grace - Presbyterians and the Troubles,” written by James Yohanis and Gladys Ganiel.

A young people’s panel including William Redpath & Ally Rosbotham will be convened by the symposium’s compere for the day, esteemed BBC broadcaster Karen Patterson.