March 2016 Vincent Woods to Host Series of Irish Republic Interviews at NUI Galway

NUI Galway’s Centre for Irish Studies will host a series of interviews with public figures exploring the contemporary relevance of the ideas and ideals that led to the formation of the Irish state.

Questions addressed during the interviews will include: What is a republic? Is Ireland a republic? Is the Republic of Ireland the kind of republic imagined by those involved in the Irish revolution and proclaimed in 1916? What is the role of religion, art, literature, and politics in creating an Irish civic society of the kind envisaged in that proclamation?

The interviews will be conducted by playwright Vincent Woods, presenter of Arts Tonight on RTÉ Radio and will feature public figures who have committed their working lives to realising their own vision of an Irish republic.

The first interview will take place on Wednesday, 6 April with socialist and republican activist and community worker Bernadette McAliskey, the youngest woman ever in the British House of Commons on her election in 1969.

Other interviews in the series include:

• Wednesday, 13 April with Thomas Kilroy
• Wednesday, 20 April with Fr Peter McVerry
• Wednesday, 27 April with Robert Ballagh

The interviews will take place in the Ó hEocha Theatre, Arts Millennium Building, NUI Galway from 6.30-8pm All of these events are open to the public and free to attend.

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