20 years after UNSCR 1325: Charting progress on the Women, Peace and Security Agenda
Publication 21 December 2020
Gender & Inclusivity in Peace & Security
2020 marks the 20th anniversary of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325) and 25 years since the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which lay the groundwork for the
‘Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda’. The WPS Agenda emphasises the long-term effects of women’s meaningful and equal participation in multiple aspects of peace and security. Ireland is a strong supporter of WPS, of gender equality more broadly and has developed three consecutive National Action Plans to implement the Agenda since 2010, with the most recent plan being launched in 2019 and covering the governance period until 2024. In this context and as part of our #VisibleWomen2020 programme, the Embassy in Brussels and our Partnership for Peace Office (PfP) teamed up with institutional partners,
A Time to Talk: Friendships, Connections, Kindness
Publication 21 December 2020
Aithnítear cara i gcruatan
As the child of immigrants to Ireland and having spent almost 40 years living as an Irish emigrant, my life has been underlined by the importance of friendship, the significance of human connections, the need for community and the value of kindness, not only in times of hardship but on a daily basis.
I was welcomed into this world in the Leon Bar! Not because my mother was thirsty, but because it was the only place in the village of Quilty in the West of Ireland that had hot water. My parents had moved there from the UK a year or so earlier. This was their first taste of an Irish welcome, which encouraged my father to build up his veterinary practice with my mother at his side when she was not out learning how to catch lobsters with a gaff from an elderly Church of Ireland vicar, or learning set dancing in my birthplace in her bare feet.