Padraig O'Malley
The 2009 Greeley Scholar was the acclaimed international peace activist Padraig O’Malley. Prof. O’Malley is the John Joseph Moakley Distinguished Professor for Peace and Reconciliation at the McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston. He
was given the Peacemaker Award in 2010 by the Association for Conflict Resolution. Prof. O’Malley is also the recipient of the Peace Award of the International Association of University Presidents, the Eire Society Gold Medal Award and the Freedom International Award.
He is the author of the award-winning “Un-Civil Wars: Ireland Today,” “Shades of Difference: Mac Maharaj and the Struggle for South Africa” and the forthcoming “The Greater Middle East: Different Starting Points, Different Histories.” He is also the founder and editor of the “New England Journal of Public Policy.” In 2008, O’Malley was awarded the Liberal International’s Freedom Prize in recognition of his achievement of the conflict resolution work in Northern Ireland and South Africa.
In April 2009, O’Malley organized an international conference, “The Forum for Cities in Transition,” which was held at the University of Massachusetts Boston. This event brought together 35 leaders, including mayors, city council members and police officials from divided cities, with the aim of learning how cities torn apart by hatred can heal their divisions. “People from divided cities are in the best position to help people in other divided cities,” says O’Malley. A major result of the conference was that the group of leaders agreed to form a permanent council of cities in transition. In 2010 the city of Mitrovica hosted the conference and in 2011 the city of Derry/Londonderry in Ireland hosted it.
(Gavriel Salomon (Left) and Padraig O’Malley (Right) speak about the Progress
of Peace in Israel and Northern Ireland at the residence of the Israel Consul General to New England, Nadav Tamir. Dr. Paula Rayman (center) moderated the discussion, 2010.)