About HAI Events

We normally run 11 events every year and details of each event will be announced in advance on our Facebook page and here on our website.

Non-members are always welcome at our events.

Guest speakers at meetings in the last few years have included:

• Professor Aoife McLysaght (Head of Genetics Department,  Trinity College) on genetics and human evolution
• Colm O’Gorman (Amnesty) on the Repeal Referendum
• Evgeny Shtorn on life in Direct Provision
• Cara Augustenborg (UCD) on Climate Action
• Jonathan Lanman (Queens University) on the nature of unbelief
• Liam Cahill (Journalist) on the history of the Limerick Soviet (to coincide with the 100-year anniversary of the soviet)
• Donal O’Gorman (Medicins Sans Frontieres) on the work of his organisation
• Zlata Filipovic (Author) on her experience growing up in war-torn Sarajevo
• John Fitzgerald (Economist, Irish Climate Advisory Council) on Climate Action
• Hugh Turpin (Queens University) on the moral rejection of Catholicism in Ireland

Past Events and Videos

Over the past years the HAI have been privileged to host a wide range of guest speakers with varied interests and backgrounds.  Scroll down to see what you might have missed and would like to catch up on.

May 2024 Event: Global Inequalities & Vulnerable People

You can watch the conversation on our YOUTUBE channel

April 2024 Event: Humanism in Romania - the good, the bad and the unexpected.

Monica Belițoiu has been involved in the humanist movement in Romania for the past 14 years and she is currently serving as the Executive Director of The Romanian Secular-Humanist Association.

With a background in public relations and communication, Monica has a master’s degree in management and business communication and over the years, she has gained extensive experience in the NGO sector, which has become her primary work field. Alongside her work in Romania, she has served as the Deputy Secretary General of the European Humanist Federation, where she collaborated with EU Representatives to advocate for secular values and led online communication initiatives.

At our April event, Monica spoke about how Romania barely has any history or tradition when it comes to humanism. After Ceaușescu's communist regime, which restricted religious freedoms, Romania transitioned to democracy and during this period the Romanian Orthodox Church regained and expanded its influence, becoming a dominant social and political entity. Monica was clear that while Romania does not have an official religion, the public institutions act as if orthodoxy IS the state religion. The Church holds a tight grip on both politics and public attitudes, often stretching the concept of separation between church and state to its limits. Ironically, the past suppression of religious practices under communism has only deepened the public's tendency to equate Orthodoxy with national identity. And this complicates the push for more secular and inclusive viewpoints. For instance, the Church often steps into the political arena, notably in its opposition (either as an entity or through some of its priests) to LGBTQ+ rights, or women rights (like abortion), or immigrants, or minorities rights, effectively changing both public opinion and policy.

Consider this for the influence of the church. Right next to the Romanian Parliament - the second largest administrative building in the world - stands the Cathedral of the Salvation of the Nation. Constructed on land gifted by the state and financed with large sums of public money, its placement is anything but subtle. The symbols always matter! Monica spoke about how despite this, there is still hope. Despite the Church's towering presence, a fresh breeze of secular and humanist ideas is catching on, especially among the youth. Thanks to the wonders of the internet and better access to education, a new generation of open-minded thinkers is emerging. And as controversies around the Church's internal corruption and its conservative stances bubble up, its once-solid popularity is beginning to shake.

You can watch the conversation on our YOUTUBE channel

March 2024 Event: Domestic Violence: Archetype or Exception?

Mary McDermott is CEO of Safe Ireland and Adjunct Professor at the School of Applied Social Studies in University College Cork. Mary spoke about the role that Safe Ireland plays in investigating the causes and effects of domestic violence and in implementing actions for prevention and response at all levels. She discussed the importance of developing 21^st century analyses and language to challenge extant or emerging patriarchies, and we heard about the term DSGSBV – domestic, sex, gender and sexuality-based violence and the need to deliver national-to-local cascading domestic violence infrastructure and services. Mary welcomed the setting up of Cuan, the new DSGSBV State agency in February 2024, which is dedicated to tackling and reducing DSGSBV.

