MacGill Summer School to open in Glenties, Co Donegal

Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly has pulled out of a planned attendance on Tuesday at the MacGill Summer School due to a diary clash.

Anti-water charge protesters who had planned to protest at the event have said they may switch their protest to the session addressed by the Taoiseach on Friday.

The 35th annual MacGill Summer School opens in Glenties, Co Donegal on Sunday.

This year's theme for the six-day event is Ireland at the Crossroads and Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Tánaiste Joan Burton are among the speakers.

On Sunday night, the 15th annual John Hume lecture will delivered by former tánaiste and attorney general Michael McDowell.

Sessions on Monday will include an exploration of politics post 2016 and whether Ireland will have stability or unstable governance

Another session will examine whether our political process has been at the heart of inadquate governance and crises.

Monday evening's session will be attended by Tánaiste Joan Burton, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin and Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald.

Tuesday's sessions will include an examination of reform of the justice system and it will be addressed by Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald.

The Irish Water saga will be the subject of a session on Tuesday evening. Speakers will include Michael McNicholas, chief executive of Irish Water's parent group Ervia, Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty, Fianna Fáil TD Barry Cowen and Green Party leader Eamon Ryan.

MacGill Summer School director Dr Joe Mulholland will celebrate the achievement of Patrick MacGill, after whom the school is named, at a session on Tuesday.

Also known as ‘The Navvy Poet’, MacGill wrote in the early 20th century on the social conditions in Donegal, the plight of migrant workers in Britain and on the horrors of the first World War, in which he fought as a soldier of the London Irish Rifles.