The Troubles with Brexit | Film & Panel

Held in partnership with the Bertelsmann Foundation, this TAM Friday Lecture features a film, The Troubles with Brexit, panel, and Q&A. Katie Shanahan Lindner, executive director at the UNC Center for European Studies, will give the introduction and concluding remarks.

Please RSVP to receive the links for the film and joining the event live.

The Film

After 40 years of conflict in Northern Ireland, the Good Friday agreement ushered in a period of relative peace and stability in the northwest corner of Europe. But the unintended consequences of the UK leaving the European Union have threatened to reignite a sectarian fire that many thought had been extinguished long ago. This film takes the audience on a journey to both sides of the Irish Sea to explore the social, political, and economic impact of Brexit on Northern Ireland.

The Panelists

Introductory and closing remarks by Katie Shanahan Lindner, Executive Director, UNC Center for European Studies

Tony Silberfeld (moderator)

Director, Transatlantic Relations, Bertelsmann Foundation
Tony Silberfeld joined the Bertelsmann Foundation in April 2014. As director of the Transatlantic Relations program, he oversees the design and execution of projects covering a range of topics in the Euro-Atlantic sphere including politics, economics and social challenges. Tony joined the Foundation after seven years with the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office where was head of political and public affairs at the Northern Ireland bureau. He also served as the Northern Ireland government spokesman in the Americas and advised Northern Ireland’s government ministers on political developments in the United States, Canada and Brazil. Prior to his tenure at the embassy, Tony spent several years as a foreign policy advisor in the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives. He also spent time in the private sector in the international team of Booz Allen Hamilton. Tony has a master’s degree in international relations from the University of Denver and a bachelor’s degree from Tulane University.

Philippe Dickinson

Second Secretary, Political Section, Embassy of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Phil Dickinson has been the Second Secretary Political at the British Embassy in Washington since January 2019. As part of his role, he leads the Embassy’s engagement with US counterparts on issues relating to the UK’s devolved administrations, including Northern Ireland. He also covers US domestic politics at the Embassy, with a particular focus on state and local politics and building the UK’s relationships with America’s political leaders at the sub-national level. Phil has been in the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office since 2011. He has worked for the FCO in Sri Lanka, New York, Beijing, and London, and has also previously worked in the UK’s Ministry of Defence and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. He graduated from Oxford University with a degree in Chinese and Japanese.

Tom Glynn

Film Director, The Troubles with Brexit; Founder, Gauge Theory Creative
Tom Glynn is an experienced film director and producer. Most recently he partnered with BFNA to direct The Troubles with Brexit, a documentary examining the history of conflict in Northern Ireland and the unintended consequences of Brexit there. In 2014, Tom wrote and directed Automotive, the LATimes’ “pick of the Dances With Films Festival,” a neo-noir shot entirely from inside a ’64 Mercury. Prior, he and Pulitzer Prize winner Ayad Akhtar teamed up with Joseph Costello to make the critically acclaimed film The War Within (Magnolia, 2006). The film was nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards including Best Screenplay. Tom founded Gauge Theory Creative in 2011, a production company based in Santa Monica, CA with clients including NBATV, Bleacher Report, Special Olympics, Museum of Natural History, Tiffany & Co., MAGIC Fashion Shows, Coterie and more. Tom earned an MFA in directing from Columbia University, and a BA in Physics from Amherst College.