Round-up: A Knowledge Exchange Seminar on Living with Conviction

23rd November 2022

On Wednesday 23 November 2022 the Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) and NIACRO came together to organise this important event, exploring the barriers for people with criminal convictions histories on the island of Ireland. Representatives from a wide range of agencies, including prison, justice, employment, and other stakeholders, explored current practices and assessed the opportunities for change in this area.

The event was introduced by IPRT Executive Director Saoirse Brady and Fiona Greene, Chief Executive, NIACRO welcomed attendees. Senator Lynn Ruane gave a keynote address.

Panel 1: The Lived Experience – hearing directly from people about barriers to accessing education and employment post-release from prison as well as employers who employ people with convictions.

This panel was chaired by Senator Lynn Ruane and included contributions from:

• NIACRO video of person with lived experience talking about impact of criminal conviction on her life
• Paul Donoghue, CEO and founder of New Creation Cleaning Services, a new Social Enterprise creating opportunities in education, training and employment for people coming from social disadvantage, addiction recovery and offending backgrounds
• Damien Quinn, Community Education and Disability Officer, Galway Rural Development and Founder of Spéire Nua – New Horizon
• Representative from Farrans Construction Company.

To view the recording on panel 1 on our Youtube, see here.

Panel 2: The Cross-Border Dimension – looking at the key issues arising around spent convictions in each jurisdiction and learning from each other.

This panel was chaired by Jonny Pardoe, Intreo Partners Regional Assistant Manager with Louth Local Development and will include contributions from:

• Representative from NIACRO
• Sinéad Gibney, Chief Commissioner of the Human Rights and Equality Commission
• Htaik Win, solicitor with the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission

Closing remarks from IPRT Executive Director Saoirse Brady and Fiona Greene, Chief Executive, NIACRO.

To view the recording on panel 2 on our Youtube, see here.

The recordings of the both panels at the seminar are available on our YouTube channel.

This project was kindly supported by the All-Island Fund, through the Community Foundation for Ireland and the Community Foundation Northern Ireland.