John McGarry
John McGarry, OC (born 1957) is a political scientist from Northern Ireland. He was born in Belfast and grew up in Ballymena, County Antrim. He is currently the Stephen Gyimah Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Political Studies at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.[1]
Biography
[edit]John McGarry is the author of numerous books about ethnic conflict and particularly The Troubles. Many of the books were co-authored with Brendan O'Leary, whom McGarry met when they both attended Saint MacNissi's College.[2]
McGarry and O'Leary' Explaining Northern Ireland: Broken Images (Blackwells, 1995) is widely regarded as the most authoritative (and most cited) book on the Northern Ireland conflict.[3] Their Policing Northern Ireland: Proposals for a New Start (Blackstaff Press, 1999) influenced the work of the Independent Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland.[4] The commission's work on reforming Northern Ireland's police dealt with one of the most intractable issues in the negotiations around the Good Friday Agreement.
In 2008–2009, McGarry served as the 'Senior Advisor on power-sharing' to the United Nations (Mediation Support Unit, Department of Political Affairs).[5] Since that time, he has worked as a senior advisor to the UN-mediated negotiations on Cyprus and participated in the negotiations on Cyprus at Crans-Montana,Switzerland in June–July, 2017. Apart from Northern Ireland and Cyprus, McGarry has advised on a range of conflicts, including in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Iraq, Kosovo, and Ukraine.
His academic and applied contribution were recognised in 2010, when he was invested into the Royal Society of Canada.[6] He won a Trudeau Fellowship Prize in 2011.[7] In 2013, he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal,[8] and the Killam Prize. The latter is Canada's most prestigious research prize.[9] In 2014, McGarry won the Innis-Gérin Medal from the Royal Society of Canada.[10] In 2015, his research on conflict resolution was recognised by the Council of Ontario Universities (COU) as one of the top 50 examples of "game-changing" research conducted in Ontario during the past 100 years.[11]
On 30 June 2016, McGarry was made an Officer of the Order of Canada by Governor General David Johnston for "his scholarly contributions to the study of ethnic conflict and for designing Governance Frameworks that promote peace."[12] He won Canada's Molson Prize in the Social Sciences and Humanities in the same year.[13] In 2022 he was awarded the Pearson Peace Medal, previous recipients of which include Romeo Dallaire, Louise Arbour, and Beverly McLachlin.
McGarry and O'Leary have long backed consociationalism (power-sharing) as a method of conflict management. Arend Lijphart has been a significant influence on their work.[14] In 2009, a book entitled Consociational Theory: McGarry and O'Leary and the Northern Ireland Conflict was published, edited by Rupert Taylor.[15]
References
[edit]- ^ "Professor McGarry Recognized as Distinguished University Professor". Retrieved 2 February 2024.
- ^ "Brendan O'Leary". Penn Program in Ethnic Conflict. Retrieved 8 December 2007.
- ^ "Google Scholar". Retrieved 9 February 2024.
- ^ Barry White (18 September 1999). "Patten...finding the gems in the detail". The Belfast Telegraph.
- ^ "John McGarry". Department of Political Studies, Queen's University. Retrieved 30 December 2014.
- ^ "Three Queen's professors named to Royal Society of Canada". Archived from the original on 30 December 2014. Retrieved 30 December 2014.
- ^ "Political Studies professor wins prestigious Trudeau Fellowship Prize". Retrieved 30 December 2014.
- ^ "The Royal Society of Canada (RSC) Awards Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medals". Retrieved 5 April 2013.
- ^ "The Canada Council for the Arts announces $500,000 in Killam Prizes". Archived from the original on 3 May 2013. Retrieved 5 April 2013.
- ^ "John McGarry receives Innis-Gérin Medal from Royal Society of Canada". Retrieved 2 February 2024.
- ^ "McGarry's 'Making Peace' Recognized by COU". Retrieved 2 February 2024.
- ^ "Canada's Honour Roll". The Globe and Mail. 30 June 2016.
- ^ "Congratulations to our latest Canada Council prize winners". Retrieved 2 February 2024.
- ^ McGarry, John; O'Leary, Brendan (2006). "Consociational theory, Northern Ireland's conflict, and its Agreement. Part 1: What consociationalists can learn from Northern Ireland" (PDF). Government and Opposition. 41 (1): 43–63. doi:10.1111/j.1477-7053.2006.00170.x. S2CID 51749982.
- ^ Taylor, Rupert, ed. (2009). Consociational Theory: McGarry and O'Leary and the Northern Ireland Conflict. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-42913-9.
