Northern Ireland

Dermot Nesbitt is a member of the UUP and was a senior negotiator in the negotiations leading to the Belfast Agreement. He is Junior Minister in the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister in the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Gary Kent is the Westminster correspondent of the Belfast magazine Fortnight and a political activist.

Harry Barnes is the Labour MP for Derbyshire North East and a member of the Northern Ireland Affairs Select Committee at Westminster and the British-Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body. He is also Joint President of the cross-party peace group New Dialogue.

Kate Fearon is a founding member of the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition. She was the NIWC’s Chief of Staff in the negotiations for the Belfast Agreement and in the inaugural Northern Ireland Assembly. She went on to become Deputy Head of the Political Department of the Office of the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 2009 and 2010 she was the Governance Advisor on rule of law issues to the UK-led Helmand Provincial Reconstruction Team in Afghanistan. Until 2012 she was the Head of the Mitrovica Office for the International Civilian Representative in Kosovo. Most recently she has been working for the UK Department for International Development in Sudan.

At the time of writing, Mark Durkan was Minister of Finance and Personnel in the new Northern Ireland Executive. A member of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) he was a senior member of the talks team in the Brooke talks and in the negotiations leading to the Belfast Agreement.

Martin Mansergh is a member of Fianna Fáil. He was special adviser to the Taoiseach 1987–94 and since 1997, and head of research for Fianna Fáil 1981–87 and 1994–97.

Monica McWilliams is a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly for South Belfast, and co-founder of the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition and senior negotiator in the talks leading to the Belfast Agreement.

Nigel Dodds OBE is Minister for Social Development in the new Northern Ireland Executive. He was a DUP member of the Northern Ireland Assembly 1982–85 and represented the party in the 1991 Brooke talks and was a delegate to the multi-party talks 1996–97.

Seàn Mag Uidhir was a republican prisoner from 1976 to 1984 and then an activist until 1997, including a period as Sinn Féin cultural officer, three years working on the republican newspaper An Phoblact/Republican News and two years in the Sinn Féin Publicity Department.

Thomas Abraham is the UK and Ireland correspondent of The Hindu. He has reported on the Irish conflict as well as Sri Lanka and the Balkans for the last ten years.