MOUNT VERNON — A key negotiator in efforts to bring peace to Northern Ireland will speak on “Working for Peace in a World of Terror” on Thursday, March 20, at Cornell College and St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Cedar Rapids.
Sean Farren was a senior negotiator for the Good Friday Agreement signed April 10, 1998, establishing the peace process in Northern Ireland, where thousands have died in three decades of violence brought on by religious and social conflicts. Farren’s talks, during the week of St. Patrick’s Day, Ireland’s national holiday, are for the annual Small-Thomas Lecture, “Dreams of Peace: Visions of the Future.” The lecture series is a collaboration between Cornell, which is affiliated with the United Methodist Church, and St. Paul’s.
Farren’s Cornell lecture is at 11 a.m. in King Chapel. The lecture at St. Paul’s, which includes a program by a Cornell music ensemble, is at 7 p.m., followed by a reception. Admission is free at both sites.
Farren, a former teacher in Northern Ireland, Europe and Africa, was a lecturer in the School of Education at the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland when he was elected in 1982 to the Northern Ireland Assembly. He has held government positions as Minister for Higher and Further Education, Training, and Employment, and Minister of Finance and Personnel.
A member of the predominantly Catholic Social Democratic and Labour Party, Farren was a senior negotiator during the inter-party talks (1996-98) that led to the Good Friday Agreement. His 2000 book, “Paths to a Settlement in Northern Ireland,” co-authored with Robert F. Mulvihill, details the negotiations that led to the agreement.
The Small-Thomas Lecture, which addresses diversity and community from a faith perspective, is in its fourth year. It was conceived and funded by Richard Small, a past chair of the Cornell board of trustees and a 1950 graduate, and his wife, honorary alumna and trustee Norma Thomas Small. The lecture series honors Norma’s father, the late Cecil Thomas, who was Cornell buildings and grounds superintendent (1956-1973) and consultant (1979-1991), and her mother, the late June Thomas.