We renewed our partnership once again with Co-operation Ireland in the organisation of this year’s Anne Maguire Journalism Conference. Initiated by Co-operation Ireland in 1999 to honour the memory of Anne Maguire, a young, talented journalist who through her work, displayed a remarkable empathy for all traditions in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, thereby winning the respect of politicians and community activists, this annual conference brought together final year journalism students from Universities and Colleges, North & South, to debate issues of importance to their chosen profession. Internationally known journalists from Britain, Ireland and other countries were invited to share their experience with this next generation of journalists. This year’s Anne Maguire Conference, sponsored by three leading newspapers: The Irish Times, the Newsletter and the Irish News, took place at the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin on Friday 17th November 2006.

The theme for this year’s conference was deliberately chosen to contribute and feed into a global British Council project on New National Identities running from June 2006 to March 2007, which aims to take a fresh look at the UK's national story. The New National Identities project, which sets out to widen the scope of the current debate on Britishness by internationalising the debate on national identity amongst policy makers, the media and politicians and by bringing new voices into this debate from Britain and a number of other overseas countries, was officially launched by Neil Kinnock, Chair of the British Council, at Ditchley Park in July. We are running half a dozen events in countries whose post-colonial relationship with Britain, or the size of their diaspora in the UK, allows them to broaden the debate on national identity and help us, in the UK, learn from their experience and perceptions. The Anne Maguire Conference brought together journalism students from both parts of this island to look at the critical role played by the media in shaping new national identity narratives. Other countries participating in this global initiative include Bangladesh, Kenya, India, Pakistan and Poland.