Longford Lecture 2009 - War is easy — peace is the difficult prize

I don’t spend every evening at a function mixing with an eclectic collection including Sir Hugh Orde the President of APCO, Sir Ian Blair, Lord David Ramsbottom, the good and the great and well, me! However the Longford Trust which was set up to continue the work of the late Lord Longford in promoting prison reform and acting as an advocate for the outcasts in society has a unique way of bringing a disparate but committed group of people together. Indeed so diverse is the roll call of benefactors of the Longford Trust that it includes uber- financier George Soros as well as the noble Lords Archer and Black — both of whom have what might be described as having an intimate inside knowledge of prison life.


Lord Longford

So it was on an otherwise gloomy London night which was anointed with impressive torrential rain we proceeded across the yard behind Westminster Abbey to Church House, Westminster, to the Synod Hall of the Church of England for the 8th annual “Longford Lecture” organised by the Longford Trust and sponsored by the excellent Independent Newspaper which is owned by Tony O’Reilly’s Independent News and Media. I forswear from commenting that all this splendour of the Church Commissioners has been paid for by stolen goods during the reign of Henry VIII and augmented from the “immoral earnings” of the Bishop of London’s Estate at Paddington which contains more than a fair share of London’s houses of pleasure. I admire myself for such self restraint and turn towards Frank Pakenham’s legacy and Sir Hugh Orde’s lecture reflecting on his experience of tackling the legacy of sectarian murders in Ireland during the Troubles under the title “"War is easy — peace is the difficult prize: An Alternative Approach to Resolving Unsolved Murders."


Sir Hugh Orde

Frank Longford said often during his life that he would like his epitaph to be 'the outcasts' outcast'. It summed up a long career as a politician, writer and campaigner on social and prison policy which was all about standing up for the unpopular, the unloved, the underdog and those on the margins of society. He was first a minister in Clement Attlee's post Second World War Labour government, where as Deputy Foreign Secretary he played a pivotal role in the reconstruction of West Germany. From 1964 to 1968, he was a member of Harold Wilson's Cabinet.

He started visiting prisoners in 1930 and continued until his death. He was assistant to Sir William Beveridge on his landmark report of 1942 which laid the basis for the Welfare State. In 1956 he founded New Bridge, one of the first organisations in Britain seeking to create links between prisoners and the community, and in 1963 chaired the committee on crime whose recommendations led to the establishment of the parole system. On leaving the government, he launched New Horizon, a charity for young people in need.

He attracted much controversy with his (ultimately unsuccessful) campaign for the release of Moors murderer Myra Hindley from prison; some would suggest she was an unworthy subject of his attention. He attracted criticism for his high-profile opposition to the gay rights movement and he was also criticised by the media for touring the sex clubs of Europe which he had attempted to close down. Both of these campaigns led to him being the target of a particularly high level of ridicule and criticism from the tabloid media.

In 1936, motivated by a gospel teaching that 'those who visit prisoners visit Christ', Longford begins visiting prisoners at Oxford gaol. Subsequently he attempts to visit at least one prisoner every week. After the war, he enters Clement Attlee's Labour government where he is tipped by Attlee as a future prime minister. He gained notoriety as the Cabinet Minister responsible for starting the reconstruction of occupied Germany. Conrad Adenauer hails him among the founders of West Germany; at home he is condemned for being soft on Britain's erstwhile enemies.

Despite his campaigning, Longford took a hard line on what constitutes criminality and was not a supporter of gay Rights. In 2000, during a House of Lords debate on equalising the age of consent for homosexuals, Longford declares: "I regard homosexuality as a sad disorder and handicap and it makes it very unlikely that a healthy family life can be had," adding that, "homosexual leanings are not to be condemned any more than schizophrenia or alcoholism, but they are sinful by Christian standards and those of many other churches."


Rachel Billington & Lady Antonia Fraser - Lord Longford's daughters

The Pakenham Family have roots in both Ireland and England and have influenced both countries over the years. In Dublin they are commemorated in Longford and Aungier Streets and the former Pakenham Hall near Castlepollard in Co. Meath was renamed Tullynally (The Gaelic name) by Tom Pakenham (The current Lord Longford, although he does not use his titles) when he took it over in 1961. Tom Pakenham is himself an author and historian of note as are his sisters, Lady Antonia Fraser, Rachel Billington and Judith Kazantzis. The Longford Trust is headed up by another son, Kevin Pakenham.

