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Guest Speakers at the 2010 Merriman Summer School

This page lists the speakers and lecturers attending the 2010 Summer School and provides short biogs for each of them.

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Speakers and Lecturers for 2010

Michael Coady
Michael is a writer, teacher and musician. Publications include Two for a Woman, Three for a Man (1980) and Oven Lane (1987, 92, 2001). With All Souls (1997, 2001) and One Another (2003) he broke new ground by creatively integrating poetry, prose and his own photographs. He has published a personal memoir of Clare traditional musicians Packie and Micho Russell, and an illustrated miscellany of short prose work (Full Tide, Relay Books, 1999).
Pádraic Conway
Pádraic is Director of the UCD International Centre for Newman Studies, and a Vice‑President of the University. He is a frequent commentator on religious and theological topics in the broadcast and print media. He is principal investigator on the IRCHSS-funded project ‘John Henry Newman: Global and Local Theologian’ and co‑editor of the forthcoming Karl Rahner: Theologian for the 21st Century (Peter Lang).
Micheal Cronin
Micheal holds a Personal Chair in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Studies, DCU and is the Irish Language Literature Advisor for the Arts Council of Ireland. He is the author of numerous publications on language, society and politics and is a Member of the Royal Irish Academy.
Síle de Cléir
Síle studied Folklore and Ethnology at University College, Cork. Her research interests include cloth / dress traditions, and religious reading in 20th century Ireland. Her current research is concerned with popular Catholicism in an urban context. She lectures in the School of Languages, Literature, Culture and Communication at the University of Limerick.
Diarmaid Ferriter
Diarmaid is one of Ireland’s leading historians. He was appointed Professor of Modern Irish History at UCD in 2008. Publications include The Transformation of Ireland 1900–2000(2004) and Judging Dev: A Reassessment of the life and legacy of Eamon de Valera (2007). His most recent book is Occasions of Sin: Sex and Society in Modern Ireland (2009). A regular broadcaster with RTÉ radio and television, his television history of twentieth century Ireland, The Limits of Liberty, was broadcast recently.
Father Kevin Hegarty
Father Kevin ministers in Carne (diocese of Killala), Belmullet, in County Mayo. A former editor of Intercom and Céide magazines. He now writes a column for the Mayo News newspaper.
Ann James
Ann discovered Humanism as an adult. The current secretary of the Humanist Association of Ireland, she has been actively involved with that organisation since she came to Ireland in 2000. She works with associated groups in Northern Ireland, Britain and Europe, including the European Humanist Federation and the International Humanist and Ethical Union, on issues of joint interest and on promoting an ethical secular life.
Dáire Keogh
Dáire is a senior lecturer at Saint Patrick’s College, Drumcondra, where he lectures in Early Modern European and Irish history. He has published widely on the history of religion in Ireland, radical politics, gender and education. He is principal investigator of an IRCHSS funded project to edit the correspondence of Cardinal Cullen.
Catherine Mc Guinness
The Honourable Mrs Justice Catherine McGuinness, President of the Law Reform Commission is a retired Judge of the Supreme Court. She was born in Belfast and educated in Belfast and Dublin (Alexandra College, TCD and the King’s Inns). She was called to the Irish Bar in 1977, to the Inner Bar in 1989, and to the Bar of New South Wales in 1993. In addition to her Judicial career, she has served on An Bord Uchtála (the Adoption Board), the Voluntary Health Insurance Board, the National Economic and Social Council and the Second Commission on the Status of Women. She has chaired the National Social Services Board, the Board of National College of Art and Design, the Employment Equality Agency, the Kilkenny Incest Investigation and the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation.
Michael Mc Namara
Michael is a practicing barrister in Ireland. Educated at UCC, the Catholic University of Louvain and the King’s Inns, he has worked for the OSCE, the EU and the UN in democratisation and legislative reform in the Middle East, the Caucasus and Central Asia, with a specific focus on religion and the State. He has also taught on the MA programme on Civil and Canon Law at the University of Limerick.
Gina Menzies
Gina is a theologian. She is a frequent guest on RTÉ and contributor to The Sunday Business Post and The Irish Times. She is also an accomplished squash player, and has served as chairperson of the Irish Government Taskforce on Women in Sport.
Irene Ní Mháille
Irene is a former missionary, and spent time teaching in Nigeria. She is now active in reviving Christianity as part of adult education.
Deirdre Nic Mhathúna
Deirdre is a lecturer in Irish in Saint Patrick’s College, Drumcondra. Her research interests include the poetry of the seventeenth century, manuscript reading and editing post‑classical texts.
Brian Ó Dálaigh
Brian is a native Clareman. He received his qualifications in history from University College, Dublin and at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. He has been a school principal for many years, and has many publications to his name on the history and lore of the Thormond district.
Caitríona Ó Dochartaigh
Caitríona is a lecturer of Early- and Middle-Irish at University College, Cork. She received her primary and master’s degrees in Galway, and then won a scholarship to the University of Cambridge, where she was conferred with her doctorate. She has particular interest in the religious texts, both in Irish and Latin, of the middle-ages. She is the deputy‑director of the De Finibus research project in Cork, which aims to provide editions and translations of Irish language texts concerning doomsday, hell and heaven, along with new commenteries.
Pádraig Ó Héalaí
Pádraig was formerly a lecturer in Roinn na Gaeilge, National University of Ireland, Galway. His main area of academic interest is the folklore of Ireland; he has many publications to his credit on various aspects of the discipline, including religion and the people.
Salvador Ryan
Salvador is Professor of Ecclesiastical History at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth. He has published widely on late medieval and early modern devotional literature and was co‑editor of Art and Devotion in late medieval Ireland (2006).
Clodagh Tait
Clodagh is the author of numerous books and articles on death and burial; violence, riot and martyrdom; devotion and iconography; and childbirth, baptism and naming in early modern Ireland.
Larry Taylor
Larry is the Professor of Anthropology at National University of Ireland, Maynooth and also serves there as Vice‑President for International Affairs. He is the author of five books including Occasions of Faith: An Anthropology of Irish Catholics (1997, Lilliput Press) and several dozen articles, many of them on the anthropology of religion in Ireland and elsewhere.
Áine Uí Fhoghlú
Áine is a poet from the Gaeltacht of Rinn Ua gCuanach, in County Waterford. She has published two collections: Aistear Aonair (1999) and An Liú sa Chuan (2007). She was writer in residence with the Vocational Education Committee in Kilkenny in 2006 and has won several prizes for her poetry, including The Michael Hartnett Poetry Award in 2008.

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