Donald Akenson Professor of History at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario; winner of the 1993 Grawemeyer Award for Improving World Order; works include God's Peoples: Covenant and Land in South Africa, Israel and Ulster (1992); Small Differences: Irish Catholics and Irish Protestants 1815-1922 (1988); The Irish Diaspora: A Primer (1993); If the Irish Ran the World (1997); and four novels.

Arthur AugheyWidely published author whose most recent book, Nationalism, Devolution and the Challenge to the United Kingdom State (2001), was nominated for the UK Political Studies Association’s W.J.M. McKenzie Prize; Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Ulster, Jordanstown; member of the Northern Ireland Advisory Committee of the British Council; sits on the management board of the Institute of Ulster-Scots Studies; former member of the Northern Ireland Community Relations Council and of the Northern Executive of the Irish Association; recent member, Working Group on the Bicentenary of the Irish Act of Union; contributor to first volume of British Islands Stories: Histories, Identity and Nationhood (2003); currently researching volume on politics of Northern Ireland after the Belfast Agreement (2005).

Ivana Bacik Reid Professor of Criminal Law, Criminology and Penology at Trinity College Dublin; previously taught at the University of Kent, the University of North London, and the National College of Ireland; barrister in Dublin specializing in criminal and public law; coordinator of an EU-funded study on rape law in different European jurisdictions (1998); co-author of Abortion and the Law (1997), co-author of Towards a Culture of Human Rights in Ireland (2001), and co-editor of Crime and Poverty in Ireland (1998); editor of the Irish Criminal Law Journal since 1997.

Andrew Bennett Actor; performances for The Corn Exchange include Streetcar, Big Bad Woolf, Car Show, The Seagull, and the Abbey/Corn Exchange co-production of Nabokov’s Lolita; other previous work includes Translations, The House, Good Evening, Mr Collins, Tartuffe, and Sons and Daughters; film and television work includes The General, David Copperfield, and Angela’s Ashes; radio work includes Derek Mahon’s The Bacchae and Gerry Stembridge’s Daylight Robbery (nominated for the Prix D’Italia 2002); nominated for The Stage Awards for Acting Excellence Edinburgh Fringe 2000.

William Binchy Senior Counsel and Regius Professor of Law at Trinity College, Dublin; author and co-author of books on private international law, torts, and family law; former special legal adviser to the Irish Department of Justice; Research Counselor to the Law Reform Commission.

Angela Bourke Writer; Senior Lecturer in Irish and Chair, Board of Irish Studies, University College, Dublin; member of Editorial Board, Canadian Journal of Irish Studies; former member of the Irish Folklore Commission; regular contributor to TV and radio programs in Ireland; author of Caoineadh na d’TriMuire (1983), By Salt Water (1996), and The Burning of Bridget Cleary (1999); recipient of the Irish Times Literature Prize, the James S. Donnelly, Sr. Prize for the Best Book on Irish History or Social Studies from the American Conference for Irish Studies, and a residential Bursary for Academic Writers at the Princess Grace Irish Library in Monaco.  Project Consultant.

John D. Brewer Head of School of Sociology and Social Policy at Queen’s University, Belfast; author of twelve books, including Crime in Ireland, 1945-95 (1995), Anti-Catholicism in Northern Ireland, 1600-1998: The Mote and the Beam (1998), and Police, Public Order and the State (1996).

Katharine Brown Virginia-based historical consultant; former adjunct Professor of History and Art at Mary Baldwin College; former Executive Director of the Woodrow Wilson Birthplace Foundation; former Director of Research and Collections for the Museum of American Frontier Culture.

Jean ButlerIrish dancer and actress; co-starred with Michael Flatley in Riverdance, the internationally celebrated Celtic dance musical that originated with their performance at the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest; for several years traveled and performed throughout the world with The Chieftains, appearing on the group's videos and albums; films include The Brylcreem Boys and Goldfish Memory (which will be screened at Re-Imagining Ireland); awarded the Irish Post Award in 1999 for her "Outstanding Contribution to Irish Dance;" recent projects include a collaboration with Donal Lunny on his latest album Coolfin and the critically acclaimed show Dancing on Dangerous Ground.

