Thommy Fegan - The Thomas D'Arcy McGee Summer School 2019

Published: Aug. 11, 2019, 12:20 p.m.

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The theme of ththe 2019 Thomas D\\u2019Arcy McGee Summer School in Carlingford on 20th and 21st August reflects the instability evident in the lives of our politicians, businessmen, academics and the wider communities \\u2013 north and south, east and west.

Thomas D\\u2019Arcy McGee is, without doubt, Carlingford\\u2019s most famous son. A rebel in 1848, he would become a liberal-conservative Father of Canadian Confederation in 1867; the following year, he was assassinated by a Fenian who believed that he had betrayed the cause of Ireland. On one thing, though, his friends and enemies could agree: he was one of the greatest orators and journalists of his generation. Colourful, controversial, vivacious and brilliant, D\\u2019Arcy McGee stood for minority rights, the reconciliation of the Orange and the Green, an open, pluralistic society, and generosity of spirit. He was, in many respects, a model for our own time.

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