Before he took over at ACPO Sir Hugh Orde was Chief Constable of Northern Ireland for seven years and his great task was “How do you tackle 2,000 unsolved murders stretching back more than 30 years?” That was the dilemma which confronted him when he was appointed Chief Constable of the new cross-community Police Service of Northern Ireland in 2002 in the wake of the Good Friday Agreement.

The controversial solution he came up with – to provide victims' families with what he calls "maximum disclosure" of everything known about the killings, even if the police could not convict a suspect – could be a model, he believes, both for police work with victims of unsolved crimes, and for other societies with a history of sectarian tensions.



"The question I faced," he said, "were there alternative ways of dealing with unsolved serious crime where convictions are unlikely? In Northern Ireland, they were unlikely because of the lapse of time and the potential for loss or contamination of evidence, or for witnesses to have died or forgotten what they saw. And the longer a crime is unsolved, the harder it is to solve and therefore the less effort is put into it.

"But at the same time I was acutely aware that the families of the victims, who ranged from the widows of police officers and soldiers to the relatives of an IRA terrorist killed by the SAS, have not had satisfaction in any sense of the word. If I was going to move policing forwards, I was going to have to deal with the past first." His lecture also reflected on the general treatment of victims of crime. "What we achieved demonstrates a different way of thinking about victims. Traditionalists might argue that the role of the police is to investigate crime and therefore the sort of work we did was for others to do. I would disagree with that. Victims are a key part of our work. They are citizens first and we have a duty as police to protect citizens and help them get on with their lives. And if this work we did made a difference to them, then it is of value."

The over 3,524 deaths in the modern conflict in Ireland are recorded in the Cain Index (http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/sutton/ ) and it makes for harrowing reading. In the 80’s I was living in Dublin and three of the deaths recorded on the Cain Index touched me personally. In 1983 as part of their “Fund Raising” activities the IRA kidnapped Don Tidey the head of an Irish Supermarket chain and held him for ransom. Four IRA men with their captive were discovered in a hide at Balinamore Woods, Co. Leitrim and in breaking out of the Irish army / Gardai cordon they killed a trainee policeman and a trainee soldier. A person who worked for me was the girlfriend of the young Garda recruit who was murdered in the name of “fundraising” and she had a complete breakdown and never returned to her job. In March 1987 my friend Peter Nesbit who lived in Belfast and was in the RUC Reserve was answering a hoax burglary call on the Crumlin Road when he was blown apart by a litter bin bomb. Peter was a friend through Scouting and part of a mixed (Protestant / Catholic group) in Ballysillan on the edge of the Ardoyne in Belfast who all moved out of the area to be able to stay in touch as Belfast became polarised. He really enjoyed coming down to Dublin as he could leave his personal protection revolver behind. Indeed in the gallows humour which pervaded the North he used to joke how tall the Gardai in Dublin seemed as it was too dangerous to be a tall police man in the North. In September 1987 the brother of a good friend was “lifted” by the IRA from the streets of Dublin and found later shot on a border road in Co. Armagh. My friend had to identify his brother’s body in Craigavon mortuary and I remember to this day the expression on his face when he returned to Dublin having completed this dreadful duty.


Longford Scholar display at the lecture

I use these personal examples of two members of the security forces on either side of the border and of a person who the IRA claimed was a member because I had an insight to the grief left behind and to my knowledge nobody was held to account for these murders through the courts. So there is a huge “Justice Gap” for the families of the victims. Sir Hugh Orde’s Historic Cases Team (HCT) obviously filtered the evidence (for all the right reasons) and dealt with families of the victims on a 1-2-1 relationship basis and left it to these relatives of the victims to decide if they wished to make the evidence public. In doing this he did a great service in providing a measure of closure to the victims’ families for which he deserves full credit. My own feeling is that there is a bigger picture here and that the whole Island of Ireland needs closure, needs to know what happened and needs to move on. Is there a case for saying at a future date (2020?) that ALL the Police Files, ALL the Intelligence Files, NORTH and SOUTH, warts and all, mistakes and all, rubbish and all, need to be put into the public domain in a single searchable archive. This would undoubtedly be a highly controversial event and a double edged sword in the public perception but in the examples I’ve given what had happened to the three victims would be known and the public could make up its own mind about these events. I honestly believe that Ireland needs to endure such a catharsis before it can truly move forward – the past must no longer be a mystery.

