NUI Galway are to launch the Brendan Duddy Archive on Tuesday 22 November, following a half-day symposium ‘Negotiating Peace’.
The papers of Brendan Duddy, which were deposited at NUI Galway in 2009, provide a unique insight into the resolution of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The Duddy archive includes coded diaries of contact and messages exchanged between the British Government and the leaders of the IRA, who were secretly in contact through Duddy at various points between 1973 and 1993.
The Duddy papers are directly related to the papers of Ruairí Brádaigh, former president of Sinn Féin, which are also held in the James Hardiman Library. Together, these archives constitute one of the most important sources for understanding the attempts to resolve conflict in Ireland that culminated in the Good Friday Agreement of 1998.
Dr. Niall Ó Dochartaigh said of the papers “They show the remarkable persistence and consistency of Brendan Duddy’s conviction that the conflict could only be ended through a negotiated settlement that included the Provisionals. From the early 1970s Brendan Duddy worked determinedly and in complete secrecy to try to draw the two sides closer together, a lifetime’s work that eventually came to fruition in the negotiated settlement of the late 1990s.”
Also included in the archives are several hours of filmed interviews with Brendan Duddy by Dr. Niall Ó Dochartaigh. These interviews cover key historical events in which Brendan Duddy was involved.
NUI Galway’s School of Political Science and Sociology and the University of Ulster’s International Conflict Research Centre (INCORE) have collaborated to make a selection of primary documents available freely online through CAIN (University of Ulster’s Conflict Archive) and NUI Galway’s library website.
University Librarian at NUI Galway, John Cox commented “The deposit of the papers at NUI Galway is thanks to the generosity and kindness of Brendan Duddy and his family who placed a great deal of trust in the University and its archive services to take care of the papers. This is a very significant addition to our archival collection.”
The Negotiating Peace symposium is to include speakers such as BBC investigative reporter Peter Taylor; former senior Irish diplomat Seán Ó hUiginn; former senior British government official Mechael Oatley; and Professor Paul Arthur, Honorary Associate at INCORE.
The symposium will be held on Tuesday 22 November at 2.30pm in The View, Bailey Allen Hall, followed by the launch of the Brendan Duddy Archive at 4.30pm in Aula Maxima, with a reception at 6.00pm. Numbers at the symposium are limited, so register at www.conference.ie to ensure a place.
21 Nov 2011
by Jessica Thompson
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