Ireland in Crisis: Challenging the Consensus

dublin | miscellaneous | event notice Tuesday November 16, 2010 17:09 by The Ireland Institute - Venue: 27 Pearse Street, Dublin 2 irelandinstitute at eircom dot net 01 - 670 4606

Meeting 2, of a 3-part Lecture Series

The Ireland Institute believes that the debate to date has been dominated by a narrow consensus that does not question the structures within which the crisis is being played out. This consensus regards capitalism as the right and natural way to organise the economy and society: no alternative is admitted. In this worldview, competition, individualism, small government, privatisation, free trade and free movement of capital are self-evidently good and the means to economic success.

The Ireland Institute argues that the way capitalism organises the economy and society is at the root of the crisis. If we want real change, it will not be found in the solutions that are currently being proposed: more regulation of business and finance; reduction in the number of TDs; abolition of the Seanad; and updating of the 1937 Constitution.

Instead, the Institute considers that full democratisation of politics and the economy is the only way to change society so that, in the future, the common good of all citizens will be at the heart of policy. This means that all citizens must have a real share in decision making in Ireland, not just a vote every few years for one or other political elite.

This lecture series will challenge the consensus about the crisis.

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MEETING 2––8.00pm, Thursday, 18 November 2010

Speakers:
Mary Murphy (Department of Sociology, NUI Maynooth)

Robbie Smyth (Journalist with 'An Phoblacht')

Chair: Dr. Conor McCabe (Historian; 'Irish Left Review')

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MEETING 3––8.00pm, Thursday, 2 December 2010

Speakers:
Anthony Coughlan (Director of the National Platform EU Research and Information Centre, Dublin, and President of the Foundation for EU Democracy, Brussels. He is Senior Lecturer Emeritus in Social Policy at Trinity College Dublin)

Second Speaker to be confirmed.

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VENUE: Ionad an Phiarsaigh––The Pearse Centre,

The Ireland Institute,
27 Pearse Street,
Dublin 2