This lecture by Irish journalist and author Don Mullan will present the Flanders Peace Project established to commemorate the spontaneous truce of Christmas 1914. Established at the site of the truce, in the Belgian city of Messines, this project has two goals: to celebrate peace in a place of unimaginable devastation and to engage young people in peace initiatives. Mullan will set the scene of the Christmas Truce and outline details of this multi-disciplined project, which 1984 Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu described as "a gift of the Island of Ireland Peace Process to the European Project and World Peace.”

Don Mullan Journalist/Author and Humanitarian; Associate Chair, UNESCO Global Youth Program

Sponsors: Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School

Don Mullan is the author of three investigative books about human rights abuses in Ireland, all of which contributed to three different inquiries. His first investigative book, 'Eyewitness Bloody Sunday' (Wolfhound Press, 1997) is officially credited as a primary catalyst for the establishment of a second Bloody Sunday Inquiry, the longest running and most expensive in British Legal History. The Inquiry resulted in an historic apology in 2010 from British Prime Minister David Cameron, who described the events of Bloody Sunday, which Mullan witnessed as a teenager, as "unjustified and unjustifiable". Today Mullan is engaged in the work of peace building and reconciliation both in Ireland and internationally.

Contact: Tom Weber, tweber@wcfia.harvard.edu