Mary mapped the journey of a woman or a child out of DSGSBV, and the slides showed the complexity for anyone trying to navigate that pathway. The journey out of a coercive relationship or home is structurally, socially and psychologically complex and overwhelming. Coercive control and DSGSBV is a large-scale social problem. This was borne out by the fact that in 2018, 53,627 calls were answered by DV Helplines, with 3,500 women contacting DV services for the first time from March to August 2020 during Covid. In 2021, 3,000 requests could not be met by DV services. In November 2022 (post-Covid), there was a 25% increase in domestic violence files to the DPP. In 2023, there were 54,000 DV calls to Gardaí.

Some of the statistics were shocking:

• 1 in 4 women in Ireland who were in a relationship have been abused by a current or former partner.
• 41% of Irish women know someone in their circle of family or friends who have experienced intimate partner violence.

The effects of coercive control/DSGSBV on a society as a whole are extensive and costly. Domestic violence is often a hidden crime, so it’s very important to publicly discuss it. We thank Mary sincerely for her very insightful presentation. Safe Ireland - Creating Safety for Women and Children

You can re-watch the chat on our YouTube Channel here. 

February 2024 Event: Darwin Day Lecture with Geraldine Butler

Our Darwin Day lecture 2024 took place in Trinity College, Dublin, on February 14th, where Professor Geraldine Butler gave a most insightful lecture on the role of yeast in the cultural and biological evolution of the human population. Geraldine Butler is a Full Professor of Genetics in the School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science, and a Principal Investigator in the Conway Institute, at University College Dublin. Professor Butler was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology (UK) in 2011, member of the Royal Irish Academy (RIA) in 2015, and Fellow of the American Society of Microbiology in 2021.

The lecture was opened by HAI Chair Neil Ward, with an initial address by our honorary president, Dr David McConnell. Geraldine is an internationally renowned scientist working on yeasts in general and Dr McConnell referred to her as” a pioneer in yeast molecular genetics”.
Her group have studied molecular biology and evolution of yeasts for over 30 years, ranging from Saccharomyces species used in brewing and baking, to Candida species that cause infection in humans. She recently discovered the first European isolates of a parent of lager yeasts, hiding in plain sight on the Belfield campus of UCD.

Perhaps fitting for Valentine’s Day, Geraldine spoke about what alcohol means to us as a society, taking into account the negative effects (there are 1500 alcohol-related deaths per year in Ireland), as well as looking at the historic connections between alcohol and humans. She spoke about the “drunken monkey” hypothesis, where early primates consumed fruit, in which yeast fermented the fruit sugars to alcohol. There is evidence that chimps and nectarivorous primates enjoyed alcohol. Evidence also suggests that it is likely that agriculture was developed to brew beers, and crops may have been grown specifically for that purpose. There is evidence from 7,000 BC that the Chinese were fermenting rice to produce alcohol. There is also evidence from across Europe, Asia and Africa of recipes for beer, and ancient imagery showing beer being drunk straight from terracotta pots. The monasteries across Europe started making wine and also took up beer brewing from around 1,000AD.

In the 16th century, beer making became a major industry in Germany and the Czech Republic. In 1590, the household staff of Dublin Castle consumed 264,000 pints of beer (8 pints each per day). But it wasn’t until the 18th century that yeast was identified and in 1857, Louis Pasteur connected yeast and fermentation. New beers, including brown beers and lager, had already been emerging from an increasing use of barley and hops and utilisation of more than one fermentation process. “Lagering” had become popular in the 14th century, where the beers were stored in cold cellars beneath overhead beer gardens. Geraldine gave us the history of why and how these new beers took over in Europe. The process of freely sharing yeast, which had previously been popular, stopped in 1900 AD.

In 1996, scientists were able to sequence the DNA component of yeast and in 2011, Diego Libkind in Patagonia discovered the second parent of the hybrid yeast. In 2021, Professor Butler tasked her own undergraduate students to find yeasts around the campus of University College Dublin. Amazingly, Stephen Allen discovered the European parent of the lager yeast for the first time – it was hiding in plain sight on the UCD campus. Geraldine told us they are now exploring the possibility of using it to brew beer. Today, over 90% of beers brewed are lagers.

There was a lively question and answer session at the end of the lecture. All in all, a very entertaining evening.

