Remote Co Mayo won't know what hit it if John Cooney gets his way. The director of the Humbert Summer School told the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, that as next year is the bicentenary of the 1798 rebellion and the French expedition, British PM Tony Blair, US president Bill Clinton and the president of France, Jacques Chirac should all be invited to Killala for the occasion. He didn't mind sharing the celebrations with Wexford and Belfast but he wanted the world leaders in Mayo and while the school could invite them they needed the Government's backing to encourage attendance. The Taoiseach, who was launching this year's programme in Buswell's last Wednesday, looked rather startled at the suggestion and was heard to murmur: "it will be a nightmare if we deliver even one of them."
From August 13th-17th the school will discuss Post Robinson Ireland; The Role of Small Nations in World Affairs; and Revising the Peace Process. Speakers include Ministers James McDaid, Tom Moffatt and Chris Flood and deputies Jim Higgins, Frances Fitzgerald, Conor Lenihan and Austin Currie.