40 Years on – Reflections on How An International Fund Can Support Peace and Prosperity

40 Years on – Reflections on How an International Fund Supported Peace and Prosperity in Ireland

On Thursday the 24th of September at Riddel Hall, Queen’s University Belfast​, we hosted ‘40 Years on – Reflections on How an International Fund Supported Peace and Prosperity in Ireland​’, with opening addresses from Thomas P. O’Neill III, son of Speaker of the House of Representatives Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill Jr, Seán Donlon, former Irish Ambassador to the United States, and former SDLP Leader Mark Durkan.

This was followed by the panel ‘Reflections on the Lobby in US to Invest in Peace and Prosperity in Ireland’with Seán Donlon, Mark Durkan, Thomas P. O’Neill III, and Tom Foley, who worked for Senator Joe Biden and who was an alternate Observer to the International Fund for Ireland. This panel was facilitated by Professor Paul Arthur.

Our second panel ‘The Impact of the Investment in Peace and Social and Economic Projects’ heard from former Chairs of IFI Willie McCarter and Paddy Harte, and Alf McCreary, author of A Fund of Goodwill. This panel was facilitated by Hume Foundation Secretary Tim Attwood.

Our third and final panel was titled ‘The Positive Impact on Communities’, a conversation with Emma Shaw, Executive Director of Phoenix Education Centre, Dympna McGlade of the Peace Summit Partnership, and Kayla Henry of YouthAction NI. This panel was also facilitated by Tim Attwood.

Post the Anglo Irish Agreement in 1985, there was an intense bi-partisan lobby of Capitol Hill to encourage the US administration to provide investment and assistance to promote peace and prosperity in Northern Ireland.  Key driving forces in this effort were Nobel Laureate John Hume, Speaker of the United States Congress, Tip O’Neill, and Senator Edward Kennedy.

In 1986, the International Fund for Ireland was established by the British and Irish Governments with funding support from the United States Administration.

From the outset, the fund promoted economic and social projects in Northern Ireland and in Border areas and encouraged contact, dialogue and reconciliation between the two major traditions.

This model of investing in social and economic aid as a major component of peacebuilding has been given increasing prominence in its ability to build both sustainable peace and development.

 

 

“The International Fund for Ireland was a direct result of John Hume’s vision, ensuring the most marginalised communities would be part of a better and more tolerant society.” ​

– Paddy Harte, former Chair of IFI ​

 

“The IFI has played a vital role as Northern Ireland travelled the difficult road to peace and stability. It has been a fitting monument to the extraordinary work which speaker O’Neill and Senator Kennedy have done for peace. There was no domestic political gain in it for them; if anything, it cost them support in some American-Irish circles. They acted from a genuine love for Ireland, and a commitment to non-violent ways of achieving peace and reconciliation.” ​

– Seán Donlon, former Irish ambassador to the United States ​

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“Jimmy Carter was the first US president to echo Hume’s message, calling in 1977 on all sides, including Irish-Americans, not to support violence. His statement also promised additional US investment in Northern Ireland to support a political solution. Kennedy, who had pushed for the statement, called it “the most important and constructive initiative ever taken by an American president on the Irish issue”. Hume pushed for US support for investment in Northern Ireland and in 1985, Congress created the International Fund for Ireland, which appropriated $20 million annually for creating jobs in Northern Ireland. Supported by President Ronald Reagan, the fund made good on President Carter’s pledge.” ​

– Ambassador Nancy Soderberg ​

 

“The (International) fund was a subtle way to bring people from both communities together…..it used job creation to give people an economic focus. In a low-key way, the fund brought people from both communities into projects to provide a human dynamic and develop relationships that would not have existed in a divided society.”​

– Willie McCarter, Former Chair IFI​

 

