5th Seamus Heaney Lecture

Professor Peadar Kirby of University of Limerick delivered the fifth lecture entitled Globalisation and Identity: Reflections on the Irish Experience as part of the current Seamus Heaney lecture series on 23rd February in St Patrick’s College Auditorium.  The lecture was very well attended, questions from the floor were plentiful and Professor Kirby responded generously to audience contributions.  Professor Kirby began by exploring concepts and understandings of globalisation and identity and highlighted the problematics associated with processes of globalisation, particularly the fact that Ireland is perceived as one of the most globalised countries in the western developed world.  He suggested that this globalised identity is in conflict with a national identity project. Moreover, he suggested that globalisation has had a darker aspect that has not been debated in the ‘boom times’.  This darker side, he argued, was linked to increased marketisation, the devaluation of particular identities, and a subsequent erosion of collectivity, community, solidarity and public political spaces and debates.  He challenged the audience quoting from Barrack Obama asking “to which communities do we belong?” He urged us to think creatively and imaginatively about values and identity, about vulnerable individuals and groups who are affected by the globalising structures associated with neo-liberal corporatism.

Professor Kirby urged us to envisage a horizon of hope and to develop alternative projects for development and for the forging of collective identities in the 21st century.  He spoke of the realities and challenges involved in working for interdependency and connectivity with others, and the need for dialogue, as a counteraction to the sundering and fragmentation of community and identity that has occurred in recent times.

Next Lecture Monday 02 March 2009

 

 

Last Updated: Thursday February 26 2009