Bertie Ahern served as Taoiseach from 1997–2008 and played a significant role in the negotiations that led to the signing of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement. He also helped to negotiate the return of devolution to Northern Ireland in 2007.

He served as a member of Dáil Éireann (the Irish Parliament) for almost 35 years. He was first elected to the Dáil (Parliament) in 1977 for the constituency of Dublin-Finglas and he represented Dublin Central from 1981 until 2011.

Anne is currently Chair of the Northern Ireland Policing Board. 

Anne began her career in 1975 as a secondary school teacher, progressing to the post of Vice Principal after six years. Since then Anne has held a number of senior posts within the Education and Library Board.  

Andrew Heyn was a UK diplomat for over 30 years.

He served as British Consul-General in Hong Kong from 2016-20 and British Ambassador to Myanmar between 2009 and 2013.

He experienced at first hand the democratic reforms in Myanmar from 2010 onwards and the beginnings of the Rohingya crisis. He was in Hong Kong for the 2019 protest movement and the subsequent imposition of the new National Security Law by China in 2020.

Chris Maccabe is a former Political Director of the Northern Ireland Office (NIO). Early in his career he served as a Private Secretary to the Chief Minister of Northern Ireland during the short-lived power sharing Executive in 1974; and later as Private Secretary to the Deputy Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. Between 1988 and 1991 he was a Director of the Northern Ireland Prison Service.

Michael served as the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland from July 2012 to July 2019.  He was previously Chief Inspector of the Criminal Justice Inspectorate in Northern Ireland.  He was appointed a CBE – Commander of the Order of the British Empire – in the 2019 Birthday Honours.

Michael was made an Honorary Professor by Queens University Belfast in April 2019.

Mitchel McLaughlin served as Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly from 2015 until 2016, Principal Deputy Speaker from 2013 until 2015 and Assembly Private Secretary to the Minister for Education from 2011 to 2013.

Involved in politics for over 50 years, he also served as an MLA for Foyle from 1998 to 2003 and South Antrim from 2007 until his retirement in 2016. Mr McLaughlin was also Chairman and later General Secretary of Sinn Finn.

Rory Montgomery is a former Irish diplomat who served as Permanent Representative to the EU, Ambassador to France and Second Secretary General at the Departments of the Taoiseach and Foreign Affairs with particular responsibility for Brexit.

He has been principal EU adviser to Enda Kenny and Simon Coveney and has worked extensively with Irish, Northern Irish, British and European politicians and officials. He was part of the Irish team which negotiated the Good Friday Agreement. He is also a Member of the Royal Irish Academy.

Honorary Professor, Jonathan Powell, was Chief of Staff to Tony Blair from 1995 to 2007 and from 1997 to 2007 was also Chief British Negotiator on Northern Ireland.

He is Director of Inter Mediate; from 1978-79 he was a broadcast journalist with the BBC and Granada TV and from 1979 to 1994 a British Diplomat. He is author of Great Hatred, Little Room: Making Peace in Northern Ireland, The New Machiavelli: How to Wield Power in the Modern World and Talking to Terrorists: How to End Armed Conflict. Find out more about Jonathan Powell.

Peter Robinson was First Minister of Northern Ireland from 2008 to 2016. He also served as Minister for Regional Development and Minister for Finance and Personnel in the Northern Ireland Executive.

He has been involved in Northern Irish politics for over 40 years – over 30 of them as MP for Belfast East. He was a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Belfast East from 1998 until 2016, and Leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) from 2008 until 2015.

Peter Sheridan has been CEO of the Peace Building Charity Co-operation Ireland since 2008. The all-Island organisation works at both a strategic and grass roots level.

In 2011, it enabled the first state visit of Queen Elizabeth to the Republic of Ireland and the reciprocal visit of the President of Ireland to the United Kingdom. In 2012, the organisation helped facilitate the historic handshake between the Queen and then deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, Martin McGuinness.