Professor Monica McWilliams, social scientist

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 9 June 2019

⏱️ 37 minutes

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Summary

Professor Monica McWilliams is an academic, peace campaigner and former politician. In 1996, she was the co-founder of the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition political party and was elected to a seat at the Multi-Party Peace Negotiations, which led to the Belfast (Good Friday) Peace Agreement in 1998. She served as a member of the Northern Ireland Legislative Assembly from 1998-2003 and was the Chief Commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission from 2005-2011. She continues her academic research into domestic violence and is Emeritus Professor in the Transitional Justice Institute at Ulster University. She also specialises in conflict resolution and working with women who are in conflict situations. Alongside her academic work and peace work she currently sits on the Independent Reporting Commission for Northern Ireland. BOOK CHOICE: Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing Volumes 4 and 5 (known as the Women’s anthology) LUXURY ITEM: A snorkel CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Il Postino by Luis Bacalov Presenter: Lauren Laverne Producer: Sarah Taylor

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts
0:04.7	Hello, I'm Lauren LeVern and this is the Desert Island Disks Podcast.
0:08.4	Every week I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, book and luxury they'd want to take
0:13.1	with them if they were cast away to a desert island.
0:16.6	And for right reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast.
0:21.0	I hope you enjoy listening.
0:30.0	Music Music
0:40.0	My cast away this week is Professor Monica McWilliams.
0:43.2	She co-founded the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition Party in 1996, bringing women from
0:48.3	different communities together in a bid to find peace.
0:51.7	Despite facing intimidation, opposition and even violence, two years later she was a
0:56.2	signatory to the Belfast Agreement, also known as the Good Friday Agreement, setting out
1:01.2	terms for peace in Northern Ireland.
1:03.4	She later became Chief Commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission.
1:07.6	As a social scientist, her area of interest is domestic violence, especially in societies
1:12.8	touched by conflict.
1:14.4	In the 1990s, her study investigating the connections between paramilitary violence and abuse
1:19.8	in intimate relationships was the first of its kind.
1:23.3	Last year she co-authored an updated report looking at the situation today.
1:27.3	Beyond Northern Ireland, her peace-building work has taken her all over the world.
1:31.4	She says, in working with people from different communities, I have learned to not only be
1:36.2	rooted and proud of my own background, but to shift, to be able to understand how people
	...

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