Tag: Brandon Hamber

2016 Tip O’Neill Irish Diaspora Award

On on Friday night, 23 September 2016, the Chair attended the 2016 Tip O’Neill Irish Diaspora Award in Buncrana, Co Donegal. The award (the 5th) was given to Chris Matthews. Matthews is an American political commentator and most well known for his talk show “Hardball” on MSNBC. He also served as Press Secretary to Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill.

Chris Matthews
Chris Matthews

At the event Matthews took to the opportunity to reflect on the current political situation in the US. He felt what was going on right now was “crazy”. There is a tension between Trump’s “nasty politics” and Trump selling people an unrealisable dream of “manufacturing in 1950s”, compared to Hilary Clinton as an experienced politician but being painted as “the establishment”. He also noted that when he worked with Tip O’Neill he focused on letting people “know who you are” and in O’Neill’s case that meant people could support him as his values were made more prominent. Matthews also reflected on O’Neill’s political style noting that he understood that debate was a way of moving politics forward, and that today people have forgotten this thinking debate is politics. When the debate is done compromises have to be made and the work done Matthews noted. He ended by saying that his “crystal ball is a bit foggy” about who would win the US election, but if African Americans, Hispanics and women vote, Trump will lose. But we will have to wait and see.

Professor Brandon Hamber, Professor Paul Arthur, Shelly O'Neill and Dr Tom O'Neill III at the Diaspora lecture
Professor Brandon Hamber, Professor Paul Arthur, Shelly O’Neill and Dr Tom O’Neill III at the Diaspora lecture

On the Saturday morning following the event Professor Paul Arthur, Honorary Professor at INCORE, gave the Tip O’Neill Diaspora lecture which he titled “Imagination and Politics”. He particularly focused on the relationship between Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill. Although from opposite political sides they had the foresight to realise they needed to work together, and they symbolised the importance of the democratic tradition.

Read the Tip O’Neill Irish Diaspora Award press release.

The Hume O’Neill Chair

Professor Brandon Hamber was today officially appointed as the John Hume and Thomas P. O’Neill Chair of Peace. He began work on 1 September 2015.

brandon_hamber-212x300

Professor Brandon Hamber is John Hume and Thomas P O’ Neill Chair in Peace based at the International Conflict Research Institute (INCORE) at Ulster University. He is a Visting Professor at the African Centre for Migration and Society at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. He is also a member of the Transitional Justice Institute at Ulster University.

He was born in South Africa and currently lives in Belfast.  In South Africa he trained as a Clinical Psychologist at the University of the Witwatersrand and holds a Ph.D. from the Ulster University. Prior to moving to Northern Ireland, he co-ordinated the Transition and Reconciliation Unit at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation in Johannesburg.  He co-ordinated the Centre’s work focusing on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

He was a visiting Tip O Neill Fellow in Peace Studies at INCORE in 1997/1998.  He was also the recipient of the Rockefeller Resident Fellowship (1996) and was a visiting fellow at the Centre for the Study of Violence in Sao Paulo, Brazil.  In 2010-2013 he was a Mellon Distinguished Visiting Scholar at University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. He has been awarded The Paul Harris medal for contributions to peace by Rotary (2013), and was listed as one of the Top 100: The most influential people in armed violence reduction by the Action on Armed Violence Network (2013/2014).

He has consulted to a range of community groups, policy initiatives and government bodies in Northern Ireland and South Africa.  He has undertaken consulting and research work, and participated in various peace and reconciliation initiatives in Liberia, Mozambique, Bosnia, the Basque Country and Sierra Leone, among others.

He has lectured and taught widely, including, on the International Trauma Studies Programme at Colombia University, New York and the Post-War and Reconstruction Unit, University of York; and at the University of Ulster.

He has written extensively on the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the psychological implications of political violence, and the process of transition, masculinity and reconciliation in South Africa, Northern Ireland and abroad.

He has published some 25 book chapters and 30 scientific journal articles, and 4 books. His latest book Transforming Societies after Political Violence: Truth, Reconciliation, and Mental Health was published by Springer in 2009, and published in 2011 in Spanish by Ediciones Bellaterra and entitled Transformar las sociedades después de la violencia política. Verdad, reconciliación y salud mental.

In 2015, he published Psychosocial Perspectives on Peacebuilding (Editors: Hamber, Brandon, Gallagher, Elizabeth)and Healing and Change in the City of Gold: Case Studies of Coping and Support in Johannesburg (Editors: Ingrid Palmary, Brandon Hamber, Lorena Núñez). Both published by Springer.

He is also represented on a range of Boards and editorial committees:

Ulster Hosts President Clinton and Launches New Book

Ulster University hosted President Clinton’s 5th visit to Derry~Londonderry where he honoured John Hume’s outstanding contributions to peacebuilding, helped to launch ‘Peacemaking in the Twenty-first Century’ edited by John Hume, Tom G. Fraser and Leonie Murray and celebrated the University’s success in raising the £3m required to establish the John Hume and Thomas P. O’Neill Chair in Peace.

For the full photo gallery click here.