Parnell 'pupils' gather for summer school

Politicians and academics gather in Co Wicklow today for the annual five-day Parnell Summer School.

Fianna Fáil’s new TD in Bray, Joe Behan, will officially open the event which will focus its 2007 theme on the changes in Irish culture, society and politics.

Speakers include Labour deputy leader and local TD Liz McManus and Oxford University history professor, Roy Foster.

Organisers said the School’s programme had to be reshuffled at the last minute because holidaying TDs were unavailable for a debate featuring newcomers to the 30th Dáil.

All lectures, discussions and workshops will be held in Avondale – the ancestral home of the ’Uncrowned King of Ireland’ Charles Stewart Parnell.

The controversial Irish Parliamentary Party leader died in 1891 and is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery. Supporters of Parnell began hosting the Summer School in 1991 – the centenary of his death.

A spokesperson for the Summer School said: “This year’s theme of continuity and change will be explored in a series of lectures and panel discussions on topics such as women and gender equality, education, the labour movement, theatre, art, and the national question.

“These topics will also be examined in a contemporary light, with a view towards the centenary of the Easter Rising in 2016.”

The event attracts students, teachers and academics from Ireland and abroad, including the US and Japan.