Michelle O’Neill to deliver 2018 Annual Lecture

Michelle O’Neill MLA, Sinn Féin Leas Uachtarán (Deputy Leader) and the party’s leader in the Northern Ireland Assembly, will deliver the Wales Governance Centre’s 2018 Annual Lecture.

As MLA for Mid Ulster since 2007, Michelle O’Neill has served in the Executive as Minister for Agriculture and as Minister for Health.

Her lecture will be delivered at a critical time during the Brexit process. The Sinn Féin perspective on Brexit and the possibility of the creation of a hard border on the island of Ireland are of direct relevance to the constitutional and economic future of Wales and, indeed, of everyone on these islands.

This opportunity to hear an address from one of Ireland’s leading politicians should not be missed, and we look forward to welcoming guests to the Pierhead building in Cardiff Bay on Monday 10th December at 18:00. Registration is available here.

Director of the Wales Governance Centre, Professor Richard Wyn Jones, commented:

“The Wales Governance Centre’s Annual Lecture has become an important event in the Welsh political calendar. Over the years our speakers have included leading figures from the political, legal and academic worlds including (most recently): then-UK Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg; then Scottish Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon; Professor Sir Tom Devine; and Elin Jones, Presiding Officer of the National Assembly for Wales.

“We are delighted that Michelle O’Neill has accepted our invitation to deliver this year’s lecture. It hardly needs underlining that the future constitutional arrangements for Northern Ireland are at the heart of the current disputes and deliberations about the socio-economic, political and constitutional future of these islands as a whole. Ireland and Wales are also key partners with Wales having long-acted as Ireland’s gateway to its European markets – a role that may well be called into question in the context of a ‘hard Brexit’. As such, there could hardly be a more opportune moment for a Welsh audience to be able to hear the views of the leader of Northern Ireland’s second largest party and, indeed, a key player in the politics of the island of Ireland as a whole.”