November 2023 Event: Sex Trade and Human Trafficking in Ireland

Mia de Faoite is a survivor activist with over 10 years experience working as a campaigner and policy advisor on the issue of commercial sexual exploitation. She is the Training Lead at Ruhama, Ireland’s national NGO which supports women affected by prostitution, sexual exploitation and sex trafficking.

Mia was a core member of the leadership team of the successful Turn Off the Red Light campaign which led to Ireland adopting End Demand legislation in 2017. She was the Campaign Coordinator of the Beyond Exploitation campaign until moving to work as the Training Lead with Ruhama.

Mia talked about who Ruhama are and what they do and explored what the sex trade looks like in Ireland today, explaining some of the complexities around human trafficking including legislation and discussed the harsh realities of the sex trade itself.

Mia found it an absolute pleasure to have the opportunity to speak with members of the Humanist Society.  She had hoped that it was a place where there is a wonder and a longing to understand the big questions about humanity and she wasn't disappointed. There were profound but extremely thoughtful questions posed to her and she was able to answer them because she could sense the empathy from the members. She truly hopes that the talk went some way to explain an all too often misunderstood issue. Her wish was always to put a human face on prostitution because before we are anything we are human. Special thanks to Michael for the support, she is glad that the Society has such a wonderful voice.

You can watch the Podcast here on YouTube

October 2023 Event: Talk with Sarah Bakewell

"Humanly Possible: Seven Hundred Years of Freethinking, Enquiry and Hope"

Sarah Bakewell is the author, most recently, of 'Humanly Possible: Seven Hundred Years of Humanist Freethinking, Enquiry and Hope', published in March 2023. A New York Times bestseller and a BBC Book of the Week, it explores the lives of humanists from Petrarch in the 1300s to the present day.

On Monday the 16^th of October, the HAI members had the pleasure to share an evening with Sarah Bakewell – author of “Humanly Possible: Seven Hundred Years of Humanist Freethinking, Enquiry and Hope” and other books such as “The Existentialist Café” and “How to Live a Life of Montaigne”

Sarah clearly had lots to talk about and we started by asking her how she was able to contain all in what many see as an extremely capacious book into 1 volume versus 7 volumes and what was the core genesis of its being and how did she wrestle with such an audacious manuscript.

She described how she was inspired to look at humanism as a whole and how it is defined, what it means, how to explain it and how to approach it from across the ages. And this was mapped out looking at various humanists ranging from David Knobs, Petrarch, Voltaire, EM Foster, Humboldt, Mill and Matthew Arnold where on the one hand from the middle ages to the renaissance period – humanism sought to move away from the ideas of the supernatural, religious ideas and morality to look at a more philosophical and scientific approach to life.

From here, Sarah looked at 3 classical realms in more depth; questioning the senses of the divine realms, the physical realms and the human realms of ethics and sociology. Moving into the 19^th century, Sarah believed that humanism began to center more around education, science and bringing more happiness to more people with better schooling structures and more stable political systems although how this was a challenge with the rapid emergence of industrialization. She toyed then towards the conclusion of her book the more optimistic view of humanism and how we often have to tussle with the abdication of hope and responsibility and how James Baldwin spoke to this in his quote where – “One is responsible for life and it is that small beacon from where we come from and where we will return and how one must negotiate this passing as safe as possible for those who come after.”

Sarah certainly had our members and audience really enthused with her book and her comments and we saw lots of wonderful questions in particular from our HAI President David Mc Connell.

A wonderful evening was had by all and a huge thank you to Sarah for her time and we hope to see her soon in person for more conversation. If interested in purchasing Sarah's books – you can find out more here - https://sarahbakewell.com/ and https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/552033/humanly-possible-by-sarah-bakewell/

You can watch the discussion now on Youtube by clicking here

September 2023 Event: Surviving a Holocaust

Tomi Reichental was born in 1935 in Piestany Slovakia.  In 1944 he was captured and deported to the Bergen Belsen concentration camp with his mother, grandmother, brother, aunt, and cousin. When he was liberated on the 15th of April 1945, he discovered that 35 members of his extended family were murdered in the Holocaust. He moved to Ireland in 1959.

