Brussels seminar to mark 50 years of Ireland in EU

Cardiff University’s Wales Governance Centre will co-host a seminar in Brussels to mark 50 years of Ireland’s EU membership, featuring a discussion with Ireland’s former ambassador to the UK and the United States.

The Republic of Ireland joined the then EEC in 1973, and subsequent membership of the bloc underpinned the state’s economic, cultural and social transformation. UK membership meant that the whole of the island was in the EU until the Brexit process, the implications of which remain a point of contention around the future of Northern Ireland.

On May 25th these issues will be explored in the seminar, organised by the Irish Association for Contemporary European Studies (IACES); the University Association for Contemporary European Studies (UACES); the WGC and Welsh Higher Education Brussels.

Guests will hear from a discussion panel chaired by Hedydd Phylip and featuring Dr Giada Lagana, both of Cardiff University’s Wales Governance Centre. Joining them will be three other significant voices on Irish and European history and politics;

Professor Daniel Mulhall was Ireland’s ambassador to the UK from 2013 to 2017, a period which included the referendum on EU withdrawal, and later to the United States, as well as holding a range of European and other international posts during his 44-year career in the Department for Foreign Affairs.

Dr Michael Holmes is Associate Professor of Political Science at ESPOL, an expert on the impact of European integration on political parties, and co-author of Nationalism in Internationalism: Ireland's Relationship with the European Union (Palgrave McMillan).

Finally, Richard Corbett is a former and final leader of the (UK) European Parliamentary Labour Party, and one of the most influential figures in EU Labour party politics in the past twenty years.

With relations between Wales and the island of Ireland remaining of growing interest, the seminar will also provide an opportunity to continue to develop links between researchers and academics.

To register to attend the seminar in Brussels, guests should do so via UACES at this link.