{"id":151651,"date":"2026-02-11T14:54:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T14:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/151651\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T14:54:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T14:54:12","slug":"bertie-ahern-to-speak-at-ucf-wednesday-as-school-launches-new-peace-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/151651\/","title":{"rendered":"Bertie Ahern to speak at UCF Wednesday as school launches new peace program"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bertie Ahern, the former Irish Prime Minister who helped negotiate the Good Friday Agreement, is speaking at the University of Central Florida (UCF<\/a>) Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The free public event, titled \u201cLessons of the Good Friday Agreement with Bertie Ahern,\u201d runs 3 to 4:30 p.m. in the student union\u2019s Pegasus Ballroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really not every day you get to host a statesman who\u2019s here specifically to support our efforts in this program,\u201d said David Dumke, Executive Director of UCF\u2019s Office of Global Perspectives & International Initiatives<\/a>, which is hosting the event.<\/p>\n

Former U.S. Rep. Dennis Ross, a Lakeland Republican, and former U.S. Sen. Nick Rayhall, a West Virginia Democrat, will be in attendance Wednesday as part of the Association of Former Members of Congress<\/a> that is working with UCF.<\/p>\n

UCF has launched a new nonpartisan Conflict Transformation Program to help people understand the parallels that exist in feuds and how peacekeepers from the past solved them.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cSo when you\u2019re looking at the state of the world right now, certainly we could use those lessons,\u201d Dumke said.<\/p>\n

Later in May, the program is sending half a dozen UCF students to pair up with Egyptian students to travel to Belfast and Dublin. The eight-day trip will allow the college students to learn about the Troubles and the peace deal that followed by talking firsthand with some of the people who lived it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe students are coming from different backgrounds and they also learn from each other because they\u2019re seeing the same things but they may be applying it differently based on their own life experiences,\u201d Dumke said.<\/p>\n

The UCF students\u2019 trips will be paid for as the program raises private funds to cover the expenses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The students\u2019 trips being covered is even more meaningful, Dumke said, at a school like UCF where many students are first-generation college students and are working their way through school.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Some of the students want to work as diplomats or work internationally. Others will take the lessons learned about solving conflicts and apply it at the micro level in what\u2019s a polarizing society, Dumke said.<\/p>\n

In the future, the program might offer a degree or certification, Dumke said. \u201cBut in the meantime, we can work on providing a transformative experience for students.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bertie Ahern, the former Irish Prime Minister who helped negotiate the Good Friday Agreement, is speaking at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[73195,73196,73197,73198,28,30,29,17379,73199,139,7219,73200],"class_list":["post-151651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-association-of-former-members-of-congress","tag-bertie-ahern","tag-david-dumke","tag-dennis-ross","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-ireland","tag-nick-rayhall","tag-orlando","tag-ucf","tag-ucfs-office-of-global-perspectives-international-initiatives"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}