Date: Sunday 13th August 2017

Venue: Avondale House, Rathdrum, County Wicklow.

Time: 16.00

Official opening: Mr. Justice Richard Humphreys

followed by a keynote address at 17.00 by

Ruadhán Mac Cormaic (Irish Times journalist and author)

‘The Supreme Court: law, politics and the power of the judiciary’

The 27th Parnell Summer School will be held over five days, 13-17 August and will explore a theme of ‘Crime, Punishment and Justice’.

Contemporary Irish society, like other societies now and societies in the past, is fascinated to the point of obsession with crime. The related issues of appropriate punishment and justice have sometimes been afforded been less attention; this is certainly true of non-political crime.

Bringing together politicians, policy-makers, academics, writers and historians, for five days of lively and informed debate, this year’s Summer School will address both the history of, and contemporary issues in, crime, punishment and justice.

The speakers will examine the relationship of crime to politics and public policy. Former and current policy-makers and academic experts will examine what we have learned from the past, if anything, and the extent to which contemporary problems flow from our history. The speakers will interrogate public policy today, examining how minorities interact with the criminal justice system: the police, the courts, and the prisons. It will explore the ongoing impact of past injustices on society and relationships on this island, north and south.

Programme:

Monday 14 August

Session One: 10-11am

Speaker: Professor Padraic Kenney (Indiana University)

Title: ‘A prisoner must reverse their whole system’: Irish Political Prisoners from the Fenians to the Troubles.

Session Two: 11.30am-12.30pm

Speaker: Dr Mary Rogan (Trinity College Dublin)

Title: Turning Points in Irish Penal Policy

Panel One: Prison Policy Now: 2pm to 3.30pm

Panellists: Fíona Ní Chinnéide (Irish Penal Reform Trust)

Dr Cormac Behan (University of Sheffield) Dr Niall Muldoon (Ombudsman for Children) James Lawless TD (Fianna Fàil)

Tuesday, 15 August

Session Three: 10am-11am

Speaker: Dr Gillian O’Brien (Liverpool John Moores University)

Title: Blood Runs Green: Clan na Gael and the Murder of Dr Cronin

Parnell Lecture: 11.30am-12.30pm

Speaker: Dr Carla King

Title: ‘The great inquisition’: Michael Davitt and the Special Commission on Parnellism and Crime

Wednesday 16 August

Session Five: 10am-11am

Speaker: Professor Ian O’Donnell (UCD)

Title: Capital Punishment and Clemency

Panel Two: 11.30am-12.30pm Mental Health and Incarceration

Speakers:

Professor Hilary Marland (Warwick University) and Associate Professor Catherine Cox (UCD)

‘Bedlam in Broad Arrows’: mental disorder and prisons in nineteenth-century Ireland and England.

Dr Fiachra Byrne (UCD)

‘Straightening Crooked Souls’: Psychology and Children in Custody in Ireland during the 1960s

Panel Three: 2pm-3.30pm

Justice and the Irish revolution

Speakers: Gabriel Doherty (University College Cork)

‘Political prisoners in Ireland 1877-1920: the public evolution of policy’

Dr Brian Hughes (Maynooth University)

‘Crimes against the nation?: Deviance and punishment in revolutionary Ireland’

Thursday, 17 August

Session Six: 10am-11am

Speaker: Dr Vicky Conway (Dublin City University)

Title: Guarding the Border: Policing in a Time of Conflict

Panel Four: 11.30am-12.30pm

Transitional Justice and Northern Ireland

Panellists: Professor Monica McWilliams (University of Ulster)

Claire Hanna MLA SDLP

Barry Cummins (RTE)

Session Seven: 2pm-3.30pm

Speaker: Professor Phil Scraton (Queen’s University Belfast)

Title: ‘Justice for the 96’: Researching Truth, Delivering Justice in the Aftermath of the Hillsborough Disaster.

Background

Since 1991, the Parnell Summer School has provided a forum where an informed general public and experts can together address matters of practical contemporary concern, informed by a knowledge of the past. This year will continue this tradition with the aspiration of contributing to the shaping of public policy into the future.

Avondale House & Forest Park includes the Charles Stewart Parnell Museum. Over 500 acres of mature woodland including the tallest collection of Trees in Ireland and walking trails from an easy 1 hour walk to a tough 5 hour walks.

The Parnell Society

The Society is an educational trust. Its main work is the presentation of papers and lectures on 19th century Irish history and a contemporary reflection on the Parnell legacy, through the annual Parnell Summer School held each August in the former Parnell home in County Wicklow, and Ivy Day in October at Glasnevin Cemetery.