Judith Gillespie – Conversations on Britishness and Irishness – ARINS

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Together with the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice (Queen’s University Belfast), the Royal Irish Academy and the Keough Naughton Institute of Irish Studies (University of Notre Dame) initiated this Conversations on Britishness and Irishness series in 2023, as a way of facilitating open and respectful discussion about cultural and political identities in and relating to Ireland. This event took place at the Royal Irish Academy (19 Dawson Street, Dublin 2) on 12 Nov 2024.

Judith Gillespie grew up in North Belfast. She joined the RUC GC in 1982, having been turned down twice, and was the first woman in the history of the RUC/PSNI to become an Assistant Chief Constable in May 2004. A graduate of the FBI National Executive Institute, she also holds a Masters Degree in Applied Criminology from the University of Cambridge. She became Deputy Chief Constable in 2009, was awarded an OBE in the Birthday Honours in June of the same year, an Honorary Doctorate from Queen’s University Belfast in July 2012, and a CBE in the Birthday Honours in June 2014. She was a Chief Officer in PSNI for 11 years, helping to lead the organisation through significant change. A keen sportswoman, she chaired the Board of the Belfast 2013 World Police and Fire Games, delivering the “friendliest and most successful Games ever”. On leaving PSNI in March 2014 she became an independent leadership advisor, championing the cause of vulnerable victims and survivors. She has served on the Equality Commission for NI, the Probation Board for NI and for five years as a founding member of the very first Garda Policing Authority in Dublin. She recently chaired the Northern Ireland Careers Advisory Forum and the Northern Ireland Inter Departmental Working Group on Mother and Baby Homes, Magdalene Laundries and Historical Clerical Child Abuse. She is a member of the Prison Service Pay Review Body and an assessor for Diversity Mark Northern Ireland.

Richard English is Director of the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice at Queen’s University Belfast.  His books include the award-winning studies  Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA (2003) and Irish Freedom: The History of Nationalism in Ireland (2006).  His most recent books are Does Counter-Terrorism Work? (2024) and Does Terrorism Work? A History (2016).  He is a Member of the Royal Irish Academy, and in 2019 was awarded the Academy’s Gold Medal in the  Social Sciences.