Speakers & Performers

Former Taoiseach
Bertie Ahern

Bertie served as Taoiseach from 1997 to 2007, during which Ireland saw remarkable economic growth, social change, and intense engagement with the Northern Ireland peace process that resulted in the Good Friday Agreement between the British and Irish Governments and the political parties in Northern Ireland. The Irish Presidency of European Council in 2004 saw him preside over the historic enlargement of the European Union to 27 member states including eight from Eastern Europe. Since being Taoiseach he has had leadership roles on key global issues including increasing aid to developing countries and tackling the spread of HIV Aids. His achievements at home and abroad have been recognized internationally. Bertie is one of the few to have been invited to address the Houses of Parliament in Westminster and the Houses of Congress in Washington DC. Since leaving Government in 2008 he has dedicated his time to conflict resolution and is actively involved with many groups around the world.

Dr Tony McCarthy

After a career spanning over 40 years as an accountant, stockbroker, and for the last 20 years running his own businesses, Tony received his PhD from Maynooth University in 2017. He is a former writer in residence in the Princess Grace Library, Monaco, and is currently a visiting fellow at the School of History in Newcastle University. His published works include The Shaws of Terenure, A nineteenth-century Dublin merchant family (2010), and Land reform in the British and Irish Isles (2022) coedited with Professor Annie Tindley and Dr Shaun Evans. His latest publication, Land reform and legislation in Ireland 1800–1992, in conjunction with Professors Terence Dooley and Annie Tindley, will be published later this year. He is a regular contributor to the Irish Farmers Journal, Country Living magazine, and other journals.

Dr Margaret Daly-Denton

Margaret’s doctoral dissertation (on the textual origins of Christian ritual song) was mentored by Prof. Seán Freyne. During his illness and eventual retirement, she undertook his teaching of New Testament at TCD, and completed his posthumously published book, The Jesus Movement and its Expansion: Meaning and Mission (Eerdmans, Grand Rapids/MI Cambridge UK, 2014). She was instrumental in establishing The Freyne Library in TCD, Seán’s gift of the life-long collection that had resourced his biblical scholarship. Assuming his mantle, teaching ‘Bible and Ecology’ in a Masters programme in Ecology and Religion, was a turning point in her own research and writing, opening up for her the possibility that the world’s religious traditions might have a significant role in these days of ecological crisis by motivating their adherents to care for the planet. Her latest book, an earth-conscious reading of the Fourth Gospel, is John: An Earth Bible Commentary: Supposing him to be the gardener (Bloomsbury/T&T Clark, London, 2017).

Dr Brian Griffin

Brian is an adjunct associate professor in the history department at Maynooth University, specialising in the social history of nineteenth and early twentieth century Ireland. He has a particular interest in the history of the Royal Irish Constabulary and Dublin Metropolitan Police, crime, and sport (especially cycling). Recent publications include articles on Percy French’s war-related entertainments during the Great War, the bicycle in the Irish Revolution, Jack B. Yeat’s Punch cartoons during the Great War and freak shows in 19th century Ireland. Work in progress includes articles on bicycle advertisements in the Second World War and street football in Ireland from the 1870s to the 1970s. His latest book, Crime and the Criminal Classes in Ireland, 1870–1920, will be published by Cork University Press in 2024.

Dr Michael Hardiman

Michael holds a PhD in philosophy from NUIG. A native of Athlone where he was born into a business. He attended University in Galway, and post graduate training in Counselling Psychology at University College Cork. He has written several books in the genre of psychology/personal development and was elected Fellow of the Irish Institute of Training and Development. For several years he served on the national executive of the Irish Association of Addiction Counselling. In addition to his work in the field of Psychology he has more recently engaged with formal training in political philosophy receiving both Master’s and Doctorate degrees in this field. His recent book The Path to Mass Evil: Hannah Arendt and Totalitarianism Today, (2023, Routledge, New York) is currently available within the academy worldwide and his new book, Misled? How Ideology Captures Your Mind, is now available to general readership. Michael lives in Galway where he works as a psychologist and educator with a private counselling practice. He also presents seminars and workshops nationwide to family centres and to adult education services.

Dr Eve Watson

Eve has been involved in psychotherapy practice, training, education, and research since 2005 and lectures in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. She has a psychoanalytic practice in Dublin’s city centre, and has published over 30 essays on sexuality, psychoanalysis, film, culture, and literature. She has held various journal editorship roles, and sits on editorial boards of several international journals. She co-edited the Clinical Encounters in Sexuality (2017, Punctum Books, New York) and she has two forthcoming book collections in 2024, one on the drive and the other on the contemporary relevance of Freud’s major case studies. She is a Reg. Pract. member of APPI (Association for Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy in Ireland), a member of ICP (Irish Council for Psychotherapy, and an honorary member of Lacan Toronto and the Northern Ireland Institute of Human Relations). In 2022, she was the Erik Erikson Scholar-in-Residence at the Austen Riggs Centre, Massachusetts. She is the course director of the Freud Lacan institute, Dublin which organises seminars and training programs.

