April of 1998 brought the Women's Voice in the Irish Peace Accords to the United States and to Baltimore - to a meeting held at Loyola University. Sponsored by Friendships Without Borders, Inc., the speakers included Baibre DeBrun, now a recently appointed minister in the newly devolved Northern Irish government. Baltimore - an appropriate setting, once home to an Irish signatory of the Declaration of Independence - to John Barry, founder of the American Navy and in our own time to the newly appointed Mayor of Baltimore - Martin O'Malley, from a long standing Irish American family. Baltimore, also home to Frederick Douglass, distinguished Afro-American abolitionist - once escaped slave, and later, author of letters from Ireland - a brilliant, insightful and sensitive account of the torment and tragedy of the years of the Irish famine.

The speakers were awarded the 'freedom of the city' by the then Mayor Schmoke - a signal honor for a historic occasion.

Niall Mac Allister MD FACA (Founder FWB) with Mayor Schmoke of Baltimore.

Read the Baltimore Progress (May 1998) article about this event.

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