Belfast Agreement conference ‘badly needed’ following shooting of policeman - QUB president

A conference on the Good Friday Agreement has never been “so badly needed” in the wake of the shooting of an off-duty policeman in Omagh, the president of Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) has said.

QUB is hosting a conference between April 17th and 19th to mark 25 years of the Good Friday Agreement.

Speaking at an event to mark the 175th of the foundations of the universities that became QUB, University College Cork and the University of Galway, Profes Ian Greer said facilitating the continuing peace process is an important duty that they share.

“A conference that brings people together across the globe, all thinking and focusing on peace has never been so badly needed. We are in a very difficult geopolitical time here,” he said.

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“That is part of our university civic responsibility and it is part of what all three universities do. We reach out to people and transform their lives.”

The three universities were founded as Queen’s Colleges in 1845 as non-denominational alternatives to the Anglican-dominated Trinity College Dublin. They now have 75,000 students across the island.

The event was hosted by the British ambassador Paul Johnston. The 175th anniversary occurred in 2020, but the event was postponed on several occasions because of Covid-19 and the difficulties in getting the three presidents of the university together.

University of Galway president Prof Ciaran Ó hOgartaigh said the university had provided the location where Prince Charles now King Charles III first met Gerry Adams.

“That was a great moment of reconciliation particularly for Prince Charles because of his great family loss [the killing of Lord Mountbatten in 1979],” he said.

The pair first encountered each other at the university in 2015. “Universities are places which bring people together and promote a greater understanding of each other,” Prof Ó hOgartaigh said.

UCC president John O’Halloran said 60 per cent of the 25,000 students in UCC are female. He believed most university staff are not motivated in doing their jobs by money and many could earn significantly more in the private sector.

“There is a view that universities are an elite. In many experience that is not the case. Universities are places that are trying to shape the world and make it a better place,” he said.

All three universities had made a huge contribution to their respective regions. In 2018 the UCC contribution to Cork was €900 million a year, he stated.

UCC is currently 7th in terms of sustainability in the world and the greenest in Ireland. It was the first university in the world to be awarded a green flag by the Foundation for Foundation for Environmental Education

Other guests include Principal and Vice Chancellor of Strathcylde University, Jim McDonald, Chancellor of the National University of Ireland, Maurice Manning and President of the Royal Irish Academy, Mary Canning.