THE REPORT into the deaths of 196 young people in State care, corruption in public life and the future for the Catholic Church in Ireland are among the subjects for discussion at this year’s MacGill Summer School.
Continuing last year’s themes of reform and transformation, the 32nd MacGill event in Glenties, Co Donegal, opens at the Highlands Hotel next Sunday, July 22nd, and runs until July 27th.
Speakers will include Ministers and former ministers, academics, writers, journalists senior public servants and trade unionists.
France’s ambassador to Ireland, Emmanuelle d’Achon, will open the event on Sunday and Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore will deliver the 12th annual John Hume lecture. On Monday, Taoiseach Enda Kenny will address delegates on the subject of reforming and rebuilding the State.
His speech will follow sessions on how the events leading to the Mahon and Moriarty tribunals were allowed to happen, and the lack of transparency and accountability in our political system.
On Tuesday, Archbishop of Dublin Dr Diarmuid Martin will talk on the future of the Catholic church in Ireland.
Minister for Public Expenditure Brendan Howlin, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin and law lecturer Donncha O’Connell will speak at a session on the constitutional convention and the challenge of constitutional reform.
The Croke Park agreement and reform of the public service, the electoral system and local government will all feature in Wednesday’s four sessions.
Other sessions include discussions about the media and democracy, the prospects for the Irish economy and the euro zone crisis.
The closing event on Friday, titled Cherishing all the Children of the Nation, will be attended by Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald and Norah Gibbons, co-author of the report by the Independent Child Death Review group. There will also be music and art exhibitions.
Founded in 1981 in Glenties, the school is in memory of writer Patrick MacGill, who wrote in the early 20th century about social conditions in Donegal, and on the horrors of the first World War in which he fought.