Sunday at MacGill Summer School - fallout from Ukraine and celebrating Friel

The fourth and final day of the MacGill Summer School in Glenties opens with one of the biggest topics affecting people all over the world: The Destruction of Ukraine and Its People: The Fallout for Mankind.

This open forum discussion 'The threats to our planet have never been greater and the dangers never more frightening. Can mankind overcome those threats and how?' get underway at 11am. It will run until 12.15pm when there will be a break. 

The afternoon will be a celebration of the life and work of Brian Friel.

At 2.30pm there will be a walk from the courthouse to The Laurels where lived Brian Friel’s “five brave Glenties women” –his mother and four aunts– celebrated in his masterpiece, Dancing at Lughnasa. One of Friel’s short stories will be read by acclaimed Donegal actor, Charlie Bonner.

This brings the 2022 programme to a close. 

The MacGill Summer School was founded in 1981 in Glenties to celebrate the memory of local writer, Patrick MacGill.  

MacGill wrote in the early 20th century on the social conditions in Donegal, the plight of migrant workers in Britain and the horrors of the Great War in which he fought as a soldier of the London Irish Rifles. His books are still being published.

The school has grown from very modest beginnings to being one of the most important fora in Ireland for the analysis of topics of national and international interest. It has consistently been a source of innovative and fresh thinking on a range of social, economic and political ideas.   

It brings together government ministers, members of the opposition parties, heads of business, academics, economists, sociologists, church leaders, members of the judiciary and public representatives from Northern Ireland.