St Mary’s Research Centre to Host Symposium on Irish Migration

On Tuesday 8th July, the Centre for Irish Studies (CIS) at St Mary’s University, Twickenham will be co-hosting a symposium on Contemporary Irish Migration with the Social Policy Research Centre at Middlesex University. The symposium will feature a number of academic speakers who will discuss the latest research on current Irish emigration. According to the Central Statistics Office in Ireland almost 90,000 people left Ireland in the year to April 2013 of whom 50,000 were Irish citizens. Along with this data, additional research from the likes of Émigré Project at University College Cork, research on teachers leaving Ireland by Middlesex University, and other studies will form the basis of debate. The symposium aims to explore and develop theoretical and methodological challenges in order to gain greater insights into the specificities of contemporary Irish migration, and consider how these can be understood in comparison to previous waves of migration from Ireland and also current waves of intra-EU migration. Guest speakers from Ireland and the EU include Irial Glynn, Research Fellow at Institute for History in Leiden University; Piaras Mac Einri, Lecturer at University College Cork; Elaine Moriarty, Assistant Prof in Sociology at Trinity College Dublin; Louise Ryan, Prof of Sociology and Co-Director of the Social Policy Research Centre at Middlesex University; Marc Scully, Research Associate at the University of Leicester and Mary Tilki, the Chair of the Irish in Britain charity. Research Fellow at St Mary’s Centre for Irish Studies, Prof Mary Hickman, said, “This is a great opportunity to get updated on the latest research about Irish emigration since 2009 and discuss the comparative, theoretical and methodological issues which it raises.” The event starts at 11am in Shannon Suite at St Mary’s Strawberry Hill campus, with an expected finish at 4.30pm. Registration starts from £20.35 which includes sandwich lunch, teas and coffees. For more information, please contact the CIS administrator Kirstine Cox on kirstine.cox@stmarys.ac.uk and to book tickets, please visit TicketSource.