Dr Pauric Travers

Pauric is an educationalist and historian. A graduate of UCD and the Australian National University, has lectured widely in Europe, the USA, and Australia. He was President of St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra (1999–2012) and was a founding director of the Centre for Cross Border Studies in Armagh. He served two terms as chair of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, a member of the Teaching Council, and the board of the CAO. He is chairman of the Parnell Society and the first director of the Parnell Summer School. A former editor of Studia Hibernica (the Irish studies journal) he has served on editorial boards of other scholarly journals. He was a member of the Universities Ireland Historians Group on the Decade of Commemorations. His most recent book is Donegal: the Irish Revolution 1912–23 (2022) and he contributed the Donegal entries on the UCC/RTE website The Irish Civil War Fatalities Project, launched this year. Other publications are: Irish Culture and Nationalism 1750–1950 (1982); Settlements and Divisions: Ireland 1870–1922 (1988); The Irish Emigrant Experience in Australia (1991); Eamon de Valera (1994); The Ivy Leaf: the Parnells Remembered (2007); Words of the Dead Chief–Charles Stewart Parnell (2009); Parnell Reconsidered (2013).

James Bradshaw

James is a writer who frequently contributes to religious and secular publications including Position Papers, Alive, and Mercator, where he writes on topics such as politics, history, literature, culture, film and culture. His professional background spans the worlds of politics, public policy and corporate communications. A frequent speaker at the Clare Street Evenings cultural series in Dublin, his work on societal issues has appeared in leading outlets such as The Irish Independent, The Sunday Independent and The European Conservative. In 2023, he edited the special obituary edition of Aid to the Church in Need’s Mirror publication which was focused on the life and legacy of Pope Benedict XVI. One of his key research interests in recent times has been the issue of community; on June 14th, he will deliver a lecture on the work of the prominent Irish communitarian and philosopher Desmond Fennell, during a seminar on Fennell’s life and legacy which is taking place in Dublin.

Dr Kevin Kiely

Kevin, born in County Down, who holds a PhD in modernist and postmodernist poetry, is a poet, a novelist, a literary critic, an American Fulbright Scholar. He is also a commentator on poetry, literature, and the arts in Village Magazine, The Irish Independent, Books Ireland, The Journal of the E. E. Cummings Society, The International Wallace Stevens Journal, and other publications. His many works include Quintesse (St Martin’s Press, New York, 1985) and Breakfast with Sylvia (Lagan Press, Belfast, 2015) for which he was awarded the Patrick Kavanagh Fellowship in Poetry.

Pearse O'Shiel

Pearse is chairman of Lifeways Ireland CLG the charity that achieved state recognition for the Steiner schools in Clare and Galway. He teaches in the areas of the philosophy of education with particular emphasis on Goethe’s radical epistemology. He has worked over the past 35 years to support the establishment of alternative schools at kindergarten, primary, and secondary levels. He maintains a research interest that seeks to expose the assumptions that underpin the scientific and technological culture and mode of thought that has engulfed our lives with a view to exploring other ways of coming to know the world. Pearse is also chairman of Cooperative Housing Ireland and a founding member of Inis Housing Association. Currently he is preparing a series of online videos aiming to make his research accessible to a general audience.

Dr Pádraig Lenihan

Before becoming an academic Pádraig served in the army for 14 years, retiring at the rank of captain. He was a lecturer in history at the University of Galway until earlier this year. The study of European warfare in the period 1641–1715 forms the backbone of his research and writing career. This study includes weaponry, tactics, and manoeuvre (the ‘sharp end’ of warfare) alongside such societal questions as state-building, recruitment, logistics, disease, strategy and cultural issues such as memorialization and representation. His many military history publications include Confederate Catholics at war, 1641–1649 (2001) and 1690 Battle of the Boyne (2003). He also wrote Consolidating conquest: Ireland 1603–1727 (2008) a survey of Irish history, and The Last Cavalier: Richard Talbot (1631–91) (2014) a biography of a pivotal and controversial figure. In 2018 he co-edited Poema De Hibernia: A Jacobite Latin Epic on the Williamite Wars which the editors believe to have been composed by Thomas Nugent of Pallas County Galway.

