Inspired by Bruff’s Fitzgerald legacy to the American Fitzgerald Kennedy political dynasty, the weekend gathering in Bruff, County Limerick will explore the life of Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy and the wider Irish-American emigration experience, from post-famine times to the present day.
to the third Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Autumn School, in Bruff, Co Limerick. With just days to go to the US presidential election on November fifth, we offer a lively debate on Saturday afternoon in a town which has extraordinary links to US politics — three of the four grandparents of President John F Kennedy’s mother (Rose Fitzgerald) hailed from the Bruff area, and they emigrated to Boston in the 1850s post-famine exodus from Ireland.
The events planned explore themes that chime with the remarkable Rose herself, who played a key role in her husband’s (Joe Kennedy, US Ambassador to the UK) and children’s success, including President Kennedy, Attorney General Robert Kennedy and Senator Ted Kennedy.
Battling the Social Media Avalanche
MODERATOR
Kathryn Hayes is Associate Professor and Course Director of the BA in Journalism and Digital Communication at the University of Limerick since 2016. A working journalist with twenty years experience in print, online and broadcast journalism for national and regional media organisations, and Limerick correspondent for ‘The Irish Times’ newspaper 2003 – 2016.
Susan Daly is Managing Editor of Journal Media, which includes ‘The Journal’ news publication, ‘The Journal FactCheck’, ‘The Journal Investigates’, and sportswriting publication ‘The42’. She sits on the steering group of Media Literacy Ireland and the advisory group of the Institute for Future Media Democracy and Society in DCU. Susan has worked in the news industry for over 25 years, beginning in ‘The Echo’ in Cork, working her way to the newsdesk in ‘The Irish Daily Star’ and later in the ‘Irish Independent’, before becoming Editor of ‘The Journal’ in 2011. A graduate of UCC, she also studied as a Fellow of the Sulzberger Journalism Program in Columbia, New York
Journalist
A veteran journalist, Maureen is proprietor of Hartcliffe Communications, a media, management and public affairs consultancy. She is also a health analyst and commentator, managing editor of ‘The Consultant’ (official journal of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association), editor ‘Health Manager’ (official journal of the Health Management Institute of Ireland and editor of the ‘Clinical Care Journal’. She is also an adjudicator of the Irish Medical Times Irish Healthcare Awards 2024.
Áine is an award-winning journalist and editor. In 2022 she became the first female to be appointed to the role of editor in the Limerick Leader’s 133-year history. Born and raised in Kilmallock, Áine completed a Bachelor of Arts Degree at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, majoring in Media and Irish, followed by a Master’s in Journalism in NUIG.
MUSICAL INTERLUDE
Nóirín is an Interfaith Minister (One Spirit Interfaith Seminary), an internationally acclaimed spiritual singer, theologian, writer, musicologist and celtic spirituality expert. Ní Riain performs weddings, naming ceremonies, concerts, lectures and gives workshops all over the world. She lives near Glenstal Abbey, Limerick.
Art Exhibition opening 11am, at LOUGH GUR INTERPRETIVE CENTRE
WELCOME: Brian Collopy
How the Irish fared in the US
MODERATOR
Pat Hayes is a historian and current Chair of Bruff Heritage Group.
on the remarkable story of Charlotte Grace O’Brien .
Susan is a lecturer in Critical and Contextual Studies, Limerick School of Art & Design: TUS. She graduated from LSAD with a BA in Fine Art Painting before qualifying as an Art & Design Teacher. After spending some time teaching in Valladolid, Spain, she went on to study for a Masters in History of Art at Goldsmiths, University of London. In 2018, Susan completed a PhD in Education at the University of Limerick. The research explored the experiences of the Visual Arts Practice PhD in Ireland.
on his book On Every Tide .
Sean Connolly has taught at the University of Ulster and Queen’s University, Belfast, where he was Professor of Irish History from 1996 to 2017. His most recent book is On Every Tide: The Making and Unmaking of the Irish World (2022) He also edited the Oxford Companion to Irish History (1998).
Tim O’Connor is a former senior diplomat of the Irish Foreign Service (1979–2007) and a former Secretary General (Chief of Staff) to the President of Ireland (2007–2010). Most of his career was spent working on the Northern Ireland Peace Process. He was a member of the Irish government talks team for the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. He was Consul General of Ireland to New York from 2005–2007. Since retirement, Tim has combined running his advisory business with several voluntary positions; he is also currently the Government of Ireland Representative on the Independent Reporting Commission on Paramilitarism in NI. Tim holds four honorary doctorates and was appointed Honorary Professor of Practice at Queens University in 2022.
