Mary Holland memorial lecture

The Irish Hospice Foundation has announced details of the first commemorative lecture for Irish Times journalist Mary Holland.

The inaugural lecture, in association with The Irish Times, will be given by former president of Ireland Mary Robinson in the Round Room of the Mansion House, in Dublin, at 7pm on July 7th, 2005.

Ms Holland died on June 8th, 2004, after a long and painful battle against scleroderma, a chronic disease of the immune system, connective tissue and blood vessels.

Eugene Murray, chief executive of the Irish Hospice Foundation, said the last months of her life were unnecessarily difficult and debilitating because the appropriate full-time care she wanted was not available.

"The foundation initiated this commemorative lecture in part to highlight the deficiencies in end-of-life care for many terminal illnesses, and the need to expand the development of hospice services for illnesses other than cancer," Mr Murray said.

He said Ms Holland was "one of the leading figures in 20th-century Irish and British journalism - a passionate and courageous advocate for the powerless".

The inaugural lecture will be chaired by David Begg, general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.