Panel Discussion 

Our Country Also: Difference and Belonging with Lata Sharma, David Adams, Aleksandra Łojek and Malachi O’Doherty (Host) 

Tuesday 29 July | 7pm | £10

Malachi O’Doherty introduces three people who have experience of straddling two – and even more – cultures. 

Lata Sharma, born and raised in Northern Ireland, is of Indian heritage and has enjoyed a successful career in the creative arts and media sector here. For many years, she has been a passionate social, cultural and diversity commentator on BBC and U105. 

A former loyalist paramilitary/politician, David helped negotiate the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. Having cut all ties with paramilitarism, he worked in media and then spent 15 years with the Dublin-based international humanitarian organisation, GOAL, across many parts of Africa and the Middle East. 

Aleksandra Łojek was born in Poland and has been living in NI since 2008. She is a writer and translator and has worked in Belfast as a mediator, a hate crime officer, a community development officer and a race relations officer. 

Malachi O’Doherty is a writer and broadcaster, the author of twelve books. His most recent books are How To Fix Northern Ireland (2022), and Can Ireland Be One? (2021). Malachi has close connections with India where he lived for some years in his twenties and is currently working on a book on Hindu gurus and their western disciples.