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UMass Boston Adds the John Joseph Moakley Chair of Peace and Reconciliation to endowed Professorships

Reprinted from the University Reporter
By Ed Hayward
Published May, 2007

The list of endowed professorships and chairs at the University of Massachusetts Boston also includes the John Joseph Moakley Chair of Peace and Reconciliation, a distinguished professorship within the John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies.

Longtime McCormack re-searcher and editor Padraig O'Malley has been named to the chair, endowed in memory of the late congressman from South Boston who advocated not only the causes of his constituents but human rights for people across the globe.

"Padraig O'Malley brings a broad array of experiences well-suited to the scope of study the university envisions for the John Joseph Moakley Chair in Peace and Reconciliation," Chancellor Michael F. Collins, MD, said. "He is a teacher, scholar, public intellectual, conciliator, peace activist, and editor-chronicler. Congressman Moakley would be proud that the chair that bears his name is first occupied by his friend Padraig."

"Congressman Moakley lived by his friend and fellow congress-man Tip O'Neill's credo that 'all politics is local.' It is fitting that the university and generous supporters have established the Moakley Chair at the McCormack Graduate School, the premier center for scholarship on social issues affecting Boston and the Commonwealth," McCormack Dean Steve Crosby said. "Padraig O'Malley is a scholar and chronicler worthy of the honor of being the first to hold the Moakley Chair."

Congressman Moakley was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1972 and served until his death in 2001. In addition to serving as chairman of the powerful House Rules Committee, Moakley investigated the murder of six Jesuit priests in El Salvador, opening the way to a peaceful settlement between the rebels and the Salvadoran government.

The Moakley Chair was fund-ed via gifts from private donors, corporations, foundations, and the state's public higher education endowment incentive program. Lead donors for this initiative were: Joseph Corcoran, the Estate of John Corcoran, Richard Egan, the John Joseph Moakley Charitable Foundation, Liberty Mutual, and Sovereign Bank New England.

Frederick W. Clark Jr., presi dent of the John Joseph Moakley Charitable Foundation and the congressman's former district director, said O'Malley's work struck a chord with the late congressman, whose legacy is marked by a clear understanding of the challenges that face working men and women and their families.

"Congressman Moakley's memory is honored by the human stories that Padraig O'Malley has so carefully documented and preserved as an astute researcher during the last two decades," said Clark. "The Moakley Foundation is proud to partner with UMass Boston's McCormack Graduate School to advance scholarship that supports peace and democracy throughout the world."

O'Malley, the founder of the McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies' New England Journal of Public Policy, which he edited for more than 20 years, has also authored many books, among them the award-winning Uncivil Wars: Ireland Today, Biting at the Grave, and Shades of Difference, which was published in April. Former South African president Nelson Mandela has written a 10,000-word foreword to the book.

This semester O'Malley is delivering four lectures on cam-pus to share lessons from the past and hopes for a peaceful future across three regions of the world — Northern Ireland, South Africa, and the Middle East.

"My great fortune has been to be present where onetime opponents have sought to reconcile their differences and forge peaceful futures for their countries," said O'Malley. "The words of those participants hold powerful lessons for societies across the world, and my focus at the McCormack Graduate School has been to try to make those lessons available to as many people as possible."