Paddy Cosgrave, the co-founder of Web Summit, will open the Limerick Civic Trust’s third Annual Lecture Series on Thursday 11 October at St Munchin’s Church, King’s Island, Limerick. [Get tickets online now]
Organised in conjunction with UL’s Kemmy Business School and the support of LIT and Limerick Council, the five-part series of public lectures will examine a wide variety of topical issues like the impact of Brexit, immigration, military interventions, Irish water, urban planning, Russia and lots more.
Other speakers in the series include; Emma Kennedy, Founder, Kennedy Analysis who will travel from Zurich to speak on 18 October about Irish water. On October 25, Colonel Colm Doyle will deliver his address entitled ‘Responsibility to Protect: Sovereignty via Intervention’. Professor Peter Bishop, University College London and Allies & Morrison Architects, will talk about urban design and planning. Conor O’Clery, journalist and writer, completes the line-up.
Download lecture series brochure here
All speakers are known for their ability to invigorate a good debate and discussion and are expected to share their thoughts, insights and views on subjects relating to the central theme of ‘Peripherality and Centrality – The Centre Cannot Hold!’.
Speaking about the theme for the lecture series, David O’Brien, CEO Limerick Civic Trust, said, “This is the same theme we used last year but as 2018 draws to a close and dividing opinions about Brexit and Trumpism persist, alongside other global issues like migration, climate change and securing basic human rights for millions, it appears more relevant now than ever. These challenges and issues are having a direct impact on our local economy, environment, society and culture. So as a local economy, how do we become a stronger hub and mitigate against the impact of external forces? And as a society, how do we adapt and change or ensure the decisions we make are for the betterment of our society now and in the future?”
“Over the past few decades, there seems to be a worldwide trend towards the division of public opinions about several issues such as political views, immigration, equality, global warming. The rise in extreme opinions in society is evident. Our lecture series seeks to provide a platform for moderate speakers to inform and share their insights on their areas of expertise and to hopefully provide a middle ground where new opinions can take form and existing ones can be either strengthened or weakened,” he continued.
The lectures will run on Thursday evenings from 11 October to 15 November in St. Munchin’s Church. Lectures start at 8pm and admission is €10 or concessions €8 per lecture. Tickets are available online at www.eventbrite.ie. Tickets are also available from The Limerick Civic Trust offices in the Bishop’s Palace, Church Street, 061 313399 or on the door on each of the nights.
Proceeds from the series will be used by the Limerick Civic Trust for the restoration of St. Munchin’s Church into a military museum.
ENDS
About the Speakers:
Paddy Cosgrave, CEO and co-founder of Web Summit
Web Summit is a global technology conference hosted annually in Lisbon. In 2018, more than 70,000 attendees from over 170 countries will fly to Lisbon for Web Summit, including over 20,000 companies, 7,000 CEOs and 2,600 international journalists. Speakers include the founders and CEOs of the world’s largest tech companies as well as political leaders and major sports, fashion and music personalities.
In less than 8 years the Web Summit has grown from a small team of 3 people to a company of over 200 people with operations in Dublin, Lisbon, Hong Kong, Toronto and making hires in London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Shanghai, Singapore, Beijing, New York & San Francisco.
Paddy graduated from Trinity College Dublin in 2006 with a BA, MA in Political Science and Economics. He worked in a number of start-ups before setting up Web Summit in 2009 with his co-founders.
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Emma Kennedy, Founder, Kennedy Analysis
Emma Kennedy is the founder of Kennedy Analysis, whose work in relation to Ireland’s water supply and leakage levels has become well publicised. Emma was formerly a corporate lawyer at Clifford Chance in London, one of London’s biggest law firms, and a financial analyst at a major global bank. Her background is in carrying out forensic analysis of companies and projects. She has recently been seen and heard on the TV and radio in relation to Irish Water’s controversial proposal to pump water from the River Shannon to Dublin. The analysis work for the Shannon Project has been produced pro bono, in the public interest.