The Longford Lecture is also the opportunity to present the Longford Award to organisations, often unknown and badly supported, who work with offenders, victims and their families. Inquest, a charity that has worked for more than 20 years with the bereaved families of those who have died in custody, has been awarded the 2009 Longford Prize, sponsored by The Independent and established as part of a trust in memory of the late Labour cabinet minister and outspoken prison reformer Lord Longford.


A Prison Cell

As well as its work with individuals, Inquest is also a lobbying organisation, recently persuading the Government to adopt many of its proposals for improving the coroners system so that it better serves the interests of all bereaved people. Deborah Coles, co-director of Inquest, said: "Our small dedicated team is delighted to receive this award for upholding the human rights of bereaved people. We hope that this award brings wider attention to and understanding of our important work."

We appreciated the impact of Inquest and its work at the reception afterwards. We were humbled to speak to a wonderful women they had helped and hear what she had gone through. As part of the strangely titled “Operation Safeguard” when Wandsworth Prison was being renovated her son was transferred to Bedford Prison. The son had been a heroin addict and Bedford could not care for him as it did not have a methadone replacement unit and he killed himself in his prison cell. She could not speak more highly of the help Inquest gave her family and for our part we were humbled by her courage and dignity.

Commendations were also awarded by the prize judges to Keyring's Working for Justice project, which supports individuals with learning difficulties in the criminal justice system, and to Junior Smart for his work with gangs to reduce knife crime.
As for Sir Hugh’s other legacy in Ireland? In the few short years following the Patten Commission, admirable strides were made under his leadership in turning a sectarian, divisive police force, with the perception of blood on its hands, into a democratic, accountable police service with the respect of much of the community.

Just as Northern Ireland still has a long journey ahead of it, the police service still faces challenges, and the prospect of further reform, as the remaining Patten Commission recommendations are implemented. Strong foundations have been laid for a solid police service. It is now in the hands of the various players in Northern Ireland to support these foundations, and the continued reform process, to deliver to the people of Northern Ireland a police, at their service. Sir Hugh left Ireland with his reputation enhanced as a “straight copper.” Let me tell you in the Irish context this was no mean achievement.

See also;

2007 Longford Lecture by Professor Mary McAleese, President of Ireland

“Changing History”

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/11/longford-lecture-2007-changing-history.html

2008 Longford Lecture – debate by Sir Ian Blair, Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, Jason Warr and Phil Wheatley

“We Can't Build Our Way Out of Britain's Prisons' Crisis”

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/11/longford-lecture-2008-we-cant-build-our.html

For more about the work of the Longford Trust supporting prison reforms see;

http://www.longfordtrust.org/

Longford Lecture 2008 - We Can't Build Our Way Out of Britain's Prisons' Crisis

Once again on a cold London night we proceeded across the yard of Church House, Westminster, to the Hall for this year’s “Longford Lecture” organised by the Longford Trust and sponsored by the excellent Independent Newspaper which is owned by Tony O’Reilly’s Independent News and Media. I mention this as the Celtic Sage has read the Independent and admired its non-aligned journalism (Its original strapline was “A Newspaper, not a Views Paper” – although some, including Tony Blair, would dispute this now) even before it was Irish owned. Tony O’Reilly has long been associated with the Ireland Fund and the support for the lecture is admirable.


Lord Longford (Frank Pakenham)

Lord Longford (Frank Pakenham) was from the Anglo-Irish tradition and remained sentimentally attached to Ireland even though he probably broke every tradition of his Anglo-Irish ascendancy family. He was born into a military, Protestant, Conservative and Unionist clan, and educated at Eton and New College, Oxford. As an adult, he embraced the Roman Catholic Church and Irish nationalism. His failure to follow his soldier father, who was killed at Gallipoli when Longford was nine, remained an open wound. Longford's memory will live on, if not for the scale of his achievements then certainly because of his courage, tenacity and nobility in trying. He was a man of great intelligence and moral strength and the speakers and themes of the “Longford Lectures” reflect his life’s work. Last year’s lecture was on the theme of “Changing History” by the President of Ireland, Professor Mary McAleese, (http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/11/longford-lecture-2007-changing-history.html ).

