Lord Patten, who drove police reform in Northern Ireland, will today give the second Mary Holland commemorative human rights lecture.
The last British Governor of Hong Kong will focus on the subject of democracy and terrorism during his address at the Royal Irish Academy.
Irish Times journalist Mary Holland died in 2004 after a long battle with illness. The last months of her life were unnecessarily difficult because the appropriate care she needed was not available.
The memorial lecture is organised by the Irish Hospice Foundation in association with The Irish Times as a tribute to Holland and to highlight the deficiencies in end-of-life care.
The inaugural lecture took place in 2005 and was delivered by former President and United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson.