Afternoon Conference Saturday June 10th Live Stream
Saturday June 10th : 2.30 – 3.30 p.m. Senator Emer Currie
“Convergence versus divergence in a changing world”
Senator Emer Currie was elected to Fingal County Council in 2019 for the Castleknock Local Electoral Area. She contested the 2020 General Election in Dublin West and was subsequently appointed as a Senator in June 2020, as a Taoiseach’s Nominee. She is Fine Gael Seanad Spokesperson for Northern Ireland, Special Education and Inclusion, serves on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement Committee and is Chair of Sovereign Matters on the British Ireland Parliamentary Assembly. She became a Business Director in Ireland’s largest marketing and communications company at 31. Her greatest work achievements drove behavioural change through public awareness campaigns for the local environment, public health and Ireland’s domestic tourism market. She is no stranger to politics. Her father was the late Austin Currie, Civil Rights Leader, founder member of the SDLP, Stormont MP and Minister for Housing for Housing in Northern Ireland Executive (1974). In 1989 Austin was elected TD for Dublin West. He served as Minister for State for Children’s Rights from 1994 to 1997 and contested the Presidential Election. He is the only person to have served as Minister both North and South.
Saturday June 10th : 3.30 – 4.30 p.m. Fr Peter McVerry SJ
“Ireland in crisis – how can intelligent people be so stupid?”
While working in the Inner City in Dublin, Fr. Peter McVerry SJ opened a hostel for young homeless people in 1979. The organisation, originally called the Arrupe Society, was subsequently renamed the Peter McVerry Trust. It now has 25 hostels, 5 drug and alcohol treatment centres and over 1,000 apartments for homeless people. He has written on many issues relating to homeless people, such as housing, drugs, juvenile justice, the gardai, the prisons and education. His writings include “The Meaning is in the Shadows,” “Jesus – Social Revolutionary?”“The God of Mercy, the God of the Gospels,” and “A Dose of Reality.”