Tomi Spoke to us on our video podcast, You can watch it now here on YouTube

July 2023 Event: Assisted Dying in Ireland

Gino Kenny TD was the speaker at our July event, on the subject of assisted dying in Ireland. Gino became interested in politics in his 20s, and he wanted to join a political party that would represent the disadvantaged and the working class. In 2016, he was elected a TD. Since then, he has actively campaigned on social issues, including housing and abortion. In October 2020, Gino presented the Dying with Dignity Private Members Bill, and he is currently a member of the Joint Committee on Assisted Dying.

Gino has always been interested in the issue of assisted dying. He worked as a carer and saw many difficult situations. The greatest influence came from the movie “Whose life is it, anyway?”. In 2020, he introduced the Dying with Dignity Bill, that was similar to the Private Member’s Bill by Independent TD John Halligan from 2015.

Gino noted that while the issue of assisted dying is moving very slowly, he is happy it is at the Committee stage. He believes there is an indication of the public’s support for legislative change regarding assisted dying in Ireland.

Gino was asked to give an update on the work of the Oireachtas Special Committee on Assisted Dying. He said the meetings so far have gone very well, and explained that the Committee will run for nine months. There are 24 public meetings with six modules to look at matters such as safeguards, international context and others. He also pointed out that the Committee might be limited in regard to what legislative change it can bring. When asked about the possibility of a referendum on assisted dying in Ireland, Gino said he did not think a referendum would happen, and he did not think it was needed. However, even if a referendum did happen, he believes people would support the change in legislation.

While talking about emphasis on criteria, conditions and safeguarding relating to assisted dying, he mentioned the Catholic Church being opposed to assisted dying, and spreading fear.

Gino’s talk was followed by questions from people attending the event.

A recording of the talk is available to view here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sE8b4mBgOXo

June 2023 Local Events to celebrate World Humanist Day

Sunday 18th June at 11am

North-West Humanists, together with the Humanist Association of Ireland, are delighted to invite you to our June event to celebrate World Humanist Day and the 30th Anniversary of the Humanist Association of Ireland. Join us at our guided nature walk with Michael Bell, Chair of Sligo Birdwatch and Founder of Naturelearn, in Dereen Woods near Knockvicar, Boyle, Co. Roscommon, followed by refreshments at Ballinafad Community Centre. This is a free event, sponsored by HAI, but booking is essential. Contact Gill at humanistgb@gmail.com. All welcome.

Sunday 25th June at 12pm

The Cork Humanists, together with the Humanist Association of Ireland, are delighted to invite you to a picnic with Ukrainian children and their guardians in Doneraile Park and Community Centre on June 25th to show our solidarity and support to our Ukrainian brothers and sisters in this time of difficulty for them. For more information and to express your interest, please, contact Dominic at corkhumanists@gmail.com before the end of May.

May 2023

Filmmaking and Social Justice: How Film Can Change Reality

In May, documentary filmmaker Hossein Martin Fazeli talked to HAI members about how cinema can help transform the world.

Born in Iran, Martin is a survivor of the Iranian Revolution of 1979, during which he lost family members to firing squads. “I became a sociopolitical animal very early in my life,” he said.

Documentarians are not happy with the status quo and hope to inspire action through their work. Documentaries can provide an antidote to feeling powerless over global problems. “Our job is creating a feeling of agency. The documentary genre has the power to do that if you do it right - to promote agency in the viewer.”

His 2007 film, The Tale of Two Nazanins, is an example of this. It is the story of an Iranian teenage girl who killed her attacker and ended up on death row. The film, made hastily in the 3 months between her original trial and retrial, was broadcast on international networks such as the BBC and CNN. The film ignited an international campaign that led to her acquittal, saving the girl’s life.

Martin highlighted other examples of documentaries that have caused positive social change, including Blackfish, about the tragic consequences of keeping orca whales in captivity. No Fire Zone: The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka, was the true story of war crimes committed at the end of the Sri Lankan civil war in 2009. Most of the footage in that film was recorded by witnesses on low-quality mobile phone cameras.

