As the peace process in
Northern Ireland goes through its most challenging period since the
signing of an historic power-sharing agreement in April 1998, a
United States congressman who has played an important role in efforts
to shape peace in that troubled region is set to speak at Mount
Holyoke. On Monday night, February 28,
Congressman Richard Neal (D-Massachusetts) will discuss the current
situation in Northern Ireland at 7:30 pm in the Art Building's Gamble
Auditorium. The former mayor of
Springfield and a member of Congress since 1988, Neal has joined
other American congressmen and top elected officials to work with
political leaders in Britain and Ireland to support the peace process
and put an end to a long history of sectarian violence. Richard Neal was first
elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1988. Neal
was appointed to serve as a member of the powerful Ways and Means
Committee, where he continues to play an active role in creating
policies relating to taxation, trade, welfare, health care, pensions,
Medicare, and Social Security. He has sponsored legislation that
would increase the national savings rate and encourage the use of
individual retirement accounts and has worked to make health care and
tuition expenses tax deductible for middle-class people. Neal is
currently a member of the Ways and Means Subcommittees on Trade and
Oversight. Since 1992, Congressman Neal
has served in a leadership position within the House of
Representatives as an at-large Democratic whip. In the 104th
Congress, Neal was the cochairman of the Democratic Task Force on
Welfare Reform. In the 105th Congress, he became a cochairman of the
New England Congressional Caucus, where he continues to represent the
twenty-three members of Congress from throughout the region. Neal
serves as a cochairman of the Ad Hoc Committee on Irish Affairs, and
in 1997 and 1998, he was recognized by Irish America magazine
as one of the top one hundred Irish Americans of the year. He was
named the 1999 recipient of the Ambassador's Award by the Saint
Patrick's Committee of Holyoke, Massachusetts.
United
States Congressman Richard Neal, who has played an important role in
efforts to shape peace in Northern Ireland, will speak at MHC
February 28.
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