Christopher CahillAuthor, editor, and executive director of The City University of New York's Institute for Irish American Studies; two-time Emmy Award winning co-host of the WNBC-TV coverage of New York's St. Patrick's Day Parade, as well as editor and co-author of the accompanying book, St. Patrick and the Day We Celebrate in New York; editor and executive council member of The Recorder; publications include numerous poems, freelance articles, reviews, the novel Perfection, and the short story "How True Crime Saved My Marriage,"; presently nominated for an O. Henry Award; inaugurated the teaching of Irish American literature at NYU's Irish Studies Program.

Nicholas CarolanCo-founder and Director of the Irish Traditional Music Archive; lecturer and writer on Irish Traditional Music; presenter of The Irish Phonograph radio series and Come West Along the Road, RTE television series; secretary of the Folk Music Society of Ireland; lecturer at Trinity College, Dublin.

Clare CarrollChair of the Comparative Literature Department and Director of Irish Studies at Queens College, CUNY; research specialties include early modern colonialism, historiography, and translation; awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to teach and do research at Trinity College, Dublin, for 2000-2001.

Ciaran Carson  Author of eight collections of poems, including The Irish for No, Belfast Confetti, and The Twelfth of Never; prose works include: Last Night's Fun, The Star Factory, a memoir of Belfast; Fishing for Amber: A Long Story; and Shamrock Tea, a novel, which was longlisted for the Booker Prize; recipient of several literary awards, including The Irish Times Irish Literature Prize and the T.S. Eliot Prize; his translation of Dante's Inferno was published by Granta Books in November 2002; a book of new poems, Breaking News, is forthcoming in April 2003; served with the Arts Council of Northern Ireland from 1975 to 1998, with responsibility for Traditional Music, and, more latterly, Literature.

Marion Casey Assistant Professor of History and Faculty Fellow in Irish American Studies, New York University; books include Ireland, New York and the Irish Image in American Popular Culture, 1890-1960 (1998); consulting historian and Associate Producer for the video documentary From Shore to Shore: Irish Traditional Music in New York City (1993).

Cherish the Ladies A six-woman Irish-American band that produces music based on traditional Irish dance tunes and accompanied by step-dancing.  The group, which has toured worldwide, uses instruments such as the flute, whistles, mandolin, bodhran, banjo, and violin.  “Cherish the Ladies” has produced eight albums and has appeared on numerous television and radio programs.

Joe Cleary Professor, Department of English, National University of Ireland, Maynooth; author of “Domestic Troubles: Tragedy and the Northern Ireland Conflict” (1998); specialist in Colonial and Postcolonial Literature and Theory, English Renaissance Drama and Modern Irish Literature; author of Colonial Partitions: Literature and Nation-State in Ireland, Israel and Palestine (forthcoming, Cambridge University Press).

Mary CondrenDirector of the Institute for Feminism and Religion, Ireland; research associate with the Centre for Gender and Women’s Studies, Trinity College Dublin; has lectured in women’s studies at University College Dublin, in theology at the Dominican House of Studies in Tallaght, and in gender analysis at the Mount Oliver Institute, and gender and religion at Harvard University; former Charlotte Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellow, International Fellow for the American Association of University Women, and International Peace Fellow of the P.E.O; author of The Serpent and the Goddess: Women, Religion, and Power in Celtic Ireland (1989, 2002); founding editor, Irish Journal of Feminist Studies; section editor, Field Day Anthology of Irish Women’s Literature.

Tim Pat Coogan Author of Ireland Since the Rising (1966), Disillusioned Decades (1987),The Troubles (1995), The IRA (1970), Wherever Green Is Worn: The Story of the Irish Diaspora (2001), and biographies of Michael Collins and Eamon de Valera; former Editor of Irish Press; frequent contributor to newspapers in Ireland and Britain, North America and Australia; frequent TV appearances on RTE, BBC, ITV, CBC, NBC, and others.

Pat Cooke Curator of Kilmainham Gaol on behalf of Ireland's State Heritage Service; Manager of the Pearse Museum; author of “Kilmainham Gaol: Interpreting Irish Nationalism and Republicanism.”