This year, as a one-off, the trustees decided to stage a debate, chaired by Jon Snow on the theme “We Can't Build Our Way Out of Britain's Prisons' Crisis” The four principal speakers were Sir Ian Blair, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, Jason Warr, former Longford Scholar, now a Cambridge criminologist, and Phil Wheatley, director of NOMS, the National Offender Management Service.

This is the latest in the annual series of lectures organised by the Longford Trust on questions of social and penal reform. Past speakers have included President Mary McAleese of Ireland, Clive Stafford Smith, Brenda Hale QC, Cherie Booth QC, Archbishop John Sentamu and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The Trust also awards an annual Longford Prize to an outstanding individual or organisation working in the field of prison and social reform. It funds Longford Scholarships for ex-prisoners who want to rebuild their lives through education. And it offers financial support to Inside Time, the national newspaper for prisoners.

Offenders sentenced to community punishments should be forced into uniform to restore flagging trust in the criminal justice system, Sir Ian Blair declared last night. In his first public appearance since his resignation a month ago, the outgoing Metropolitan Police Commissioner argued such sentences had to be shown to be effective to win public approval. Sir Ian also called for early intervention with youngsters to deter them from carrying knives and cast doubt on the drive to build more prisons.

Speaking at the annual Longford lecture he said: "One of the things we are going to have to do is move towards is the very unpalatable situation where community punishments are visible.”They are in uniform, on the streets, doing jobs and people can see people are being sentenced to community projects that do not seem very pleasant." He explained that the public needed to see that community punishments were not a soft option. He added: "If they don't understand it's happening they will want people locked up."


Sir Ian Blair

The Commissioner asked: "Why do so many people think prison is the only answer? An element of the media and political community argues that the only good thing is to lock them up and everything else is namby pamby." Sir Ian, who leaves his post on 1st December, refused to discuss the background to his departure or shed light on his plans. Turning to the spate of knife murders in London, he said: "We can't arrest our way out of this. The only way we can stop this is to stop young people believing they have to carry a knife for their protection."

The Government has drawn up plans to open another 10,000 prison places, with up to 7,500 in three "Titan" jails. But Sir Ian suggested prison should be reserved for violent and persistent criminals. The public had to be confident fines were paid and bail bandits were punished by prison, Sir Ian argued. They should also be informed about the outcome of local court cases.


Church House, Westminster

The Labour peer Baroness Kennedy, a leading human rights lawyer, attacked "Titan" jails plans, saying that large prisons were less effective than smaller jails at rehabilitating offenders and tackling suicide and self-harming among inmates. She condemned the booming prison population as a "shame" on the nation, stating that Britain had more prisoners per head than Libya. Lady Kennedy said: "There is no way we can build our way out of a prisons crisis. It is a shame on society that we have as many people in prison as we do. Since 1992 we have doubled the number of people in prison. We are the prison capital of Western Europe. We have seen a Dutch auction between the political parties about who is tougher."

Baroness Helena Kennedy QC

Phil Wheatley, director general of the National Offender Management Service, said he had no direct influence over the number of people behind bars. He argued that the size of prison estate was the result of politicians' and judges' decisions. But he acknowledged that the public tended to take a hard-line view on dealing with offenders and politicians had to take that into account. Before the lecture, Grendon Prison, near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, received the annual Longford Prize in recognition of its work in rehabilitating violent offenders through intensive group therapy.


Frank Longford said often during his life that he would like his epitaph to be ‘the outcasts' outcast’. It summed up a long career as a politician, writer and campaigner on social and prison policy which was all about standing up for the unpopular, the unloved, the underdog and those on the margins of society. He was first a minister in Clement Attlee’s post Second World War Labour government, where as Deputy Foreign Secretary he played a pivotal role in the reconstruction of West Germany. From 1964 to 1968, he was a member of Harold Wilson’s Cabinet.

He started visiting prisoners in 1930 and continued until his death. He was assistant to Sir William Beveridge on his landmark report of 1942 which laid the basis for the Welfare State. In 1956 he founded New Bridge, one of the first organisations in Britain seeking to create links between prisoners and the community, and in 1963 chaired the committee on crime whose recommendations led to the establishment of the parole system. On leaving the government, he launched New Horizon, a charity for young people in need.

