Page 20 - The 17th Percy French Festival: The Quest for Authenticity

Laoise grew up on a farm in Co. Carlow. After studying law at TCD
she worked in London making TV documentaries for Channel (
and the BBC and has worked as a producer and reporter for ITV.
For her MA thesis on the reporting of the Troubles she inter view ed
ex-combatants, journalists and politicians including the late Mar-
tin McGuinness. She was called to the Bar in $,$$. She found ed

The Countess in $,!), an organisation that has gained prominence
over its advocacy on the $,!' Gender Recognition Act. Her cam-
paign ‘These Words Belong To Us’ stopped the government remov-
ing the word ‘woman’ from maternity legislation. She led a grass-
roots campaign that delivered the historic defeat of the Referen-
dums on the family and Care. She campaigned successfully
;,Í.(% de ARB3 against the hate speech element of the hate crime bill and the
indoctrination of children into gender ideology in the classroom.

Stephen is a political columnist with the Irish Times and was
previously political editor of the newspaper for a decade. He was
educated at Oatlands College, Stillorgan, and later at UCD where
he graduated with an MA in Politics. He started as a journalist with
the Irish Press group and was political correspondent of the Sun-
day Press and later the Sunday Tribune before moving to the Irish
Times. He has written a number of books about Irish political his-
tory, including The Power Game: Ireland Under Fianna Fail, ($,,$);
Breaking the Mould: How the PDs changed Irish Politics ($,,+); and
Saving the State: Fine Gael from Collins to Varadkar ($,$,). His most
recent book is Ireland’s Call: How Brexit Got Done.

:+%y9%* @.22730

Stephen is a prominent, philosopher and psychoanalyst.
He is the founder of the Viktor Frankl Institute of Ireland and
a cer ti"ed Enneagram coach. He is the author of !+ books. He was
educated in St Gerard’s School, Castleknock College, University
College Dublin (where he read philosophy and Spanish language
and literature) and Trinity College Dublin (where he trained in
psychoanalysis). He has addressed two parliaments: the Stormont
Assembly on human rights and the European Parliament in Brus-
sels on meaning and mental health. Dr Costello has over %, years’
experience, giving lec tures, talks, seminars, and workshops to
individuals and companies in Ireland, the UK, the USA, Austria,
1u :+%y9%* < @.0+;22. and Switzerland (at the C.G. Jung Institute). His recent publi ca -
tions include Dynamics of Discern ment (Pickwick Publications,
$,$$), Ignatian Mysticism (James Clarke, $,$(), and The Alchemy
of Addiction (Routledge, $,$().

•-C • THE P ERCY FRENCH FESTIVAL "#"$