The third volume of Britain and Ireland: Lives Entwined was launched in Belfast, Derry, Dublin and London throughout May. The series covering four years, and commissioned and published by the British Council, set out to explore, discuss and debate the nuanced and knotty complexity of relations between Britain and Ireland.

The three volumes consist of 30 deeply personal and often controversial contributions from an eclectic collection of established and younger voices drawn from Britain, Ireland and the USA, including former prime ministers, senior politicians, civil rights activists, journalists, academics, sportsmen, broadcasters and social commentators.

ESSAY BY NOBEL PEACE LAUREATE
It was particularly apt that this final volume opened with an essay by former MEP and Nobel peace prizewinner, John Hume. In the essay, entitled ‘Transforming the Union: An Evolving Dynamic’, Hume reinforces his core belief in the importance of dialogue rather than monologue, non-violent direct action, understanding and accommodating difference.

The series began by investigating what Garret FitzGerald (former Taoiseach) called the ‘normalisation of British-Irish relations’. In volume two the US angle was introduced (see Boston Globe journalist, Kevin Cullen’s ‘The American Connection’). And this final volume focuses on the future of British-Irish relations – a new dawn?

HEATED DEBATE
Six thousand copies of the three volumes of Lives Entwined have now been read, discussed and hotly debated. Contributors to the most recent volume, Olivia O’Leary (‘Separate but Equal’), Naoise Nunn (‘What have the Brits ever done for me?’), and Richard English (‘Force will get us nowhere?’) were all invited to expand on and discuss their contributions in front of live audiences in Belfast, Derry, Dublin and London.

The series has also attracted its fair share of controversy down the years. For example, the headline ‘Is it time the Irish apologised to Britain?’ unsurprisingly sparked a week of lively debate on Ireland’s most popular political blog sites (www.sluggerotoole.com and www.politics.ie) after contributor Davy Adam’s article appeared in the Irish Times. Last year two leading political journalists, Ed Moloney, a contributor to the second volume, and Eamon Mallie, engaged in a heated discussion on the BBC’s Sunday Sequence Talk Show about the role of the media during the peace process.

British Council Ireland Director and commissioner of the series, Tony Reilly comments: ‘Grappling with complexity and diversity is the meat and drink for a cultural relations organisation committed to advancing understanding and building trust. However, the challenges and risks posed by the tangled web of Britishness and Irishness can be daunting. On reflection though, the Lives Entwined series has left a significant legacy of understanding.’

To find out more about our work in Ireland visit our Ireland webpages.

To order a copy of Britain and Ireland: Lives Entwined III visit Amazon.