“It brings me back to my view that, when it comes to social justice documentary filmmaking, I don’t think of it as an elite art form. I think anybody should be able to make an impactful documentary film. The main two elements are passion and commitment,” Martin said.

Martin is in post-production on his next film, Phoolan, an inspiring story about an Indian woman who transformed herself from victim, to vigilante, to pacifist politician. The film will be released in late 2023 or early 2024. For more information, see fazelifilms.com.

The video is available on our YouTube channel if you would like to catch up on the presentation.

April 2023

Planting Tiny Forests

In April, we held a talk by award-winning writer Catherine Cleary, about her company Pocket Forests. Co-founded with event planner and Australian tree nut Ashe Conrad-Jones, the company plants small native forests in urban areas.

Pocket Forests began as a social enterprise in 2020. Catherine is a journalist by training and was a restaurant reviewer for The Irish Times, while Ashe worked in the events business. Both of these industries came to a halt during the pandemic. Around the same time, the climate and biodiversity crises came into sharp focus.

“Suddenly, parks and the sea became the places everyone wanted to be. When our cultural and busy lives stopped or changed, many of us found ourselves going to nature,” Catherine said.

Catherine and Ashe lived a few streets away from each other, in an area of Dublin with very little green space - about one metre per person. The WHO recommends 9 square metres per person in urban areas.

Ashe came across the idea of tiny forests, a concept originated by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki 30 years ago to create dense forests with native plants. The concept has been adapted over time to suit smaller and smaller urban spaces.

Catherine and Ashe use a three-step process to create pocket forests. First, they bring residents of a local community together to plan the forest. Next, they aerate and feed the soil using repurposed materials. Last, they plant native trees, shrubs, and wildflowers, and they help communities learn to care for them.

Their next project will be developing tools that allow groups of people to replicate the process in different parts of the country.

If you would like to view a recording of the event it is available on our YouTube channel.

March 2023

How to Think like a Philosopher (and when not to)

In March, we held a talk by the philosopher Dr. Julian Baggini, an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Kent. He joined us to talk about his latest book, How to Think Like a Philosopher.

At the outset, Julian explained that modesty and humility are requirements of good thinking, and without those things, one can go astray. “Even the smartest people, when they know they’re smart, can often get over-confident, and overreach,” he said.

While the book’s title might imply there are quick and easy hacks to employ for better thinking, Julian stressed that thinking well is difficult. “Be aware that cognitive shortcuts will be problematic, and we’ve got to erect speed bumps,” he said.

Those “speed bumps” include taking time to get the facts right and not jumping to conclusions. Also important is the pure and sincere intent to find the truth (and not to defend an already-held view, or to attack someone else’s).

He talked about the ethical imperative to think better. “There’s a moral obligation here. If you don’t reason well, you end up believing things you shouldn’t believe; following people you shouldn’t follow; doing things you shouldn’t do. And these things have consequences.”

Click here for the book

This event was recorded and a video is available on our YouTube channel.

February 2023

2023 Darwin Day lecture

The Humanist Association of Ireland hosted Professor Janet Browne from Harvard University, to deliver our 2023 Darwin Day Lecture.  Lecture Topic: Charles Darwin: Rationality and Religion in a Victorian Context

Professor Janet Browne is Aramont Professor in the History of Science at Harvard University and she is a renowned expert on Charles Darwin. After a first degree in zoology at TCD she took a PhD in the history of science at Imperial College London and went on to work as associate editor of the early volumes of The Correspondence of Charles Darwin. She is best known for a two-volume biography of Darwin that integrated his science with his life and times. She is thrilled to hold an Honorary degree from her alma mater, Trinity College Dublin, awarded in 2009, in recognition of her contribution to the biographical knowledge of Charles Darwin.

You can read a full biography of Professor Janet Browne on the Harvard website.

A recording of the event is available on our YouTube channel.

January 2023 Events

The Benefits of Teaching Young People Empathy Skills

Wednesday 18th January 2023

For our first event of the new year, we held a talk by Dr James Lawlor, director of Narrative 4 Ireland. Narrative 4 is an education project that uses storytelling to teach empathy and listening skills to young people.
James explained how the “story exchange” is used in schools as a social and emotional learning tool. At its heart, the purpose of the story exchange is to imagine what life is like for someone else. Teachers have used the method to connect different groups of people in creative ways - connecting students with older people in their communities, for example. A common prompt is to ask students to describe a time they overcame an obstacle.

