Slugger O'Toole How can a new Ireland maintain and deepen its values, sustained for a century, while achieving the inclusion of unionists and immigrant communities within an all-Ireland culture?
Fascinating debate and discussion are anticipated at the 2026 Darcy Magee Summer School in Carlingford when the battle against racism, xenophobia, and anti-immigration violence is examined under the timely theme of Culture, Identity and Inclusion.
Compelling participants including former presidential candidate Heather Humphries, RTE podcasters Catriona Crowe and Professor Diarmaid Ferriter, Sunday Independent NI editor Sam McBride (recently assaulted at a Belfast race riot), and MEP and Trade Union leader Des Geraghty, and will join academics, politicians and activists at the annual event, which takes place on Wednesday 26 to Thursday 27 August at Carlingford’s Four Seasons Hotel.
Audiences are invited to join in Q&As with the speakers on the panels, as they discuss issues such as the ‘Great Replacement’ conspiracy theory, which claims that immigrants are seeking to supplant white, European Christians – thus fuelling ethno-nationalism and its violent opposition to immigration.
The Summer School is chaired for the first time by women’s rights advocate Bronagh Hinds CBE (sister of the well-known NI actor Ciaran Hinds).
“On the island of Ireland, anti-immigrant protests have fused Union Jack and Tricolour as far-right forces north and south come together,” said Bronagh. “Questions of identity, belonging, memory and citizenship remain central, even as society is changing profoundly.
“The Summer School will ask how identities can coexist within shared civic frameworks, and how inclusion here on the island of Ireland can move beyond rhetoric to lived reality.”
Rooted in Carlingford’s historic link with Irish Canadian political visionary Thomas D’Arcy McGee, who was born in the area, the programme will highlight the multiculturalism inherent in both Canada’s national identity, and in the ethos of the European Union, which rests on the idea that unity does not require sameness.
“Here, the Good Friday Agreement created space for complexity with different identities and plural belonging,” said Bronagh. “Ireland’s migrant integration framework sees diversity, inclusion and equity as core public goals, alongside action against racism and xenophobia.
“We will explore how the reconfiguration of Ireland in a changed political landscape must take into consideration the accommodation of northern unionists and ethnic communities, many from former British colonies. We will explore how politics and civil society can negotiate this cultural minefield amid global political turbulence and the cultural shift to the right.”
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