John Hewitt International Summer School (25-30 July) #JHISS

The annual John Hewitt International Summer School runs next week in Armagh. While it’s possible to book a place and take in the full programme, individual events are also ticketed.

Everything takes place in The Market Place Theatre and Arts Centre, Market Street, Armagh, BT61 7BW.

Monday 25 July at 11:15am - Diplomat in Moscow, Belfast, New York, Finland and Estonia, ambassador to London and the UN, Dáithí O’Ceallaigh will deliver the summer school’s opening address. Retiring from the Foreign Service in 2009, he is currently director general of the Institute of International & European Affairs in Dublin.

Monday 25 July at 4.30pm - Creativity in the Digital Revolution is the title of poet Dr Leontia Flynn’s Heaney O’Driscoll Memorial Lecture.

Tuesday 26 July at 9.45am - In her talk 1916 & Women: Unfinished Business Dr Linda Connolly will argue that women’s roles and rights in Irish society deserve much fuller attention, both in relation to the history of the 1916 Rising and its historical legacy.

Tuesday 26 July at 1.30pm - Author, broadcaster and screenwriter Glenn Patterson will read from his latest published novel Gull.

Tuesday 26 July at 4.30pm - A panel discussion ‘Reflections on Remembrance’ will be chaired by CRC’s Peter Osborne who will be joined by

• Jeffrey Donaldson MP (also chair of the Northern Ireland WWI Centenary Committee);
• John Concannon (director Ireland 2016 and formerly Failte Ireland);
• Tom Hartley (historian, former Sinn Féin councillor and former general secretary and national chairperson of the party);
• Ruth Dudley Edwards (biographer of James Connolly and Patrick Pearse, commentator on Irish affairs).

Tuesday 26 July at 8.30pm - An evening of music with Duke Special.

Wednesday 27 July at 9.45am - Catriona Crowe asks How Have We Remembered 1916? She’s head of special projects at the National Archive of Ireland and manager of the Irish Census Online Project.

Wednesday 27 July at 4.30pm - Malachi O’Doherty will be in conversation with author Eimear O’Callaghan sharing his thoughts on Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams. Malachi’s biography of the politician will be published by Faber.

Thursday 28 July at 4.30pm - A panel will discuss Where were the women when history was made? Chaired by Ruth Taillon (director of the Centre for Cross Border Studies and author of When History Was Made: the Women of 1916, which identified 200 women who took part in the Easter Rising), the panel will include:

• Catriona Crowe (head of special projects at the National Archive of Ireland and manager of the Irish Census Online Project);
• Susan McKay (journalist and author).

Friday 29 July at 4.30pm - Poet Chris Agee is editor of Irish Pages and will deliver the publication’s 7th annual lecture. In Troubled Belfast Chris will distil 37 years as an immigrant in Belfast, focussing on the aftermath of the Good Friday Agreement and drawing on pan-European parallels. He’ll reflect on the dynamics that continue to “trouble” Belfast and speculate that becoming multicultural may be the most momentous of all the changes in Belfast following the Troubles.