Louise Lennon

Louise is Policy and Comunications Officer of Irish Rural Links, a national network of organisations and individuals campaigning for sustainable rural development in Ireland and Europe. She represents IRL at Community & Voluntary (C&V) Pillar Bilateral meetings with various Government Departments and is the secretariat for the C&V Pillar Health Linkage Group. She is the C&V Pillar representative on the Public Participation Network National Advisory Group. She represents IRL on the Implementation Group of Our Rural Future, Ireland’s Rural Development Policy, the European Rural Parliament, and Coalition 2030, and supports the co-ordinator of the European Rural Communities Alliance. She is the IRL alternate for the Common Agricultural Policy Strategic Plan Monitoring Committee, PEACE IV, and Interreg VA monitoring committees. Louise has also worked on a number of EU Funded projects IRL has partnered on: RUBIZMO, SustainIT, and NICHE.

Nell Smyth

Nell is co-director of SWIM (Steiner CPD & Teacher Training; Steiner Waldorf inár measc; and Steiner Waldorf) along with Caroline Kelly and Audrey Flynn. They have deep backgrounds in Steiner/ Waldorf Kindergarten, Primary, and Secondary school training and teaching experience. They have been involved in National Associations, long established schools, pioneering schools, and in setting up The Alfa Project (Alfa Steiner Secondary School). Nell is the author of many plays (some which are featured in the National Youth Theatre’s Playshare scheme) and the books The Breathing Circle and Drama at the Heart: teaching drama in Steiner Waldorf Schools. She has taught both in America and Ireland as a teacher and trainer. Caroline, who was a founder of ALFA and a director of Waldorf College, Stroud, in the UK, continues to teach.

Don Baker

Dublin born Don is a blues musician, a singer-songwriter, a television personality and an actor. He plays guitar and harmonica – Mark Feltham (Oasis, Joe Cocker, and Rory Gallagher) rates him as the greatest acoustic harmonica player in the world, as do Charlie McCoy and Bono. He has appeared in several films, notably in In the Name of the Father, On the Nose, and Mia, Liebe meines Lebens.

‘You can hear Don’s hand on the guitar, the feeling coming from his voice. He’s a brilliant performer and what a great songwriter!’
Finbar Furey, The Irish Times.

‘A world class musician, a talented actor and a sound bloke!’
Ken Sweeney, Show Business Editor, The Irish Sun.

‘You can hear the gritty emotion in his playing, it isn’t phoned in, it is felt, experienced.’
Barry Egan, Sunday Independent.

His albums include:
Almost Illegal (1989)
Miss You (2000)
Duckin’ & Divin’ (2003)
Rain on the Wind (2006)
My Songs, My Friends (2013)

Ciara Lawless

Ciara, who hails from Roscommon, is a mature song-writer with a powerful voice. She delves into themes of reconnecting with the inner-child, healing, and self-discovery. With a successful run on the festival circuit she has honed her stage presence (with hints of Kate Bush and Florence and The Machine). Ciara began her music journey with lessens at a young age and later trained at the Academy of Music in Tullamore and competed in national and international competitions. Following three singles her debut album, Paint My Soul, was released on Human Angel Records April this year.

Michael Banahan

From an early age Michael, a Roscommon native, has been singing and collecting songs. With many years involvement in the music business he has released a number of critically acclaimed albums: three solo; one with Irish folk duo The Baileys; and five with the internationally renowned folk group Rig the Jig of which he was a founding member. Michael has a passion for writing story songs. He is the founder of GoodWood Music, a record label set up to support original Irish talent from all genres of music. The label releases records world wide through partner ships developed in the UK and the USA.

His solo albums include:
Tecumseh Valley, 2014
Liften’ of the Latch, 2014

Paul Healy

Paul grew up in Rooskey, Co. Roscommon. Having previously worked for the Longford Leader and Longford News, he spent sixteen years as Editor of the Roscommon Champion, before launching the Roscommon People with his wife, Fiona, in 2007. Paul is Managing Editor of the Roscommon People. For many years he edited the Roscommon Association Yearbook. He is author of five books to date, on subjects ranging from sport to politics to social history, and also an occasional contributor to Phoenix magazine.

Percy French 1854–1920

French, the son of an Anglo-Irish landlord, was born in Cloonyquin, Co. Roscommon. While studying at Trinity College Dublin, he wrote the song Abdul Abulbul Amir which became hugely popular; he missed out on royalties having sold the publishing rights. In 1881, on graduating as a civil engineer he became ‘Inspector of Drains’ for County Cavan’s Board of Works. A prolific painter of watercolour landscapes, he considered art to be his vocation. He first became celebrated for his songwiting, including Phil the Fluther’s Ball, Slattery’s Mounted Foot, and lyrics of The Mountains of Mourne. His song Are Ye Right There Michael? ridiculed the County Clare Railway company which sued him for libel. On being asked why he had arrived late for the hearing French replied, ‘Your honour, I traveled by the West Clare Rail way’. The case was dismissed. As a well-known entertainer his paintings became sought after; they remain so today, attracting high prices at leading auction houses. In 1920, in Glasgow, while performing, he took ill and died some days later. He was 65.