American diplomat and President of the Council on Foreign Relations, Dr Richard Hass has been chosen to recieve the 2013 Tipperary International Peace Award.
The Tipperary Peace Convention made the announcement today.
Dr Hass is known nationally for the role he played as the chairman of all party talks aimed at dealing with issues which left unresolved after the peace process brought the troubles to an end.
He succeeded Senator George Mitchel who was also a previous recipient of the Tipperary Peace Award, as U.S. envoy to Northern Ireland from 2001 -2003.
while the process of dealing with the legacy issues stalled at the start of the year the Tipperary Peace convention acknowledged that enough progress was made to provide a “sound basis for further discussions” in the hope that it may eventually lead to Northern Ireland’s five executive parties reaching agreement.
The award will be presented to Dr Hass later this year in Tipperary.
In being notified of the Tipperary Peace Convention’s decision, Dr Haass responded by saying that he views the award as a tribute to the many people across Northern Ireland who have done so much to promote genuine reconciliation there.
