Workers Solidarity Movement

WSM Cork today announced that Solidarity Books, of 43 Douglas Street, will host a series of discussions on rights, freedoms, and radical history every other Tuesday at 8pm starting on 5th April and ending on 17th May 2011.  The talks will examine issues of human rights and radical history in Ireland and aim to cover ideas and events not taught in school.

Spokeswoman Nicola Morry said:

“We are delighted to announce the Spring Talks series which covers
topics ranging from child welfare, to the war of Independence, to the
issue of abortion in Ireland.  We think these talks will appeal to a
broad cross section of the public including current and former
students, history buffs, feminists, and members of the political left.
 The talks are open to everyone and are free.”

8pm, Tuesday, 5th April
Child Welfare and Class in Ireland: An Historical Overview - Dr.
Sarah-Anne Buckley
Dr. Sarah-Anne Buckley lectures in History at UCC.  She is the author
of a number of articles and is currently preparing her book on the
history of child welfare in Ireland for publication, titled Child
Welfare, the NSPCC, and the State in Ireland: 1889-1956.  She recently
completed a history of the Haematology Association of Ireland (HAI),
and her next project is a comparative history of child welfare in
Ireland, Northern Ireland and Britain.  She will be speaking on child
welfare and class in Ireland, in particular the discrimination against
poor and working class children by the National Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Children and the continued use of
institutionalisation by the Irish State to deal with poverty in
families.

8pm, Tuesday, 19th April
Invisible Farmers: the role of Women in the NFA’s Farmer’s Rights
Campaign - Mary Gibbons
Mary Gibbons is a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin where she read
Modern Languages.  Having worked in industry for ten years, she then concentrated her energy on parenting her six children.  Since
completing an MA in Women’s Studies at University College, Cork in
2008, Mary has won the WHAI’s MacCurtain/Cullen Prize for Irish
Women’s history in 2010.  The prizewinning article is entitled:
‘Invisible Farmers’: the role of Women in the NFA’s Farmer’s Rights
Campaign of the 1960s.

8pm, Tuesday, 3rd May
Abortion in Ireland – Where To From Here? - Dr. Mary Favier
Dr. Mary Favier is a Cork based GP and a founder member of Doctors For Choice (Ireland).  Active in health politics generally she was
recently involved in the provision of a supporting brief in the
European Court of Human Rights ruling (“the ABC Case”) that condemned the Irish Government’s record on the provision of abortion in Ireland.

8pm, Tuesday, 17th May
Cork Labour and the Irish Revolution, 1916-1922 - Dr. John Borgonovo
Public consciousness of 'Rebel Cork' during the War of Independence
conjures images of the martyred Lord Mayors, the burning of the city
centre, and flying column ambushes at Kilmichael and elsewhere.
However, less obvious and less violent activities were equally
important to the success of the independence movement.  This lecture will consider the role of Cork labour during the 1916 to 1922 period.
The left/right divide in Irish revolutionary politics will be
considered, as will the mass mobilization that led some trade
unionists and Republicans to believe they were on the cusp of securing a true workers' Republic.

Release Ends
Contact for comments – Nicola Morry 085 733-4729