The benefits of empathy education are myriad, James said, and include building trust, making people better able to resolve conflict, and being able to see the world from multiple viewpoints.
The programme is established in 236 schools across Ireland; there are over 800 secondary school teachers and youth workers in the network. Narrative 4 also works across 16 countries and can connect participants virtually. Teachers can become facilitators after completing an eight-hour training.

Dr James Lawlor is the director of Narrative 4 Ireland, an education project that teaches empathy and listening skills to young people using an evidence based storytelling techniques. He is a graduate of the University of Limerick, Queen's University of Belfast and University College Cork. He lives in Limerick. Narrative 4 is in operation in a number of countries around the world including the USA, Mexico, Nigeria and South Africa. For more information, see narrative4.ie

A recording of this event is available on our YouTube channel.  

A Time to Remember

Sunday 22nd January 2023

The annual remembrance event took place on Sunday, 22nd January at 2.00 pm.  This event was an opportunity to remember and celebrate, in a humanist way, those members and friends we have lost.  The remembrance meeting has proved to be a healing and positive experience for those who have attended in the past.

Each year, in advance of the event,we are particularly interested to hear if there is anyone you wish to have remembered, or know of any HAI members who have passed away during the previous year.  The names and details of loved ones you would like to mention yourself, or to have mentioned, are to submitted to the event co-ordinator.  Attendees are also invited to perform a suitable poem or piece of music, when they express their desire to do so in advance of the event..

Loved ones do not have to be a humanist or a member of the HAI.

November 2022 Event

Why should Humanists care about Animal Rights?

Corey Wrenn is an American sociologist specialising in animal rights mobilisation, vegan feminism, and critical animal studies.

Dr. Wrenn is Lecturer of Sociology with the School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research at the University of Kent and co-director of the Centre for the Study of Social and Political Movements.
She was awarded Exemplary Diversity Scholar, 2016 by the University of Michigan’s National Center for Institutional Diversity. She served as council member with the American Sociological Association’s Animals & Society section (2013-2016), was elected Chair in 2018, and is co-founder of the International Association of Vegan Sociologists.
She serves as Book Review Editor to Society & Animals and is a member of The Vegan Society’s Research Advisory Committee. Dr. Wrenn has been published in several peer-reviewed academic journals including the Journal of Gender Studies, Feminist Media Studies, Environmental Values, Disability & Society, Food, Culture & Society, and Society & Animals. In July 2013, she founded the Vegan Feminist Network, an academic-activist project engaging intersectional social justice praxis.
She is the author of A Rational Approach to Animal Rights: Extensions in Abolitionist Theory (Palgrave MacMillan 2016), Piecemeal Protest: Animal Rights in the Age of Nonprofits (University of Michigan Press 2019), and Animals in Irish Society (SUNY Press 2021).

A recording of this event is available on our YouTube channel.

October 2022 Event

Dr. Peter Boylan, opponent of religious involvement in the National Maternity Hospital and campaigner for a Yes vote in the 2018 abortion referendum, talked about religious involvement in healthcare.

Dr. Boylan is a former Master of the National Maternity Hospital and former Chair of the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. He was appointed by the Minister for Health to advise the HSE on the implementation of the Termination of Pregnancy Service in 2019. He is the author of In the Shadow of the Eighth: My Forty Years Working for Women’s Healthcare in Ireland (Penguin, 2018) and, with Dr. Jennifer Walsh, The Irish Pregnancy Book (6th edition, O’Brien Press, 2020).

The Catholic Church owns seven public hospitals, which amounts to 20% of public hospital beds in Ireland. They received over €1 billion in funding from the HSE in 2020, and that number is likely higher this year, Dr. Boylan said. 66% of private hospitals in Ireland have a Catholic ethos. Also, the new National Maternity Hospital is set to be owned by a Vatican-approved private company, Dr. Boylan said.

