Until the recent release of the film Oppenheimer, and Vladimir Putin’s evil threats since he invaded Ukraine, most of us had forgotten about nuclear war and its capacity to destroy the planet, a worthy rival to climate change. 

Patricia Lewis, Director of the International Security Programme at Chatham House will tell us how close we actually are to nuclear catastrophe. She will be in conversation with Ray Murphy, Professor at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, University of Galway. 

Andrew O’Hagan, much-awarded novelist, non-fiction writer and journalist, brings us his seventh novel, Caledonian Road. A portrait of London in the post-Brexit, long Tory era, it matches Dickens’s portraits of a great but troubled city. Andrew will be in conversation with Mike McCormack, himself a superb novelist [Solar Bones] and Director of the MA in Writing, University of Galway. They will discuss the processes which underlie his work

Over the last year, we have heard a great deal about RTÉ’s governance and financial troubles, but very little about programming which is the lifeblood of any broadcasting enterprise. 

Join Patrick Freyne, TV critic for The Irish Times, Ann Marie Hourihane, TV critic for the Irish Independent, and Dr. Roddy Flynn, of the School of Communications at DCU, with moderator Mei-Ling McNamara Lecturer in Journalism, University of Galway, to hear some ideas about content for our beleaguered national broadcaster. 

Pankaj Mishra, author of several influential studies of Western and non-western ideologies and development, including Age of Anger: A History of the Present, recently delivered an extraordinary lecture on the history of western uses of the Holocaust to justify various behaviours of the Israeli state for the London Review of Books. He will be in conversation with novelist and journalist Andrew O’Hagan.

Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh, a barrister with Matrix Chambers, London, became internationally known to a wide audience when she presented part of South Africa’s recent case alleging genocide by Israel in the Gaza Strip.  In the light of the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, human rights law has become hugely important as a means of addressing these human tragedies and providing hope for a better future. Blinne will be in conversation with Donncha O’Connell, Professor of Law at University of Galway and a respected human rights law expert. 

Marie Donnelly is Chair of the Irish Climate Change Advisory Council, tasked with giving advice to policy-makers about Ireland’s just transition to a sustainable climate neutral and resilient society. She will be interviewed by Sheila Malone, Lecturer in Marketing at the University of Galway, with expertise in sustainable tourism.

Patrick Joyce, renowned social historian, explores the demise of peasant life in Europe, as well as his own family background in Galway, in his haunting new book, Remembering Peasants: A Personal History of a Vanished World. He will be interviewed by Patrick Freyne, who writes about culture for The Irish Times.