The origins of the Ad Hoc Committee date back to 2014 when a letter was sent to then First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness by a small group of leading Irish Americans expressing their concern that the peace process was at a stalemate. This effort was led by former Congressman James Walsh and former Congressman Bruce Morrison. Over the next five years this small group would provide advice to the United State Department of State as needed and worked to support U.S.Senator Gary Hart when he was appointed Envoy to Ireland by then U.S.Secretary of State John Kerry. The committee would meet on a regular basis with Senator Hart on his return after his visits to Ireland and arrange briefings for him for the wider Irish America community.
The Ad Hoc Committee was formed in early 2019 by a group of forty Americans who had worked for decades on the Northern Ireland peace process. At the time, we were deeply concerned that the UK/EU negotiations around the Northern Ireland Protocol to the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement would lead to a hard border. We are a bi-partisan group that includes six former Ambassadors and two former Special Presidential Envoys.
Those signing our initial letter to British Prime Minister Theresa May and to Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in February of 2019 included former Under Secretary of State Paula Dobriansky, U.S. Senator Gary Hart, former Special Presidential Envoy Mitchell Reiss, U.S. Senator Chris Dodd, former Ambassador & NSC Advisor Nancy Soderberg, current National Security Council Director Jake Sullivan, Ambassador Melanne Verveer, Ambassador Elizabeth Bagley, Ambassador Susan Elliot, Ambassador Kevin O’Malley, Cong. Joe Crowley, and a wide range of academic and human rights experts.
Over the course of over three years the committee had grown to over 60 members including the leadership of key Irish American organizations. In the last year alone the Committee has organized twenty-five meetings with political, civic, business and community leaders in Northern Ireland as well as key experts on Brexit. The Committee is in regular contact with Irish and British diplomats and key members of the NSC and the State Department. The Committee is closely monitoring the current UK/EU Brexit negotiations and is actively opposing the sweeping amnesty proposals put forward by the Northern Ireland Secretary of State based on our direct conversations with victims and survivors of the Troubles. Our human rights team is led by Prof. Martin Flaherty, Fordham Law School/ Princeton University
The committee can be followed on Twitter at @HocGfa
Co-chair Cong. James Walsh
Co-Chair Cong. Bruce Morrison
Project Director Kevin J. Sullivan
Recording Secretary Bobby Cunningham
Our Members
Former members of the Diplomatic Corps
Paula Dobriansky, Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs (2001-2009) Mitchell Reiss, Special Presidential Envoy to Northern Ireland and current member of the Independent Review Commission, Ambassador Nancy Soderberg, former National Security Council Assistant to President Bill Clinton & Ambassador to the U.N., Ambassador Susan Elliott, President, National Committee on American Foreign Policy, Ambassador Melanne Verveer, Executive Director, Georgetown University Institute on Women, Peace and Security and former Ambassador at Large for Global Women’s Issues, Ambassador Kevin O’Malley, Ambassador to Ireland, (2014 TO 2017) Ambassador Elizabeth Bagley, former Ambassador to Portugal and President Biden’s nominee to be Ambassador to Brazil, Ambassador Michael O’Sullivan, former Governor of Wyoming and Ambassador to Ireland (1998 -2001)
Former members of Ad Hoc Committee now in the Biden Administration
Jake Sullivan, National Security Advisor, Carmel Martin, Deputy Director for Economic Mobility, Domestic Policy Council, John W. McCarthy, Special Assistant to the President, Thomas, Wright. Special Assistant to the President and senior director for strategic planning at the National Security Council
Former Governors and Members of Congress
Chris Dodd, U.S. Senator Gary Hart, U.S. Senator and Personal Envoy to Northern Ireland for Secretary of State John Kerry, Martin O’Malley, Governor of Maryland, Terry McAuliffe, Governor of Virginia Cong. Joe Crowley and Cong. Pete King
Academics
Prof. Bonnie Wier, Yale University, founding co-Director of the Program on Peace and Development Prof. Kimberly Cowell Meyers, American University, Prof. Carol Gallaher, American University, Prof. Robert Savage, Director Boston College Irish Studies Program, Prof. Brendan O’Leary, University of Pennsylvania, Prof. Cóilín Parsons, Georgetown University, Global Irish Studies, Prof. Martin Flaherty, Fordham University Law School & Princeton University, Prof. John Feerick, Fordham University Law School, Prof. John Rogan, Fordham University Law School, Prof. Michael Martin, Fordham University Law School, Prof. Patrick Griffin, Notre Dame University, Director of the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies
Irish American Organizations
