Padraig O’Malley is the John Joseph Moakley Distinguished Professor of Peace and Reconciliation, McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston and author on topics related to divided societies. Among his award winning books are Shades of Difference: Mac Maharaj & the Struggle for South Africa; Sticks and Stones: Living with Uncertain Wars (ed.); Biting at the Grave: The Irish Hunger Strikes and the Politics of Despair; and The Uncivil Wars: Ireland Today.

In Aug/Sept 2007, in collaboration with the Robert and JoAnn Bendetson Public Diplomacy Initiative of the Tufts Institute for Global Leadership, O’Malley headed up a project that brought 16 senior officials from all Sunni and Shia parties, including Minister of National Reconciliation Akram al Hakim,  to Helsinki to meet with the chief negotiators from Northern Ireland (NI),  including the former chief of staff of the IRA, Martin McGuinness, who had reached agreement in NI in 2007 and the chief negotiators who had brokered the settlement in South Africa (SA) in 1994, including Cyril Ramaphosa, Nelson Mandela’s chief negotiator, to share experiences of conflict, and the processes of peace negotiations and reconciliation. The result was an agreement which was submitted by participants to their political leaders for ratification. Since 2008, he has been engaged in conversations with members of all the ethnic groups that comprise the Kirkuk provincial council, in Kirkuk and Boston.  Among the numerous awards O’Malley has received are The Liberal International Freedom Prize (European Union) 2008 and the Eire Society Gold Medal 2008  (Boston).