A book commissioned by a University of Notre Dame partnership with the Royal Irish Academy recently received the Christopher Ewart-Biggs Memorial Prize, a prestigious literary award for work that encourages peace and reconciliation in Ireland.
The book, “For and Against a United Ireland,” emerged from ARINS (Analysing and Researching Ireland North and South) — a joint academic project of the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies in Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs and the Royal Irish Academy. It was written by Fintan O’Toole of The Irish Times and Sam McBride of the Belfast Telegraph, two of the island’s most distinguished journalists.
The literary prize is named in honor of Christopher Ewart-Biggs, a former British ambassador to Ireland who was murdered by the IRA in 1976. The prize is awarded biannually to recognize work that promotes peace and reconciliation in Ireland, encourage greater understanding between the peoples of Britain and Ireland, and support closer cooperation between European partners.
In “For and Against a United Ireland,” O’Toole and McBride don’t just take one side in the debate and argue with each other. Each author independently wrote his own chapter in favor of unification and his own chapter against unification. That structure made the book a balanced conversation about the issues that voters on the island would need to consider if there ever were a referendum on removing the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland.
“This award means a great deal not only because it comes from such a distinguished panel of judges but because the ethos of this prize mirrors our motivation for this book,” McBride said. “We were seeking not to change people’s minds, but to open them.”
O’Toole said he vividly remembers the horror of Ewart-Biggs’ murder a half-century ago.
“The Ewart-Biggs Prize has always seemed to me a particularly graceful refusal of despair. It insists on the possibilities of both rational engagement with, and imaginative transcendence of, our shared dilemmas,” O’Toole said.
“Sam and I have hoped in a small way to reject the relentless polarization of contemporary politics,” he added, “and to show that even on highly emotive topics it is possible to have respectful discussions that acknowledge that those with whom one disagrees might have things to say that are worth listening to.”
‘For and Against’ on the road
The Ewart-Biggs Prize was announced on March 18 in Belfast while O’Toole and McBride happened to be in the United States speaking to large crowds on a five-city tour.
The pair presented their arguments for and against a united Ireland to audiences in Chicago, New York, and Washington, DC, as well as on the campuses of Boston College and Princeton University.
The Chicago Club was the first stop on the U.S. tour promoting “For and Against a United Ireland.” O’Toole and McBride discussed the issues, answered audience questions, and signed copies of the book.
O’Toole and McBride spoke to a packed theater on March 14 at the Irish Arts Center in New York.
Then they continued on to Washington, D.C., where they were part of the slate of gatherings planned in the capital each year around St. Patrick’s Day.
A standing-room-only crowd filled Notre Dame’s Washington Office on March 16 for an event held in partnership with the Washington Ireland Program.
Several public officials attended the D.C. event. The list included Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland Emma Little-Pengelly, who is an alumna of the Washington Ireland Program, as well as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Hilary Benn and U.S. Rep. Tim Kennedy of New York.
The conversation between O’Toole and McBride was moderated by Aoife Joy Keogh and Luke Teggert, two recent alumni of the Washington Ireland Program.
O’Toole and McBride finished out their U.S. tour with events hosted by the Irish Institute of Boston College on March 18 and Princeton University’s Fund for Irish Studies on March 20.
“For and Against a United Ireland” was published by the Royal Irish Academy in fall 2025 and by Notre Dame Press earlier this year.