OLDEST IRISH AMERICAN NEWSPAPER IN USA, ESTABLISHED IN 1928
Category: Archive

Mitchell to get Liberty Medal

February 15, 2011

By Staff Reporter

George J. Mitchell, former U.S. Senate majority leader and chairman of the Northern Ireland political talks, has been named recipient of the 1998 Philadelphia Liberty Medal by its distinguished International Selection Commission. Mitchell will accept the Medal and its accompanying $100,000 at Independence Hall in Philadelphia as a focus of the city’s Fourth of July celebration. This will be the 10th anniversary presentation of the Liberty Medal.

The Philadelphia Liberty Medal, established in 1988 to heighten recognition of the principles that founded this nation and to serve as a lasting legacy to the 200th anniversary of the U.S. Constitution, honors an individual or an organization from anywhere in the world that has demonstrated leadership and vision in the pursuit of liberty of conscience or freedom from oppression, ignorance, or deprivation. It is administered by Greater Philadelphia First, the regional business and civic leadership organization. Unisys Corporation is the chief underwriter of the 1998 Liberty Medal.

Professor Martin Meyerson, chairman of the Medal’s International Selection Commission and President Emeritus of the University of Pennsylvania, said, “After 30 years of bitter and bloody divisions, a courageous, non-violent transformation in Northern Ireland seems imminent. Senator George Mitchell has been both a vital catalyst and a patient shepherd to the peace negotiations. His persistence and persuasion guided the negotiators and allowed this breakthrough agreement, with its redefinition of the self-determination of peoples, to merge.”

Mitchell, 64, was educated at Bowdoin College and the Georgetown University School of Law. He began his service in the U.S. Senate from Maine in 1980 and was Senate Majority Leader from 1989 to 1995.

Previous winners of the Philadelphia Liberty Medal are Polish Solidarity founder Lech Walesa in 1989, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter in 1990, former Costa Rican President and Nobel Laureate Oscar Arias and the French medical and human rights organization MTdecins Sans FrontiTres (Doctors Without Borders) in 1991, the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall in 1992, South African Presidents F.W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela in 1993, Czech President V_clav Havel in 1994, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata, in 1995, former Isr’li Prime Minister Shimon Peres and Jordan’s King Hussein in 1996, and the global news network CNN International in 1997.

Philadelphia Mayor Edward Rendell will present the 1998 Liberty Medal on Saturday, July 4, at 10 a.m. at Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

Follow us on social media

Keep up to date with the latest news with The Irish Echo

Other Articles You Might Like

Sign up to our Daily Newsletter

Click to access the login or register cheese