The Pakenham Family have roots in both Ireland and England and have influenced both countries over the years. In Dublin they are commemorated in Longford and Aungier Streets and the former Pakenham Hall near Castlepollard in Co. Meath was renamed Tullynally (The Gaelic name) by Tom Pakenham (The current Lord Longford, although he does not use his titles) when he took it over in 1961. Tom Pakenham is himself an author and historian of note as are his sisters, Lady Antonia Fraser, Rachel Billington and Judith Kazantzis.


Tom Pakenham


Lady Antonia Fraser


Rachel Billington

The plight of the underdog motivated Frank Pakenham throughout his life and although he is associated in the public mind with his campaign to free the Moors Murderer Myra Hindley, many would argue she was an unworthy focus of his attention and obscured his wider message about penal reform, a concern which is even more pressing today when Britain, despite the evidence of failure, locks up proportionately more of its population than any other European Country.

In its bid to establish itself as the party of law or order, Tony Blair’s Labour government introduced a series of draconian measures, including a tougher sentencing policy for petty offenders. The fact remains that in the UK so many prisons are bad and most prisoners are not re-educated or rehabilitated but come out more corrupted and go onto re-offend. Of the current prison population of over 80,000 shamefully it is estimated that over one in eleven prisoners are ex-service personnel who have developed mental, alcohol or drug problems after leaving the forces and 8% are foreign prisoners. A high proportion of the convicts interviewed in the study had suffered some form of post-traumatic stress disorder after leaving the forces. Often their convictions were for drug- or alcohol-related violence. Ex-services charities said the findings highlighted the difficulty which many former soldiers face in making the transition to civilian life. The National Association of Probation Officers (NAPO), which carried out the research, called on the Government to do more to tackle mental health problems suffered by people who have fought in war zones. It said that around 24,000 veterans are either in jail, on parole or serving community punishment orders after having been convicted of crimes. They make up around nine per cent of the prison population.

The relative number of women prisoners is rising even more sharply than that of the male inmates—more than doubling since the mid-1990s. Twice as many women are jailed for their first offence compared to men, while few female offenders pose any threat to the public. The frequent imprisoning of mothers has an enormously disruptive effect upon their children and family life. One third of women imprisoned in British jails have children under the age of five.

Prison Inspector reports in some prisons show eleven per cent of inmates claimed to have been assaulted by officers at the jail and one mentally-disturbed prisoner had been denied a wash or change of clothes for weeks because staff thought he was faking his illness. The Prison Officers Association has said that because of understaffing at many prisons “they have been unable to provide the basics, like showers, clean clothes and mail, on a regular basis." They said this had also led to high levels of sick leave among officers. Their General Secretary commented; "At the end of the day cash is king and while there are votes in health and education, there are no votes in prisons, which means they will continue to be under-resourced," he said.

So the cause that Lord Longford espoused and which his charity and the Longford Lecture seek to remind us of is even more relevant than ever and Britain as a society remains challenged by the disconnect between cause and effect in its Penal Policy. As for Frank Pakenham himself we should remember the quality of his humanity and commitment to the underdog best, and affectionately, summed up by his daughter Judith Kazantzis in her introduction to the Longford Prize;


Judith Kazantzis

“While he had his strength, he never failed to answer the prisoners, often despairing and lonely, who appealed to him for practical help or just friendship. When I think back over the years to countless phone calls from unknown men, ringing to ask for Frank, or for Lord Longford, maybe to report progress on their case, or just to confide, I see how he was an inspiration from my student days, in the deepest sense: in his belief in equality and justice, those two pillars of a truly free society.

No one is less free than the prisoner. How simply I heard my father put this: how irrefutably. He said that society cannot go on punishing and punishing the prisoner, who is already punished with the loss of his freedom, with the key thrown away. The prisoner must be treated with human dignity. He or she absolutely must be offered the chance of a new life after prison.

My father drew every day until he died from the teachings of Jesus Christ. The prodigal son was a story we read to him on his deathbed. He himself was prodigal in his prison visits, often in the worst of weathers, seeing complex, long incarcerated people at the end of exhausting journeys. He was prodigal just as much in his public speaking out for reform of our prison system. I believe he had it right: to work for the individual, to fight for the wider change, like one hand holding the other hand.”