Danny O’Connell, AOH President Dan Dennehy, AOH, Martin Galvin, AOH, Sean Pender, AOH, Chief Judge James F. McKay, immediate past President, AOH, Karen Keane, President of the Ladies AOH, Neil Cosgrave, AOH, Stella O’Leary , President, Irish American Democrats, Peter Kissel, President, Irish American Unity Network Jennifer Frankola, Brehon Law Society, Chris Fitzgerald, Brehon Law Society, Domhnall O’Cathain, Brehon Law Society
Prominent Irish Americans
Hilary Bierne, Executive Director of the NYC Saint Patrick’s Day Parade, John Fitzpatrick , President and CEO, Fitzpatrick Hotel Group & former Chair of the American Ireland Fund, Loretta Brennan Glucksman, former Chair of the American Ireland Fund, Susan O’Neill, American Ireland Fund National Gala Chair, Mike O’Neil, former COS to House Speaker Tom Foley, Mark Tuohey, lawyer, former member of the Patton Police Reform Commission, Northern Ireland, Billy Lawless, Senator for the Diaspora, Irish Seanad, Mike McCurry, former Press Secretary to President Bill Clinton, Richard Riley, former U.S. Secretary of Education and former Governor of South Carolina, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, former Lt. Governor of Maryland, Brian O’Dwyer, lawyer, 2019 Grand Marshal of the NYC Saint Patrick’s Day Parade, Paul Quinn, lawyer, cofounder of the American Ireland Fund and former Advisor to Senator Ted Kennedy, John Connorton, lawyer, National Council on American Foreign Policy, Kitty Higgins, Cabinet Secretary to President Bill Clinton, former Deputy Secretary of Labor, former member of the NSTB, current member of the Shannon Airport Authority, Susan Davis, President, Susan Davis International, President of Irish American Republicans, Rosemary O’Neill, retired, U.S. State Department, Carol Wheeler, founder Washington Ireland Program, James B. Hayes, former publisher Fortune magazine, James Boland, immediate past President of the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers (BAC), Kristen Leary, Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives, Noreen Bowden, co-founder, VotingRights.ie, Harry Hartford, American Ireland Fund, William McKiernan, American Ireland Fund, Ted Smyth, former Irish Diplomat, NYU Glucksman Irish House, President of the Advisory Board and Director, Clinton Institute of American Studies, UCD, Dublin, Ireland. William Tranghese, Platinum Advisors & former Chief of Staff to Cong. Richard Neal, Eric Huey, Platinum Advisors, Washington Ireland Program Board member
Congressional Observers
Damien Murphy, Staff Director, Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Doug Padgett, Legislative Fellow, Senate Foreign Relations Committee
Follow us on Twitter: @HocGfa
In 2021 the Ad Hoc Committee pursued an active agenda in meeting with key American, British and Irish leaders. These meetings included:
- U.K. officials – Northern Ireland Secretary of State Brandon Lewis (2x), former NI SOS Julian Smith, Labor Party Shadow Secretary Louise Haigh, Deputy British Ambassador Michael Tatham on several occasions and Jonathan Powell, the chief negotiator for the United Kingdom during the Good Friday negotiations
- Key Biden Administration officials – National Security Council Senior Director for Europe Amanda Sloat (2x), Under Secretary for Human Rights Uzra Zeya, Assistant Secretary for Europe Karen Domfried, U.S. Consul General Liz Trudeau and the new Consul General in Belfast Paul Narain (2x)
- We met with leadership of every political party in Northern Ireland including the DUP, Sinn Fein, Alliance and the SDLP and with former Minister for Justice Claire Sudgen in addition to working to engage with Loyalist leader like David Campbell. We have established a good relationship with the new leadership of the UUP Doug Beattie and Mike Nesbitt and met with them on two occasions
- Briefings were held with Brexit expert Katy Hayward, NI Ireland Brexit Business Working Group, NI Ireland Civic leadership group, members of the Victims and Survivors Commission as well as AMBIT community workers
- We maintain an ongoing relationship with Irish Ambassador Dan Mulhall
- Ambassador Susan Elliot and the leadership of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy have consistently extended themselves in arranging for meetings in NYC with Northern Ireland leaders
In 2022 the Committee has continued its robust series of engagements meeting:
- U.S. Senator Chris Murphy
- U.S Consul General in Belfast Paul Narain
- New American Ambassador to Ireland Claire Cronin
- Monica McWilliams and Mitchell Reiss, members of the International Reporting Commission (IRC) on the recent publication of the IRC’s fourth report on paramilitary activity
- In March Ad Hoc will with meet the President of Sinn Fein Mary Lou McDonald T.D. and Deputy First Minister for Northern Ireland Michelle O’Neill
- Peter Kyle, M.P. Labor Party Shadow Secretary for Northern Ireland
- Jayne Brady, newly appointed Director of the Northern Ireland Civil Service
- Colum Eastwood, M.P. leader of the SDLP political party in Northern Ireland
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