Alison O'Connor: Bacik makes a good start as Labour leader, but there's still plenty to do

New leader needs to be honest about how, in recent times, fear had risen among members of the parliamentary party that Labour might disappear under Alan Kelly's rule

Ivana Bacik has a long history of active
campaigning for social change, but
reviving the Labour Party could be a
bigger challenge. Picture: Gareth Chaney

IT was a wonderfully sunny Saturday afternoon in Clare. The attendees at the Burren Law School were alternating between enjoyment of the presentations going on inside and enjoying the unseasonably warm conditions outside.

As an invitee that year, I enjoyed both at this weekend event, which sadly no longer takes place. Yes, it did tick all the boxes of a middle-class intellectual talking shop — set up with the aim of “recreating a tradition of legal learning associated with the Brehon Law Schools, allowing the past to illuminate the present”. But the talking was really interesting and it did give plenty of food for thought. A memory from that day in 2018 was hearing that one of the attendees, a member of the organising committee, had left the gathering to go into Ennis.