Longford Lecture 2007 - Changing History.

I walked across Dean’s Yard behind Westminster Abbey on a frosty and dark London Friday evening (November 23, 2007) with some anticipation to attend the annual “Longford Lecture” being delivered this year by the President of Ireland, Professor Mary McAleese, on the theme of “Changing History”. As I walked through the splendid surroundings I did have the evil thought that the Commissioners of the Church of England should be done for receiving stolen goods being the main beneficiaries of the abolition of the monasteries by Henry VIII and the confiscation of their property. In Ireland they were represented by the splendidly titled “Board of the First Fruits” to which Catholics had to pay a tithe on their harvest and burial fees. This did not make for happy natives but has endowed Ireland with many splendid, if underused churches!


Church House Westminster seen from Dean's Yard

Banishing such evil thoughts the walk gave me time to reflect on how much times have changed that an Irish President should be hosted in such splendid surroundings as the Assembly Hall of Church House and of the wonderful contribution of the Pakenham Family to Ireland and England. In Dublin they are commemorated in Longford and Aungier Streets and the former Pakenham Hall near Castlepollard in Co. Meath was renamed Tullynally (The Gaelic name) by Tom Pakenham (The current Lord Longford, although he does not use his titles) when he took it over in 1961. Tom Pakenham is himself an author and historian of note as are his sisters, Lady Antonia Fraser and Rachel Billington. Frank Pakenham (Longford) wrote in 1935 “Peace by Ordeal”, the definitive account of the Irish Treaty negotiations and his wife, Elizabeth Longford was also a noted writer and historian. His brother, Edward Longford was the founder and great supporter of the Gate Theatre in Dublin. Francis Aungier Pakenham died, aged 95, in 2001 and this is the sixth Longford Lecture where previous speakers have included Cherie Booth and Desmond Tutu.




Tullynally Hall


Frank Longford said often during his life that he would like his epitaph to be ‘the outcasts' outcast’. It summed up a long career as a politician, writer and campaigner on social and prison policy which was all about standing up for the unpopular, the unloved, the underdog and those on the margins of society. He was first a minister in Clement Attlee’s post Second World War Labour government, where as Deputy Foreign Secretary he played a pivotal role in the reconstruction of West Germany. From 1964 to 1968, he was a member of Harold Wilson’s Cabinet.

He started visiting prisoners in 1930 and continued until his death. He was assistant to Sir William Beveridge on his landmark report of 1942 which laid the basis for the Welfare State. In 1956 he founded New Bridge, one of the first organisations in Britain seeking to create links between prisoners and the community, and in 1963 chaired the committee on crime whose recommendations led to the establishment of the parole system. On leaving the government, he launched New Horizon, a charity for young people in need.

Though he remained sentimentally attached to Ireland, Longford broke every tradition of his Anglo-Irish ascendancy family. He was born into a military, Protestant, Conservative and Unionist clan, and educated at Eton and New College, Oxford. As an adult, he embraced the Roman Catholic Church and Irish nationalism. His failure to follow his soldier father, who was killed at Gallipoli when Longford was nine, remained an open wound. Longford's memory will live on, if not for the scale of his achievements then certainly because of his courage, tenacity and nobility in trying. He was a man of great intelligence and moral strength and the speakers and themes of the “Longford Lectures” reflect his life’s work.

Tonight’s speaker, Mary Patricia McAleese is the eighth, and current, President of Ireland. She is Ireland's second female president and the world's first woman president to succeed another. She was first elected president in 1997 and was re-elected, without contest, to another seven year term in 2004. Born in Belfast in Northern Ireland, prior to becoming president she was a barrister, journalist and academic.

She was born Mary Patricia Leneghan in Ardoyne, Belfast where she grew up. Her family was forced to leave the area by loyalists when the Troubles broke out. This is something in her life I can relate to as I had many friends from Ballysillan on the edge of the Ardoyne who during the “troubles” had to move outside Belfast to keep in touch as they were “mixed”, both catholic and protestant. She was educated at St. Dominic's High School, the Queen's University of Belfast (from which she graduated in 1973), and Trinity College in Dublin. She was called to the Northern Ireland Bar in 1974 and is today also a member of the Bar in the Republic of Ireland. In 1975 she was appointed Reid Professor of Criminal Law, Criminology and Penology in Trinity College, succeeding Mary Robinson (a succession that would repeat itself twenty years later, when McAleese assumed the presidency).