MODERATOR
Stephen was news analysis editor of the ‘Irish Independent’, a founder of the Progressive Democrats in the 1980s with Des O’Malley, Mary Harney, Michael McDowell and Pat Cox. He served as assistant Government Press Secretary in the historic Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrats government 1989–1992. Author of a history of the Fine Gael party under Garret Fitzgerald.
Larry Donnelly is a Boston born and educated attorney who is a lecturer and Director of Clinical Legal Education in the School of Law at the University of Galway. From a prominent Boston Irish political family, and formerly active in politics and government in Massachusetts, he is now a frequent media commentator on politics, current affairs and law in Ireland and the US. He is also a regular political columnist with ‘The Journal.ie’, ‘The Irish Post’ and ‘Boston Irish’ magazine. His memoir, ‘The Bostonian: Life in a Boston Irish Political Family’, was published by Gill Books in 2021.
Scott Lucas is Professor of International Politics at the Clinton Institute, University College Dublin, Professor Emeritus of International Politics at the University of Birmingham and editor-in-chief of ‘EA Worldview.’ He is a specialist in American politics, US and British foreign policy and international affairs, including the Middle East and Iran, Europe and Asia.
Scott worked as a journalist in the US from the age of 16. He wrote for newspapers including ‘The Guardian’ and ‘The Independent’ and was an essayist for ‘The New Statesman’ before he founded ‘EA Worldview’ in November 2008. He is prominent in international radio, TV and electronic sites as a leading political analyst, working with outlets such as RTÉ, BBC, Sky, Al Jazeera English, France 24 English, Deutsche Welle, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Poland’s TVP World, Pakistan’s PTV World, Indian channels such as NDTV and WION, Dublin Newstalk and Virgin Media News.
Scott was born in Alabama in the US. He moved to the UK at age twenty-one and lived there for almost forty years before relocating to Wicklow this year. He is a long-suffering Leeds Utd supporter, a member of Red Sox Nation and a devotee of great music from The Chicks to David Bowie and The Pogues to Aimee Mann.
The City of limerick Pipe Band is renowned as being one of Irelands leading pipe bands since its founding in 1949. 2024 has seen them headlining Savannah, Georgia’s 200th St Patrick’s Day anniversary, in addition to participating in the Interceltic Festival in Lorient, France. They are based in Our Lady Queen of Peace Primary School, Limerick and welcome new members of all ages to a fun and musical meetup where travel and adventure abound.
SPEAKER
Declan Hehir is founder and director of the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Autumn School.
Comhaltas Ceoltóirí
Michael Dooley’s poems have appeared in ‘Banshee’, the ‘Irish Independent’, ‘Poetry Ireland Review’ and ‘The Stinging Fly’.
FRIDAY 25th October
7.30pm: Formal opening by Patrick O’Donovan, TD, Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science of Ireland
Remarks: Tim O’Connor; Declan Hehir
8pm: Women In Journalism: Battling the social media avalanche
Moderator: Dr Kathryn Hayes
Áine Fitzgerald, Susan Daly and Maureen Browne
Nóirín Ní Riain: musical contribution
THOMAS FITZGERALD CENTRE, BRUFF
SATURDAY 26th October
11am: INSPIRATIONS art exhibition
LOUGH GUR VISITOR CENTRE
1.30pm: Emigration and Diaspora Experience: How the Irish fared in the US
Dr Susan Halvey on The Remarkable Story of Charlotte Grace O’Brien ; Professor Sean Connolly
Moderator: Pat Hayes
4pm: US Presidential Election: Just ten days to polling
Larry Donnelly ; Dr Scott Lucas
Moderator: Stephen O’Byrnes
7pm: Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Evening
Special screening of 1973 RTÉ Radharc interview with Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, followed by chat conducted by Dr Pat Wallace with Fitzgerald family members, Christina Fitzgerald and Eileen McMahon.
Host: Pat Wallace
THOMAS FITZGERALD CENTRE, BRUFF
SUNDAY 27th October
11am: Fitzers Family Breakfast
'Honey Fitz' Theatre, Lough Gur
2pm: Parade by City of Limerick marching band and vintage cars, including one used for the visit of President Kennedy to Ireland in 1963
3pm: Concert performance by Bruff Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann
Michael Dooley: poetry reading
Close of Autumn School
Speaker: Declan Hehir
THOMAS FITZGERALD CENTRE, BRUFF
Set up by members of the community to memorialise the Fitzgerald Kennedy links that stem from 1850, the School sheds light on Irish emigrants’ feeling for place that, just like the Fitzgeralds, they left over a century ago, and to echo recent remarks by the former Taoiseach, many in our families have once been asylum seekers, immigrants or emigrants, and nationality and identity ‘are far more complex and fluid than people often care to admit’. We hope to have a lively debate and consider the contrast between Ireland —then and now.
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