Building Networks: Voices of Women in Peace Mediation on the island of Ireland

Report from the project Irish Consortium on the Promotion of Women in Peace Mediation and Negotiations (Authored by Heidi Riley and Emma Murphy, March 2020)

Executive Summary

This report documents the outcomes of the research project titled, ‘Irish Consortium on the Promotion of Women in Peace Mediation and Negotiations’, carried out between June 2019 and December 2019. The project examines the rich and diverse expertise of women living on the island of Ireland who work in peace mediation or use mediative practice in their peacebuilding work.  The research was initiated in response to the dismally low figures for women’s inclusion in high-level peace talks, and also the persistent lack of recognition of the vital and extensive local-level mediation and peacebuilding work that women engage in across the globe.

The research was initiated with the objective of exploring the experiences, challenges, needs, and desires of women working in peace mediation and peacebuilding on the island of Ireland. The project also aimed to assess the viability of developing a network or consortium of women mediators and peacebuilders who use mediative practice across the island of Ireland. Such an initiative was conceptualized to help combat the underrepresentation of women in the field, as well as to counter the trend of discounting women’s work at the grassroots level in mediation and peacebuilding. To achieve these goals, the project held four focus groups with women who work in the field of mediation and peacebuilding. These were held in: Belfast, Derry/Londonderry, Dundalk and Dublin