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Colonel Colm Doyle (retired)
Colonel Colm Doyle retired from the Defence Forces in 2007 after 42 years service. During his career he served in a wide variety of appointments both at home and abroad. His appointments included Director of Public Relations for the Defence Forces, Commandant of The United Nations Training School Ireland and Commandant of the Military College. He is a former Commanding Officer of the 12thInfantry Battalion, Limerick.
He has extensive experience of overseas service. These included tours of duty with the United Nations in Cyprus, Lebanon, The Middle East and New York. He commanded the 82nd Irish Battalion in Lebanon in 1997, during which he hosted the visit of Irish President Mary McAleese.
He is a former head of the European Union Monitoring Mission for Bosnia in 1991 and returned there as Personal Representative of the Chairman of the International Peace Conference, Peter Carrington during the lead up to war in 1992. He was directly involved in negotiating cease-fires in the city of Sarajevo and in particular, securing the hostage release of President Izetbegovic.
Colonel Doyle was selected by the United Nations to serve as Chief of Staff of the Military Division in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, New York from 2004 to 2006. He was responsible for the day to day operations of 17 United Nations Missions across the world.
He has assisted the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague since 1995, testifying as a prosecution witness at the trials of Slobodan Milosevic in 2003, General Pavle Strugar in 2004, Radovan Karadzic in 2010 and General Ratko Mladic in 2012.
Colonel Doyle holds a Masters Degree in International Studies from the University of Limerick. He has appeared on national TV and radio as a military commentator on the conflicts in The Balkans, The Arab Spring, North Korea, Gaza, Chad, Syria and Islamic State. He is periodically a panellist on The Marian Finucane Show commenting on international issues and has been a guest lecturer at third level institutions. In 2009 he was invited to present a paper at the Royal Irish Academy’s International Conference on ‘A responsibility to Protect’, the dilemma of state sovereignty over military intervention. He is currently Chairman of the JFK Memorial School Board of Management in Limerick City.
He has written a memoir of his time in Bosnia under the title “Witness to War Crimes: The memoirs of a peacekeeper in Bosnia”. It is published by Pen & Sword in the UK and in Ireland by IAP/Merrion Press.
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Professor Peter Bishop, University College London and Allies & Morrison Architects
Peter is a Professor of Urban Design at The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London and a Director at Allies and Morrison Architects.
For 25 years he was a planning director at four different Central London Boroughs, and has worked on major projects at large and complex sites in the UK, including the Canary Wharf and King’s Cross.
In 2006 he was appointed as the first Director of Design for London, the Mayor’s architecture and design studio, and in 2008 served as the Deputy Chief Executive at the London Development Agency. In 2011 he carried out a policy on behalf of the Government, “The Bishop Review”, on ways in which the quality of design in the built environment may be improved. Recent projects include master planning frameworks for Old Oak Common (High Speed 2 interchange), the Palace of Westminster, and Ansan City Centre (Korea).
Peter lectures and teaches extensively, has been a design advisor to the Mayors of London, Bucharest and Zhuhai and on the Sochi Winter Olympics Legacy project and Central Dallas regeneration. He is an honorary fellow of University College London, an honorary fellow of the RIBA, holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Kingston and is Distinguished Visiting Scholar at UTS Sydney.
His book, “The Temporary City”, explores the origins of current thinking on temporary urbanism (Routledge 2012). He also examined the political processes behind major developments in his more recent book “Planning, Politics and City Making – a case study of King’s Cross” (RIBA Publishing 2016).
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Conor O’Clery, Journalist and Writer
Conor O’Clery holds a unique perspective on the former Soviet Union, as resident Irish Times correspondent during the last four years of communism and as a frequent visitor since then, having married into a Russian-Armenian family in Krasnoyarsk. After Moscow he was a foreign correspondent in Washington, Beijing and New York. He has been twice awarded Journalist of the Year, for his dispatches from Moscow and for his reporting of the 9/11 attacks in New York. He is the author of several books including Melting Snow, on the fall of the Soviet Union; The Greening of the White House, about the Clinton presidency,The Billionaire Who Wasn’t, a biography of the philanthropist Chuck Feeney; and Moscow,December 25, 1991, an account of the last day of the Soviet Union.
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