Chairperson: Luke Gibbons
Almost a century after the Easter Rising, O’Brien Press chronicles the 16 lives that changed the course of Irish history in a landmark series of biographies. The first volume, by series co-editor Lorcan Collins, examines the life of James Connolly. To mark the publication, Lorcan is joined by Richard Boyd Barrett, TD, writer, curator and editor Catherine Morris. Together they assess this revolutionary socialist and iconic figure of Irish Republicanism, and examine the wider political and social context of the era.
Lorcan Collins founded Dublin’s hugely popular 1916 Walking Tour in 1996 and is co-author of The Easter Rising (O’Brien Press, 2000) with Conor Kostick. Catherine Morris is the Cultural Coordinator at Trinity College Dublin and the National Library of Ireland. Her latest book Alice Milligan and the Irish Cultural Revival is a timely reappraisal of this influential writer, activist and Connolly contemporary. Richard Boyd Barrett is a high profile socialist campaigner and activist. He is chair of the Irish Anti-War Movement and a representative of People Before Profit.