Prime Minister (Taoiseach) Bertie Ahern, leader of the longest serving peacetime government in the Irish Republic since its founding in 1949, will speak about the Northern Ireland peace process when he delivers the third annual T. W. Heyck Lecture at Northwestern University.

Ahern will deliver the Heyck lecture at 7 p.m. March 11, on Northwestern's Evanston campus, at the Owen L. Coon Forum, Leverone Hall, 2001 Sheridan Road. The lecture is free and open to the public

Elected prime minister in 1997, Ahern has played a key role in the peace process; and, in 1998, he, with Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair and former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell, brokered the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland.

"The Taoiseach is adamant that peace in Northern Ireland is good for the Republic as well as necessary for all the people of Northern Ireland," said T. W. Heyck, the history professor for whom the lecture series was named. "He is a persistent and resourceful negotiator."

With more than two decades of experience in Irish politics, Ahern leads Fianna Fail, Ireland's largest political party, dealing deftly with matters ranging from sensitive social issues to the problems of Northern Ireland.

"He is a noted conciliator who likes to listen to all shades of opinion before displaying a calm but steely resolve in decision-making," said Mike Burns in a recent article in Europe: the Magazine of the European Union.

"And he understands 'ward politics' in his native Dublin better than most, if not all, of his political colleagues," Burns said later in the article.

In 1977, Ahern entered Irish parliament, where he held a number of offices before leaving to become lord mayor of Dublin (1986 -1987). Returning to national government, he served as labor minister (1987-91) and finance minister (1991-94). He became head of Fianna Fail in 1994 and was leader of the opposition until 1997, when he succeeded John Bruton as prime minister, heading a Fianna Fail/Progressive Democrat coalition.

The T. W. Heyck Lecture Series and Scholarly Development Fund was initiated in December 1999. The fund supports the British/Irish Historian Guest Lecture Series, which was launched two years ago with a talk by George J. Mitchell, nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to bring peace to Northern Ireland. Last year's lecture featured Garret FitzGerald, the former prime minister of Ireland whose crowning political achievement was the Hillsborough Agreement that ultimately led to the Good Friday Agreement.

The Heyck fund also supports a research grant project, which allows history department graduate students to travel to Britain or Ireland to conduct research in their areas of interest.

The fund is named after T. W. Heyck, a Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence and a historian of 19th and 20th century England and Ireland, who is currently working on the book The Idea of the Intellectual in 20th Century Britain.

The fund recognizes Heyck's more than 30-year career at Northwestern, paying tribute to the diverse roles he has played at the university as teacher, scholar, mentor, advisor and academic innovator.