Biographies  

Tom O’Neill

Tom O’Neill is founder and CEO of O’Neill and Associates, New England’s leading public affairs and government consulting firm, and Founding Partner of Seven Letter, a top-ranked communications agency. A former Massachusetts state legislator and Lieutenant Governor (1975–1983), he created the Commonwealth’s Office of Federal-State Relations and secured federal transportation funding, also serving on the U.S. State Department Ambassadorial Screening Committee. He has held senior roles on health care boards including Tufts Health Plan, Mount Auburn Hospital and Caregroup, alongside long service as a Boston College trustee and involvement with Regis College and the International Fund for Animal Welfare. A leading figure in U.S.-Ireland relations for nearly five decades, he was appointed by Governor Maura Healey to the Massachusetts-Ireland Trade Commission in 2025 and serves on the boards of the American Ireland Fund, RISE Global Foundation, the County Donegal Diaspora Committee and the Abbey Theatre. He is active with Cristo Rey Boston, The Salvation Army and Catholic Democrats. The son of the late Speaker Tip O’Neill, he holds degrees from Boston College and Harvard’s Kennedy School.

Seán Donlon 

Seán Donlon was born in 1940 in Co. Meath, Ireland, and educated at Maynooth Seminary and University College Dublin. He began his public service career at the Department of Finance in 1961 before spending 24 years at the Department of Foreign Affairs, including postings in Bonn, as Consul General in Boston (1969–71), and on the Northern Ireland desk at Headquarters (1971–78), where he played a behind-the-scenes role in the 1974 Sunningdale Agreement. As Ambassador to the United States (also accredited to Mexico) from 1978 to 1981, he is credited with shifting Irish-American opinion away from support for the IRA and building Congressional backing for the Irish government’s position, working closely with figures such as Tip O’Neill and Ted Kennedy; he also famously traced Ronald Reagan’s Irish ancestry to Ballyporeen. He went on to serve as Secretary General of the Department of Foreign Affairs (1981–87), playing a major role in negotiating the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement. He later worked at Guinness Peat Aviation in Shannon (1987–94), served as Special Advisor to Taoiseach John Bruton (1994–97), and was Chancellor of the University of Limerick (2002–07), Executive Director of the EBRD in London (2013–16), and Chair of the Press Council of Ireland (2015–22).

Thomas P. Foley

Thomas P. Foley, J.D., L.H.D. (honoris causa), served as an aide to Congressional leadership and as foreign policy counsel to then-Senator Joseph Biden on Ireland and Northern Ireland issues, working on the Anglo-Irish Agreement, the US–UK Extradition Treaty and the International Fund for Ireland. He lived in Belfast from 1979–81 during the hunger strikes, running an award-winning integrated sports program and serving as Executive Member for Justice Issues for the Peace People, helping found the Committee on the Administration of Justice. He later led Labor and Industry programs in Pennsylvania Governor Robert Casey’s Cabinet, headed the state’s two largest NGOs, and served two terms as a university president. A published author on Northern Ireland, including in Yale’s international law journal, he was named to the Irish Voice’s top 100 Irish-Americans list in both education and law. President Biden appointed him US Observer to the International Fund for Ireland, where he served from 2021 to 2024

Mark Durkan

Mark Durkan is a politician who represented the constituency of Foyle in the Northern Ireland Assembly from 1998 to 2010 and in Westminster from 2005 to 2017. He served as leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) from 2001 to 2010, and as Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland from November 2001 to October 2002. Prior to becoming an elected representative, Mark Durkan served as Deputy President of Queen’s Students’ Union and Deputy President of the Union of Students in Ireland, before working as an assistant to SDLP leader John Hume, who had been elected to the British Parliament in 1983. Mark served as a member of the SDLP team at the multiparty talks beginning in 1996 to negotiate an end to the armed conflict in Northern Ireland and is recognised as having played an important role in the drafting of the Agreement.

William McCarter

Willie McCarter was born and raised in Derry and graduated from Trinity College Dublin and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. At 25 he became Managing Director of his family’s underwear, T-shirt and sportswear company, WP McCarter and Co Ltd in Buncrana, Co Donegal, which grew to around 450 employees. After Fruit of the Loom acquired the company in 1987, McCarter became CEO of the cross-border Donegal–Derry enterprise, employing 3,000 people producing a million T-shirts and 400,000 sweatshirts weekly for the European market. He joined the Board of the International Fund for Ireland in 1989 and chaired it from 1993 to 2005, focusing on the most disadvantaged areas and using economic projects to foster reconciliation; by 2005 the Fund had raised €1 billion from international donors and helped create 50,000 jobs through roughly 5,000 projects. With John Teeling, he co-founded Cooley Distillery in 1987. More recently he has supported the launch of Powerscourt Distillery in Co Wicklow and advises the Irish whiskey industry.