Abortions, sterilisations, and other treatments are not allowed at these hospitals because of their Catholic ethos. On these matters, Dr. Boylan said, canon law trumps state law. Article 44.2.5 of the Constitution protects the right of every religious denomination to manage its own affairs. The Irish Supreme Court has yet to interpret the extent of this autonomy in a healthcare context.

Dr. Boylan said conservative American Catholic organisations are taking over religious hospitals around the world as religious orders leave direct care. This has already happened in Ireland with the Bon Secours, the largest private hospital group in the country. It merged with Bon Secours Mercy Health, headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. It receives substantial funding from the HSE. “This is big business,” Dr. Boylan said. “American influence is likely to grow with the passage of time.”

Dr. Boylan encouraged HAI members to lobby their TDs. David McConnell, HAI President, encouraged him to write an article to raise public awareness of these issues.

A recording of the event is available to view here.

September 2022 Event

Jody O'Neill, actor and playwright talked about her experience of being diagnosed with autism at the age of 39.

Jody is an award-winning autistic writer and performer, based in Dublin. Her play "What I (Don't) Know About Autism" was co-produced with the Abbey Theatre and played to critical acclaim and sold-out houses in 2020 and 2021. Jody's work has a strong focus on disability advocacy and social inclusion. She is currently Theatre Artist in Residence at UCC and Cork Opera House, and is a 2022 recipient of the Markievicz Award.

Jody’s young son was diagnosed with autism three years before her. Their personalities were so similar, Jody decided to seek out an assessment for herself. Being diagnosed was a positive experience, she said. Many of the challenges she had in her life could be re-framed through the lens of autism. It made her realise she was working on a different operating system to other people.

Negative sentiments about autism in the media led her to write the play, “What I (Don’t) Know about Autism.” It was structured so autistic people could come to see it, with breaks for questions built into the script. Disability advocacy and inclusion have become major themes in Jody’s work. Presently, she’s writing a piece of educational theatre about an autistic girl who likes double numbers and routines.

Jody doesn’t want her son growing up in a world where autism is seen as a negative. “I wish we would talk more about human needs, rather than special needs,” she said.

For more information visit aboutautism.ie.

August 2022 Event

Marelle has a relentless passion for education and philosophy and has spent two decades embedding philosophical inquiry into her teaching and learning environment.  She worked in the UK as Head of Religion, Philosophy and Ethics in both the state and independent sectors and was actively involved in teacher professional development in Philosophy for/with Children (P4C) during this time.
Marelle’s work with the NCCA on the Philosophy Short Course lured her back to Ireland in 2017 and she wears several hats as she supports the development of Philosophical Inquiry and P4C in all areas of the Irish education system.
Co-founder of Philosophy Ireland and Director of The Thinker’s Midwife, Marelle lectures on the PME programme with the School of Education, University College Dublin, and is involved in several educational initiatives there, including the SFI funded project; ‘Girls in DEIS Schools: Changing Attitudes, Impacting Futures in STEM’, which was shortlisted by the Teaching Council for their Teachers Inspire Award for Teacher Collaboration in September 2019.  In more recent times, Marelle has turned her attention to educational projects focusing on Cyber Resilience, Digital Technologies, and Global Citizenship Education.

The video of the event is available to watch on our YouTube channel.

July 2022 Event

Non religious Teachers in Religious Schools

Dr Catherine Stapleton is a lecturer in Education in MIC, St. Patrick's Campus, Thurles. She teaches modules on Diversity and Inclusion. Her current research is focused on human rights and religious inclusion in the context of increasingly belief-diverse societies. Her research projects are funded by the Irish Research Council, Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission and SCoTENS. She is the co-author of the report on non-religious teachers in schools with a religious ethos.

A link to the jointly published research paper can be found here.

June 2022 Event

Philippa is a transgender woman. She joined the civil service, the Property Registration Authority, in 1980. She is married with one daughter.

She became involved with LGBTQ+ activism when she came to terms with herself as transgender, eventually transitioning about 12 years ago. She was very involved with both the Marriage Equality and Repeal the 8th referenda. She describes herself as a passionate, inclusive feminist.

Over the past 15 years she has been a board member and chair of Transgender Equality Network Ireland (TENI) and part of the Steering Committee of Transgender Europe (TGEU). She was a founding committee member of Sporting Pride, Ireland’s LGBTQ+ sports organisation.

