THE ANNUAL JOHN HUME LECTURE
In 2001, the Annual John Hume Lecture was inaugurated at the MacGill Summer School as a tribute to the social and political work done over the past decades by the then leader of the SDLP, and Nobel laureate. The lecture is intended in particular to celebrate John Hume’s major contribution to defending constitutional politics and to the peace process which brought about the power sharing government in Stormont and, subsequently, political, social and economic stability as well as, with the exception of the activities of dissident republican groupings, an end to decades of violence in Northern Ireland.
The inaugural lecture was delivered by Mr Hume himself and in the following years by the then Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Brian Cowen TD, the former Taoiseach, Dr. Garret Fitzgerald, the then President of the European Parliament, Mr. Pat Cox MEP, the then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, the Rt. Hon. Peter Hain MP, the then Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland, Dame Nuala O’Loan, Fr. Alec Reid C.Ss.R and the former President of the Methodist Church, Revd. Harold Good (jointly), peace activists who supervised IRA decommissioning, Minister of State, Dr Martin Mansergh TD and last year by the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin.
Last year, the lecture was delivered by the Deputy First Minister of the Northern Ireland Executive, Mr Martin McGuinness MP MLA.
This year it will be delivered by the Taoiseach, Mr Enda Kenny TD.