Paddy Harte

Paddy Harte is a management consultant specialising in public affairs, peacebuilding and socio-economic development, with extensive experience in the Irish border regions and, more recently, international conflict areas. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce and a Master of Business Studies from UCD. He joined the Board of the International Fund for Ireland in 2015, chairing its Peace Impact Programme and Personal Youth Development Programme, and served as Chair of the Fund from 2019 to 2025, having previously worked as a senior development advisor there for over 20 years on reconciliation under the Anglo-Irish and Good Friday Agreements. He was a senior lecturer at Atlantic Technological University and Joint Programme Director of its cross-border MSc in Innovation and Leadership in the Public Sector. He chaired the Donegal Gathering 2013, co-founded the Donegal Local Development Agency and the Donegal/Tyrone Partnership, and served on the Board of Community Finance. He has worked as a leadership coach at Queen’s University Belfast’s Clinton Leadership Institute and sits on the Collins Institute think tank board. He received the John and Pat Hume Quiet Peacemakers Award and the Donegal People of the Year Award.

Alf McCreary 

Alf McCreary is an author and journalist. Alf worked full-time for the Belfast Telegraph from 1964 to1984 as reporter, senior feature writer, and leader writer. He won several awards for his reporting of the Troubles, including UK Regional Journalist of the Year and runner-up as UK News Reporter of the Year. Alf also won the Northern Ireland journalist of the Year Award, as well as Feature Writer of the Year and Columnist of the Year. Alf is the author of ‘A Fund of Goodwill’ which captures the International Fund for Ireland’s work from 1986 to 2008. It documents the Fund’s history from its inception, as well as focusing on some of its specific interventions, showing the human impact of its work. 

Emma Shaw

Emma Shaw, is Executive Director of the Phoenix Education Centre.  Emma’s leadership extends far beyond her role at Phoenix Education Centre. As a Board of Governor at a local high school, a committee member of the Ormeau Road Credit Union, and Assistant Secretary at East Belfast FC, she actively contributes to the betterment of her community. A sought-after public speaker, Emma champions education and community politics. Her tagline, “community-based, community-focused, and community-led,” encapsulates her dedication to fostering an inclusive educational environment. Nominated to the prestigious AMBIT program, Emma regularly engages with senior civil servants and politicians, including the Equality Commissioner, Attorney General for NI, alongside other local politicians. In her capacity as Executive Director, Emma strategically guides Phoenix Education Centre, securing grant funding and developing alternative revenue streams for financial sustainability. Her hands-on approach is evident in personnel management, recruitment, and the enrolment of learners into diverse programs.

Dympna McGlade 

Dympna McGlade is a retired community development and peacebuilding practitioner with over 45 years’ experience. Growing up during the civil rights campaign, she was shaped early by the conflict before studying in England and returning to Belfast to begin her career in community relations. Her first role took her into some of the city’s most divided areas, working as a community development worker at Belfast City Council, first from Divis Flats in the early 1980s, then in Ardoyne, and later in Antrim. She went on to serve as Policy Director at the Community Relations Council, where she was motivated to bring evidence and research to bear on policymaking as well as grassroots community development, helping produce publications such as Towards a Shared Society. She remains active as an advisory member to the John & Pat Hume Foundation and co-leads the Peace Summit Partnership. A continuing social justice activist, she volunteers with a range of organisations and is a member of Unite the Union’s Retired Members Branch in Belfast and has spoken publicly about the importance of political will, community involvement and a renewed peace plan for sustainable reconciliation. 

Kayla Henry YouthAction NI 

Kayla Henry, from Coleraine, is a disability and chronic illness advocate involved with YouthAction NI, Northern Ireland’s youth work and youth arts charity, which works to improve life chances for young people and tackle inequality across the region.