Full Conference June 9th and June 10th Live Stream
Friday live stream
Friday June 9th: 7.15 – 8.15 p.m. – Vincent Woods
“Seeding a future: Hope, History and Human Intelligence”
Writer and broadcaster Vincent Woods grew up in north Leitrim. His plays include ‘At the Black Pig’s Dyke’ and ‘A Cry from Heaven’, and he has published several collections of poetry. He has worked as a news and current affairs and arts broadcaster and is currently presenting the radio series ‘The County Measure’ on RTÉ Radio 1. Vincent is director of the Iron Mountain Literature Festival in Leitrim. He lives in Dublin and is a member of Aosdána.
Friday June 9th: 8.15 – 9.15 p.m. Orla Parkinson Memorial Lecture – Patricia Groves
“Lessons from the Ladies’ Land League: Managing a country in crisis during global upheaval”
Trish Groves is a communications professional and author of ‘Petticoat Rebellion: The Anna Parnell Story’, published by The Mercier Press. She holds a post-graduate qualification in scriptwriting and entrepreneurship and has been involved in the production of many short films. She brings insights from over twenty years’ experience in the international development sector to her writing, which helps to illustrate how Ireland, although it is a small nation, continues to have such profound international impact.
Friday evening conference live stream
Saturday morning live stream
Saturday June 10th: 10.30 – 11.30 a.m. Dr Tony Bates
“What Psychology has to offer in a frantic world – widening the aperture of our awareness”
Dr Tony Bates is a clinical psychologist and Adjunct Professor of Psychology at University College Dublin. He was Head of the Department of Psychology for 30 years at St James’s Hospital Dublin. Following psychotherapy training at the Universities of Pennsylvania and Oxford, he established the MSc Cognitive Psychotherapy at TCD. In 2006, he created Jigsaw (The National Centre for Youth Mental Health) to serve young people and their mental health needs. He trained as a mindfulness teacher at the University of North Wales, Bangor, in 2001 and is patron of The Mindfulness Teachers Association of Ireland. Tony now lives on a cliff outside Grange, North Sligo, where he writes, consults and looks after a large garden with hens, a pair of giant Flemish rabbits, cats and wild birds.
Saturday June 10th: 11.30 – 12.30 p.m. Dr. Micheline Sheehy Skeffington
“Ireland’s native flora – is it in crisis?”
Botanist Dr Micheline Sheehy Skeffington is the current President of the Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland (BSBI). She took early retirement from the Botany Department, NUI Galway, where she taught plant ecology for over 30 years. Her primary interests are in habitat conservation and her research has focused on wetland ecology, rare species conservation and, recently, Ireland’s Lusitanian flora. A prime interest is conservation through sustainable agricultural systems. The BSBI published its third Atlas of the Irish and British flora – Plant Atlas 2020 that aims to inform conservation organisations regarding the status of the Irish flora, over half of which has declined in the last two decades. Micheline was involved in recording the flora, but also in producing the Irish Summary Report of the Atlas, which serves as a basis for future work.
Saturday morning conference live stream
Saturday afternoon 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.”