MacGill Summer School 2017 Update from Joe Mulholland - Director

THE 37TH ANNUAL MACGILL SUMMER SCHOOL

Sunday, July 16th  -  Friday, July 21st

                   GLOBAL TURBULENCE AND UNCERTAINTY: IRELAND AND EUROPE

  MUST PREPARE FOR A NEW ERA

Greetings to all,

This year's MacGill School programme is now on our website, www.macgillsummerschool.com where it is also possible to book for days or the entire week for fees which are extremely modest.  The programme, for unavoidable reasons, has a few  lacunae but any additions or changes will be signalled on our website. 

There is, as you might expect, a considerable emphasis on the European Union and Brexit which has to be taken very seriously.  We will, in the near future, be in the Union without Britain which will require new thinking on all our parts about Europe and the role we might play in its future evolution as a full member, however small,  and its only English-speaking member state.  We also have to face the resulting challenge of how to manage our own economy in the new environment and avoid any possibility of our returning to the kind of recession which we have experienced several times in recent decades.

We have a range of contributors who are intimately involved in Europe and its institutions including the Minister for Foreign Affairs & Trade, Simon Coveney TD, who will deliver the 17th Annual John Hume Lecture on Sunday evening following the opening address of the French Ambassador, H.E. Mr Stephane Crouzat. We then kick off on Monday morning at 11.00 am with an expert panel of speakers, specifically on Brexit, and this will be followed by an open forum which will allow members of the audience to ask questions or make comments. An open forum will also follow the address in the afternoon by the EU Commissioner for Security, Sir Julian King,  on a topic that is crucially important to all of us across Europe:  security from terrorism and attacks, not only on the lives of citizens but, in the form of cyber attacks on our socio-economic and political institutions and on our very democracies.

MacGill will not neglect in its agenda the requirement of this country to reform its own institutions.  Never before was the need for better governance, longer-term planning and making our institutions fit for purpose so necessary.  Our government and the political and administrative systems have to be in a position to concentrate more on the real issues that will provide social and economic progress in an increasingly threatening environment.

Joe Mulholland