Press Release Announcing the 2009 Merriman Summer School

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Historian Diarmaid Ferriter (Professor of Modern Irish History, UCD) will deliver the opening lecture of this year’s Merriman Summer School on Sunday August 16th at 8 p.m. in Glór Theatre, Ennis. His lecture, ’The Lost Decade? Crisis, Continuity and Change in 1950s Ireland’ will recall the Ireland of the 1950s and the context for the publication of the first Programme for Economic Expansion fifty years ago. That will set the scene for a week‑long look at the challenges facing Ireland today in setting its course for the future. The current economic crisis will feature but the School will take a broader view of the important issues.

The Director of the 2009 Summer School is Bob Collins (Chief Commissioner of the Equality Commision for Northern Ireland, former Director General of RTE). Sociologists and policy makers, educationalists, historians, journalists and others will provide a lively week of debate and discussion. Among the other speakers are Maureen Gaffney (Chairperson, National Economic and Social Forum), Noel Dorr (former Secretary General, Department of Foreign Affairs), Cilian Fennell (TV producer and media coach, formerly of RTÉ and TG4), Tom Collins (Head of Department of Education and Dean of Teaching and Learning,NUI Maynooth), Seán Freyne (Professor Emeritus of Theology,TCD), Brigid Laffan (Principal of the College of Human Sciences, UCD), Emily Logan (Ombudsman for Children), Lord Paul Bew (Professor of Politics, QUB), Frances Ruane (Director, ESRI), John Mc Hale (Professor of Economics, NUI Galway) and Michael Smyth (Head of School of Economics, University of Ulster).

Morning seminars in English and Irish will be given by Aongus O hAonghusa (Director, National Library of Ireland), John‑Mark Mc Cafferty (Head of Social Justice and Policy, Society of St. Vincent de Paul), Pádraig Ó hAoláin (CEO Údarás na Gaeltachta), Clare Duignan (Managing Director, RTÉ Radio), Tadhg O hIfearnáin (senior lecturer in Irish, University of Limerick), Philip Furlong (former Secretary General of government department), Póilín Ní Chiaráin (journalist, Northern correspondent with Raidió na Gaeltachta) and Sara Keating (journalist and writer on the arts for the Irish Times and The Sunday Business Post).

There will be lunchtime poetry readings from poets James Harpur, Enda Wyley, Ailbhe Ní Ghearbhuigh and John F Deane, set dancing classes with Betty Mc Coy and Johnny Morrissey, a night of storytelling with Nuala Hayes and harpist, Anne Marie O’Farrell, screenings every afternoon of a selection of Radharc films broadcast by RTÉ, and ‘Renew Your Irish’ classes with Eoghan Ó hAnluain.

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Please ring 00 353 86 382 0671 for enquiries.