IRA Activist-Turned-Peacemaker Gives 11th Honors’ Bhatia Lecture

About the event

“Bloody Sunday and Beyond: The Troubles in Northern Ireland” is the topic of the WSU Honors College 11th V.N. Bhatia Lecture, presented by Jon McCourt. The public is welcome at this free lecture.

Civil rights were on McCourt’s mind when he joined the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in 1969. But he parted ways with the organization in the mid-1970s to become a community peace activist. In the four decades since he has worked with victims of violence, community relations, and youth in criminalized areas.

In recent summers, he has taken Honors’ students in professor Matt Carroll’s faculty-led study abroad class on a walking tour of his Derry/Londonderry, Northern Ireland, hometown. His first-hand “I was there” perspective into Bloody Sunday (Jan. 30, 1972) and other political, cultural, and social aspects of The Troubles brings history to life for students.