Dr Brian McGing, professor of classics at TCD, is one of the speakers at the 24th biennial international conference of historians in Ireland which takes place in UCC from May 20th-22nd. Hailed as "the greatest event in the world of Irish history", the theme of this year's conference is information, media and power through the ages. An interesting line-up of papers is promised, including The Social Construction of the computer: How the Cold War and the Counterculture Created the PC, the Web and the Internet, by Gregg Zachary of The Wall Street Journal, and The Huguenot Diaspora: Refugee Networks of Power, by Charles C Luddington of Columbia University. Espionage on Irish soil merits discussion in two papers - Ciphers and Intelligence Work in Elizabethan Ireland, by Fiona Fitzsimons of TCD and Informers: Dublin Castle's Intelligence Network in the 1790s, by UCD's Professor Tom Bartlett. TV, too, comes under the microscope. Dr Finola Doyle-O'Neil, UCC, presents a paper entitled The Late Late Show and Modern Irish Society, while Michael Bromley, Cardiff University discusses TV for Ulstermen? The Beginnings of UTV.

Elizabeth Eisenstein, author of The Printing Press as an Agent of Change will open the conference. Extra attractions include a session on history, computing and the Internet and a young historian's forum in religion in Ireland.

Conference costs: £30 waged, £15 unwaged. Contact: Dr Hiram Morgan, Department of History, UCC. (h.morgan@ucc.ie Tel: 021 903049)