American Board of Trial Advocates San Francisco Chapter Irish Literary & Historical Society of San Francisco and Irish American Bar Association of Northern California Are Pleased to Invite You & Your Guests to

Northern Ireland: Past, Present and Future Featuring James J. Brosnahan, Esq.

Jim has been asked to discuss Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe. His remarks will not only respond to that requested topic but will also encompass his own experience in Ireland before, during & after The Easter Accords of Good Friday, April 10, 1998. In addition, Jim has just recently finished his memoir, 60 Years a Trial Lawyer: Courthouses, Jails & Boardrooms. An entire chapter has been devoted to Northern Ireland. Though it is not expected to be published until later this year, he has agreed to share selections with us. The Easter Accords were preceded by extensive dialogue & compromises, encouraged by The Chair, United States Special Envoy, Senator, George Mitchell, Jr. On the day of accord, he humbly understated his message to the world: "I am pleased to announce that the two governments and the political parties in Northern Ireland have reached agreement”.   One Month later, on May 22,1998, in two referenda, which were required by the agreement, the people of Northern Ireland approved by a YES vote of 71.1% & the people of The Republic of Ireland approved by a YES vote of 94.39%.  Later that same year, John Hume of The Republic of Ireland & David Trimble of Northern Ireland shared the Nobel Peace Prize of 1998 for their bi-lateral leadership in the outcome. Both of their Acceptance Speeches were artful works of exquisite diplomacy.

Friday, October 16, 2020 12:00 Noon

There is no cost to attend so please join us. Registration is required for each person attending. Click here to register.

James J. Brosnahan is a Senior of Counsel at Morrison Foerster. He has become a full-time writer after 60 years of civil & criminal trial practice. In 2006, Jim Brosnahan was named one of America’s most influential trial lawyers by the National Law Journal and is a member of the Irish Legal 100.  In 1996, Jim Brosnahan was inducted into the State Bar of California’s “Trial Lawyers Hall of Fame” and was awarded the Samuel E. Gates Award by the American College of Trial Lawyers in 2000 for his “significant, exceptional, lasting contribution to the improvement of the litigation process.” In 2001, he was named “Trial Lawyer of the Year” by the American Board of Trial Advocates, and the following year, the San Francisco Lawyers’ Club honored Mr. Brosnahan with its inaugural “Legend of the Law” award.  In December 1972, Jean McConville, a 38-year-old mother of ten, was dragged from her Belfast home by masked intruders, her children clinging to her legs. They never saw her again. In 2003, 31 years later and 5 years after The Easter Accords, her bones were found on a beach. With this as his starting point, Patrick Radden Keefe tells the tale of a society wracked by guerrilla war. The consequences of that war have never been reconciled. Say Nothing describes IRA members embittered by a peace that fell short of its great expectations of a United Ireland. Were their killings justified as acts of war, or simply murders? He shows us radical; IRA members such as Delours Price, planting bombs in London and targeting informers for execution; the ferocious IRA mastermind known as The Dark; the spy games of lies and double and triple agents of the British Army; and finally Gerry Adams, who negotiated the peace but betrayed his hardcore comrades by denying his IRA leadership. Patrick Radden Keefe's book questions whether resolution will ever be achieved. Having returned earlier this year from a trip to Northern Ireland to teach young Irish lawyers, James J. Brosnahan will discuss the issues raised in Say Nothing and will combine his own personal and professional observations in assessment of this explosive book, Does the current generation of men and women who were not alive during The Troubles even care? Are the economics of today’s Ireland more important than its political past? Does the Republic in the South even want to be joined? Will Brexit result in de-facto political unification? And finally, informing it all, What of the Catholic & Protestant religious influences?

There is no cost to attend so please join us and tell your family and friends to join us too. Registration is required for each person attending. Click here to register.

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