The introductions and the presentation of the Longford Prize to Prisoners Abroad were by the journalists Jon Snow and Peter Stanford, Lord Longford’s biographer. Ivan Fallon, MD of Independent News and Media, spoke to introduce the President as the evening is sponsored by the Independent Newspaper. I took particular satisfaction from this as I have always read and admired the Independent, even before it became an Irish owned newspaper. Also in the redoubtable Bob Fisk the Independent provides a platform for an outstanding journalist who in his dedication and integrity in writing truthfully about the Middle East and the effects of western policy reflects the lonely furrow ploughed in the past by Frank Pakenham.

The President was warmly welcomed by the large attendance, who spontaneously stood to greet her. She outlined how the whole of Ireland faces the "most exciting chapter" in its history following the establishment of a new power-sharing government in Belfast. As someone who grew up in Belfast at the height of the Troubles, she declared the "nightmare is over", with a spirit of reconciliation developing between former enemies. She delivered her upbeat vision of the opportunities ahead for Ireland and spoke of the inspiration she has drawn from Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness taking office together in May as First Minister and deputy First Minister and described it as a "watershed in political developments on our island, a vital step forward in our journey of reconciliation".

The President warned that the Northern Ireland Executive still faces a huge task in eliminating the "embedded culture of sectarianism", but visible progress is under way. She added: "We are in fact right at the very start of the most exciting chapter ever in the history of the island of Ireland." She said the development has helped the country to "look the past in the face" and approach the future with fresh confidence. "For those of us who have grown up through the Troubles, the reduction in negativity and the growing generosity of spirit has been little short of miraculous."

Her address was interspersed with humour mentioning the historian’s assessment about the difference between our nations that “The Irish never forget and the English never remember.” She commented another academic who suggested that the current developments meant the end of Irish History with “we would be so lucky” and recalled the Russian Proverb “The way ahead is clear, it is the past which is in dispute.” She emphasised the positive and continuing changes in an Ireland which has moved on from its long tradition of emigration to embrace immigration with 12% of the population born outside Ireland and members of the Irish Diaspora returning. She also drew lessons from the life of Frank Longford, a man who wrote a book about “Humility” and sought the good in those who were marginalised.

It was a well balanced, thoughtful, personal and inspiring address which drew praise from Jon Snow who mentioned that Frank Longford would have taken particular delight in it being delivered in the Assembly Hall of the Church of England where such much intrigue has taken place. Afterwards there was a reception and an opportunity to meet the president. The company was exalted with the Pakenham Family, including Antonia Fraser and Nobel Laureate, Harold Pinter, Penal campaigners, Jon Snow, Peter Stanford, Ivan Fallon, Peter York and Mary Kenny and a large number of Irish people living in London. Looking around at this assemblage and the highly democratic way we were all brought together to commemorate Frank Longford’s life it occurred to me that this was a room full of people not motivated by greed or ego but by a desire to leave a mark to make the world a better and more humane place. I’m sure Frank Longford would have been pleased that vicariously he had brought such people together to continue his work.


Áras an Uachtaráin, Phoenix Park, Dublin

Some years ago a young journalist wrote to the then President of Ireland asking could she visit Áras an Uachtaráin (The President’s Official Residence) and “be received”. She explained she kept reading in the paper that “so and so” had gone to Áras an Uachtaráin and had “been received” by the President. She explained that she was curious about this, particularly as she had never been asked. The President wrote back and invited her and soon Maeve Binchy (for it was her) and her then partner (now husband) Gordon Snell were on their way to “be received”. Well I and all the other Irish exiles in the hall to hear our President were very proud to be there and one and all we felt we were received. Our President represented us well and stirred the company with a wonderful address, the atmosphere and spirit in the marvellous setting was tangible and wondrous. She left to a standing ovation and the regard and warmth shown to her mirrors the difference in perception of Ireland and Irish people in England over the past decade. Like Frank Longford, an English politician and an Irish patriot, she focussed us on two nations and peoples who have gone from emphasising difference to celebrating what we have in common and building a better future together whilst not ignoring what makes us special. In doing this she has helped us all to move to a better place.