Press Release Announcing the 2007 Merriman Summer School

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This year’s Merriman Summer School will take place in Lisdoonvarna, County Clare. It begins on Sunday, August 19, and concludes on Saturday, August 25. The Director is Doireann Ní Bhriain, well‑known broadcaster and arts consultant.

The 2007 School will be the 40th such Summer School to have been held by Cumann Merriman in County Clare since the first one took place in Ennis in 1968. Over the years the topics for discussion have ranged widely over diverse aspects of Irish life and culture. This year’s School, under the general title Changed Utterly? Ireland 1968 – 2007/'Mór idir na haimsearaibh'. Éire 1968 – 2007 casts a look back at the intervening years and at some of the key changes that have shaped Irish life in the 21st century, as well as taking a look forward at some of the challenges to be faced.

The opening lecture, In time of Change: Ireland 1967 – 2007, will be given by eminent historian, Professor Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh of the National University of Ireland, Galway, setting the tone for a week of debate, discussion, music, poetry, set dancing and general good fun.

Among the topics for discussion in the symposia and lectures (held in the afternoons and evenings each day) will be a look at developments in educational policy and practice from the days of the primary school certificate to the era of lifelong learning, by educationalist Professor John Coolahan.

Our new‑found wealth and the consequences for Irish society will be examined by economist, John Bradley, and social policy expert and former Minister of State, Eithne Fitzgerald. The demographic, social and political consequences of the dual phenomena of emigration and immigration over the last 40 years will be discussed by two academic experts in the field, Dr. Piaras Mac Éinrí of UCC and Dr. Mary Hickman of London Metropolitan University.

The ways in which we have chosen to build on and live in the land of Ireland is the theme of a lecture by architect, Sean Ó Laoire, while our promotion of Irish culture outside of Ireland will be examined by newly appointed Chief Executive of Culture Ireland, Eugene Downes.

The ways in which Irish women’s lives have changed in the 40 years since 1968 is the subject of a symposium chaired by Marian Finucane of RTÉ, who will be joined by prominent Irish women writers Nuala O’Faolain and Anne Enright.

In this year of miraculous change for Northern Ireland, two people close to the action on both parts of the island, Sir Kenneth Bloomfield, former head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service and the distinguished diplomat and former Secretary General of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Noel Dorr, will reflect on what led to that change. As the week draws to a close, Irish Times journalist and commentator, Fintan O’Toole and historian Diarmaid Ferriter will take a look at how the lessons of the past might inform our future on the island.

But the School will not end before those gathered have paid a special tribute to Seán Mac Réamoinn, one of its founder members and greatest advocates and supporters, who died earlier this year.

As usual, this will be a bilingual School. Whilst most of the proceedings are in English, there is a vibrant Irish‑language strand. Some of the morning seminars in Irish will also use the School’s theme to examine the growth in popularity of Irish traditional music and song with Áine Uí Cheallaigh, the current state of scholarship in modern Irish with Máirín Nic Eoin of St. Patrick’s College, Drumcondra, and the development of Irish language journalism with Dr. Regina Uí Chollatáin of UCD. Brian Ó Catháin of the National University of Ireland, Maynooth will give a special seminar about the Irish language as spoken in North Clare and the Aran Islands.

A concurrent series of local history seminars will profile some outstanding personalities associated with the area at different periods of its history: these will be given by Dr. Peter Harbison (George Unthank McNamara — Clare’s Medical Antiquarian), Máire Ashe Fitzgerald (Thomas Johnson Westropp, an Irish Antiquary), Bernard Share (One man in his time — Brendan O’Regan) and Conor Keane (Curious examples of Gaelic signage and placenames in County Clare). The School will also host a series of Renew your Irish classes with Eoghan Ó hAnluain every morning.

This year’s series of mid‑day poetry readings (Cúirt an Mheán Lae) feature poets Mary O’Malley, Liam Ó Muirthile, Paddy Bushe and Leanne O’Sullivan and are followed by the ever‑popular daily set dancing classes under the expert tutelage of Betty Mc Coy and Johnny Morrissey.

The mid‑week bus tour will include a lecture in the Burren College of Art by Carol Gleeson on the protection and management of the Burren’s environmental heritage. There will also be a special concert by the renowned Lismorohaun Singers from North Clare, making their first appearance at a Merriman School, following the tour on the Wednesday evening, featuring soloist, Naomi O’Connell. As usual it is anticipated that there will be plenty of informal singing and dancing during the week of the 2007 Merriman Summer School.

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Press Officer: Máire Ní Neachtain