In 2019 she was one of the founders of Under the Rainbow where she is now Chief Operating Officer. She is also a director of Dublin Pride.
Her memoir, My Name is Philippa, is now out from Mercier Press and available in all good bookshops and online.

Now available to view here on our Humanism Ireland YouTube channel

April 2022 Event

For our April event, our guest speaker was Research and Policy Analyst Michelle Murphy. Michelle will present different approaches to implementing a basic income system, and outline some proposals as to how a basic system for Ireland could be implemented.

Michelle Murphy is Research and Policy Analyst with Social Justice Ireland. Among her main areas of interest are the impact of policy on income distribution, the interaction of a minimum social floor and just transition and sustainability and regional development.  She is also responsible for Social Justice Ireland’s European engagement including the European Semester and the Pillar of Social Rights.  This will be followed by a Q&A session.

Now available to view here on our Humanism Ireland YouTube channel

Darwin Day Lecture 2022

Missed the lecture?  You can play it back here.

Using evolution to improve our understanding of mental health and illness

Evolution provides the single most compelling and overarching explanatory model in biology. To quote Theodosius Dobzhansky: ‘Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution’.

Despite this, evolution is largely ignored in clinical medicine, psychiatry and psychology. Reasons for this neglect may be related to ambivalence around evolution itself, concerns about historical abuses of evolutionary ideas and a perception that evolutionary applications lack clinical usefulness for patients.

Join us on Wednesday 16th February 19:30 , as our guest lecturer Professor Henry O’Connell draws from the current leading researchers and writers in the field to make the case for the use of evolutionary principles in complementing and enhancing existing models for our understanding of both normal mental phenomena and mental illness.

Podcasts

The Humanism Ireland Podcast covers HAI events, interviews, lectures and more - if it's of interest to Humanists, it's here!
Listen and learn more about Humanism in theory and practice from volunteers and activists. Real people talking about issues that really matter from a realistic perspective.
Listen, Join and follow at mixcloud.com/HumanismIreland/
Like and share it on Twitter, and look out for more episodes coming up in the future. Want to get involved? Maybe you’ve got something you’re eager to have discussed? We welcome your feedback and ideas. Get in touch here: info@humanism.ie

Episode 31: Humanist Funerals - Siobhán Walls

Episode 30: Census No Religion with CEO Jillian Brennan

Episode 29:  Paul Rowe - The Future of Equality Based Education

Episode 28:  Catherine O'Brien - Secular Education in Ireland

Episode 27: Sarah Clancy reads her poetry

Episode 26: Síona Cahill. A New Ireland; What Young People Want

Episode 25: Dignity in Dying - Do We Have a Choice?

Episode 24: Colin Harvey - Uniting Our Shared Island

Episode 23: Naomi Connor - Alliance for Choice

Episode 22: Local Election Candidate Alan Edge (Independent)

Episode 21: Online Campaigning with Jean O'Brien, Digital Charity Lab

Episode 20: Humanist Summer School 2018

Episode 19: Blasphemy Part 2 - a Worldwide Perspective

Episode 18: Stand For Truth - Silent Solidarity

Episode 17:  Dick Spicer - Origins of the Humanist Association of Ireland

Episode 16: Dublin Pride and National Day of Commemoration

Episode 15: Assisted Dying - Gaynor French

Episode 14: Episode 14: Prof. A.C. Grayling - World Humanist Day Lecture

Episode 13: Colm O'Gorman - Repeal the 8th

Episode 12: Blasphemy Laws with Selina Campbell

Episode 11: Humanists Uncovered

Episode 10: Walking with Humanists

Episode 9: Justin Keating Memoirs

Episode 8: Ellie Kisyombe - Life in Direct Provision

Episode 7:  Strike for Repeal - Gwen Boyle reports

Episode 6: Humanists Causes and Campaigns

Episode 5: Dr. Emmeline Hill - Darwin Day Lecture

Episode 4: A Time To Remember

Episode 3: A Humanist Christmas

Episode 2: Duncan Stewart - Planet in Crisis

Episode 1: Humanism in Ireland - Introduction