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Joanna Cynthia Berry (born 1957) is a British peace activist and public speaker. She is the daughter of Anthony Berry, who was killed by the IRA in the Brighton hotel bombing on 12 October 1984. The bomb was planted by Patrick Magee, whom Berry publicly met in November 2000 in an effort at achieving reconciliation as envisioned in the wake of the Good Friday Agreement. [1]
Berry lives in Somerset. Through her mother, she is a first cousin of Diana, Princess of Wales.
After her father died, she committed her life to peaceful resolution and mediation of conflict. After the release of Patrick Magee in 1999 she went on to meet him several times. These meetings over ten months formed the basis of a BBC documentary first broadcast on 13 December 2001. [2]
In July 2003 Berry spoke in London at St Ethelburga's Centre for Reconciliation and Peace, St Ethelburga’s church itself having been rebuilt after being destroyed by the IRA in the 1993 Bishopsgate bombing. Her reconciliation work was featured in the film Beyond Right and Wrong.
Berry founded the charity Building Bridges for Peace on the 18 October 2009. [3]
On Monday 21 March 2011, Berry spoke at the Peace One Day conference in London and on Wednesday 12 May 2011, she spoke on a panel with Patrick Magee, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Mary Kayitesi Blewitt, who lost over 50 members of her family in the Rwandan genocide.
Berry is an established speaker, and has appeared together with Magee on over 300 occasions, most recently in Rwanda, Lebanon and Israel and Palestine as well as locally in Belfast.
Sir Anthony George Berry was a British Conservative politician. He served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Enfield Southgate and a whip in Margaret Thatcher's government.
Bloody Friday is the name given to the bombings by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) in Belfast, Northern Ireland on 21 July 1972, during the Troubles. At least twenty bombs exploded in the space of eighty minutes, most within a half-hour period. Most of them were car bombs and most targeted infrastructure, especially the transport network. Nine people were killed: five civilians, two British soldiers, a Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) reservist, and an Ulster Defence Association (UDA) member, while 130 were injured. The IRA said it sent telephoned warnings at least thirty minutes before each explosion and said that the security forces wilfully ignored some of the warnings for their own ends. The security forces said that was not the case and said they were overstretched by the sheer number of bombs and bomb warnings, some of which were hoaxes.
On 12 October 1984 the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) attempted to assassinate members of the British government, including the prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, at the Grand Hotel in Brighton, England. Five people were killed, including the Conservative MP Sir Anthony Berry; more than thirty people were injured. Thatcher was uninjured. The bombing was a key moment in the Troubles, the conflict in Northern Ireland between unionists and republicans over the constitutional position of Northern Ireland, which took place between the late 1960s and 1998.
St Ethelburga-the-Virgin within Bishopsgate is a Church of England church in the City of London, located on Bishopsgate near Liverpool Street station.
99 Bishopsgate is a commercial skyscraper in London. It is located on Bishopsgate, a major thoroughfare in the City of London financial district. The building is 104 metres (341 ft) tall and has 25 office floors, with a total net lettable floor space of circa 30,000 square metres (322,900 sq ft). There are a further three plant floors at levels LG, 14 and 27.
Gordon Wilson was a draper in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, who became known internationally as a peace campaigner during the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
Conor Terence Murphy is an Irish republican Sinn Féin politician, who has served as Minister for the Economy of Northern Ireland since 2024. He has been a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Newry and Armagh since 2015, having previously served as the Member of Parliament for Newry and Armagh from 2005 to 2015, observing the Sinn Fein policy of abstentionism.
Patrick Joseph Magee is an Irish former terrorist. He was a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteer who is best known for planting a bomb in the Brighton Grand Hotel targeting Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her Cabinet, which killed five people. He is often referred to as 'the Brighton bomber'.
Dolours Price was a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteer.
The Grand Brighton Hotel is a Victorian sea-front hotel in Brighton on the south coast of England. Designed by John Whichcord Jr. and built in 1864, it was intended for members of the upper classes visiting the town and remains one of Brighton's most expensive hotels.
Alexander Reid was an Irish Catholic priest noted for his facilitator role in the Northern Ireland peace process, a role BBC journalist Peter Taylor subsequently described as "absolutely critical" to its success.
Marian Price, also known by her married name as Marian McGlinchey, is a former Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteer.
Siân Rebecca Berry is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament for Brighton Pavilion since July 2024, succeeding Caroline Lucas. She was a co-leader of the Green Party of England and Wales alongside Jonathan Bartley from 2018 to 2021, and was its sole leader from July to October 2021. From 2006 to 2007, she was one of the Green Party's principal speakers.
Martina Anderson is an Irish former politician from Northern Ireland who served as Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Foyle from 2020 to 2021, and previously from 2007 to 2012. A member of Sinn Féin, she served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) representing Northern Ireland from 2012 to 2020.
Saint Æthelburh or Ethelburga, founder and first Abbess of the double monastery of Barking, was the sister of Earconwald, Bishop of London.
The Bishopsgate bombing occurred on 24 April 1993, when the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) detonated a powerful truck bomb on Bishopsgate, a major thoroughfare in London's financial district, the City of London. Telephoned warnings were sent about an hour beforehand, but a news photographer was killed in the blast and 44 people were injured, with fatalities minimised due to its occurring on a Saturday. The blast destroyed the nearby St Ethelburga's church and wrecked Liverpool Street station and the NatWest Tower.
Beyond Right & Wrong: Stories of Justice and Forgiveness is a 2012 American documentary film about restorative justice and forgiveness. It is directed by Roger Spottiswoode and Lekha Singh and produced by Lekha Singh and Rebecca Chaiklin. The film depicts victims and perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, and The Troubles in Northern Ireland.
The Forgiveness Project is a UK-based charity that uses real stories of victims and perpetrators of crime and violence to help people explore ideas around forgiveness and alternatives to revenge. With no political or religious affiliations, The Forgiveness Project's independent and inclusive approach ensures its core message – that everyone has the potential to change their perspective and break the cycle of vengeance – resonates across all cultures.