This article is from page 8 of the 2011-08-09 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 8 JPG
THE areas of children’s rights and children’s education will dominate discussion at the 2011 Merriman Summer School, which begins in Lisdoonvarna next week.
Directed this year by Prof Nóirín Hayes of DIT, an expert in early childood education and children’s rights, it will address issues relating to Irish childhood past and present and consider a vision for the future. ‘Changing Irish Childhoods’ is the title and the school will run from August 17-21.
The school will be opened in the Pavillion Theatre, Lisdoonvarna by the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Frances Fitzgerald TD. Speakers and panellists include Fintan O’Toole, Mary O’ Rourke, Joseph Dunne, Maria Corbett, Carl O’Brien, Fergus Ryan, Sheila Greene, Dympna Devine, Brian O’Neill, and Siobhán Parkinson. The closing lecture will be given by the Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Michael D Higgins. Topics will range from exploring the boundaries between childhood and adulthood, to children and the new media.
There will be daily lunchtime poetry readings during Cúirt an Mheán Lae, with one of Ireland’s most distinguished poets, Eavan Boland, reading on August 18, followed by readings by Gabriel Rosenstock and Peter Sirr.
Morning seminars in Irish and English delivered by a range of experts will deal with subjects as diverse as Naonrai Gaelacha, assisited immigration to New Zealand for workhouse girls in the 1870s and debutantes in 18th-century Limerick.
A special session on youth mental health and well-being will include a presentation on a collaborative project by artist Seamus McGuinness and psychiatrist Kevin Malone, and a dramatic presentation from Jigsaw, a Youth Mental Health group from Galway.
There will be walking tours of Lisdoonvarna, book launches and, of course, the perennially popular Club Merriman in the evenings.
Full details of the programme, including information on the morning seminars, as well as information on the speakers, registration and accommodation are on www.merriman.ie.