Full Programme

Catherine Howe — Author

"Ireland and English Chartism"

A brief outline: the talk takes in the history of Chartism with a focus on the relationship between Feargus O'Connor, Chartist leader, and Daniel O'Connell, Ireland's Liberator. Their mutual antagonism arrested Chartist advance in Ireland and turned O'Connor into an exile.

Bio

Catherine Howe attended Corona Drama School 1962–65, played roles in Dr Who, Z-Cars, and The Wednesday Play. In 1969 she signed her first music publishing deal and received an Ivor Novello for her album Harry (1975, RCA). In 1990 she gained a History degree from the Open University and has since written books on social history including Holyoake's Journey 1842, Halifax 1842, London Story 1848, and 59 Greek Street.

Luke Dineen — Labour Social Historian

"Ideology of Larkin"

This session focuses on the ideology underpinning Jim Larkin's life and actions as a labour organiser and leader — what informed his beliefs, how his views changed over time, and why.

Bio

Luke Dineen is a labour and social historian with a PhD in modern Irish history (UCC, 2019). His research covers the Irish labour movement, including the 1921 Cork Harbour Soviet, the 1923 Cork general lockout, and the Derry general lockout of 1924. He is author of a comprehensive biography of the Connect Trade Union, and currently works as a civil servant for the Department of Justice.

Matthew Collins — Author Anti-Fascist Campaigner

Matthew Collins is a leading researcher into the extreme far-right. Between 1987 and 1993 he was chairman of the London NF branch — but had an epiphany in 1989 and began passing information to anti-fascists. His work all but destroyed the NF and exposed Combat 18's 'terror machine'. His extraordinary life was dramatised in the Netflix series The Walk-In, where Stephen Graham played him, depicting how he foiled a plot to murder a British MP.

Shane O'Curry — Director, INAR (Irish Network Against Racism)

Active in human rights organisations north and south of Ireland since 1997, specialising in ethnic conflict and hate incident monitoring. Shane has made policy submissions addressing structural and institutional racism at national level and to the EU, OSCE, ECRI and UN. Co-author of a Policing Authority report on the policing of minorities in the Republic of Ireland.