Mary Corcoran Senior Lecturer in Sociology, National University of Ireland, Maynooth; author of Irish Illegals: Transients Between Two Societies (1993); contributor to Dislocation in Irish Society (1997) and Encounters with Modern Ireland (1998).  Project Consultant.

Maurna Crozier Director of the Cultural Diversity Programme of the Northern Ireland Community Relations Council and Honorary Fellow of the Department of Social Anthropology at Queen's University, Belfast; Trustee of the National Museums and Galleries of Northern Ireland; member of the Advisory Committee for British Cultural Studies at the British Council.

De Dannan This group is one of most famous and accomplished on the traditional, and sometimes not-so-traditional circuit; led by the virtuosic and fiery fiddle playing of Frankie Gavin, De Dannan has been home to such vocalists as Mary Black and Dolores Keane; among their many albums are Half Set in Harlem, The Best of De Dannan, The Star Spangled Molly, and How the West Was Won.

Kevin Donleavy Resident Fellow and grant recipient of Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, for research on his book-in-progress Strings of Life: Stories and Recollections of Old Time Musicians from North Carolina and Virginia (1990); director of Spudchucker Productions during the 1970s and 80s; organizer and lecturer in the “Ireland: Past and Present” series at the University of Virginia, 2002.

Theo Dorgan Poet; author of The Ordinary House of Love (1991), Rosa Mundi (1995), and Sappho's Daughter (1998); former Director of Poetry Ireland; broadcaster with RTE Radio, presenter and scriptwriter on RTÉ television; editor of Irish Poetry Since Kavanagh (1996); co-editor of The Great Book of Ireland (1991), Revising the Rising (1991) and Watching The River Flow (2000).  Project Consultant.

David N. Doyle A Dubliner who spent most of his secondary years in Presbyterian east Antrim, received higher degrees from Marquette University and the University of Iowa, is married to an American, and has siblings in Virginia, London, Wales, Germany and both parts of Ireland; Professor of American History at UCD since 1973; publications include Ireland, Irishmen and Revolutionary America, 1760-1820 (Dublin and Cork, 1981), and (with Kerby Miller, Bruce Boling and Arnold Schrier), Irish Immigrants in the Land of Canaan (New York and Oxford, 2003); author of The Irish in North America, 1776-1845 and 1845-1880 for the Oxford New History of Ireland, vols. 5 and 6 (1989 and 1996); co-editor, The Irish Americans, 42 vols. (New York, 1976) with L. J. McCaffrey, America and Ireland, 1776-1976 (Westport, Ct., 1981), with Owen Edwards, and, under Michael Glazier, The Encyclopedia of Irish America ( Notre Dame, 1999).

Roddy Doyle Author of Booker Prize-winning, international bestseller Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha; The Commitments (1987), The Snapper (1990) and The Van (1991) (known collectively as The Barrytown Trilogy); A Star Called Henry (1999); and The Woman Who Walked Into Doors (1996); writer of screenplays, plays, and the four-part BBC television series Family.

John DunlopFormer Moderator of Northern Ireland’s Presbyterian Church; now serves at Rosemary Presbyterian Church in Belfast, where his work as co-convenor of the Church and Government Committee has brought his name into the wider public arena as a Presbyterian spokesman on political and social issues.

Marianne Elliott Director of the Institute of Irish Studies; Professor of Modern History at Liverpool University, England; author of Partners in Revolution:  the United Irishmen and France (1982); Wolfe Tone:  Prophet of Irish Independence (1990); The Catholics of Ulster: A History (2001); The Long Road to Peace in Northern Ireland (2002); co-founder of the Conference of Irish Historians in Britain; awarded an OBE by Queen Elizabeth for services to Irish Studies and the peace process in Northern Ireland in 2000.

David Ervine Belfast City Councilor and a member of the new Northern Ireland Assembly; acts as chief spokesman for the Progressive Unionist Party; member of the Northern Ireland Forum for Political Dialogue, 1996-1998; member of PUP talks Team at Castle Buildings Talks, 1996-1998 ; instrumental in bringing extreme elements of his party and the Ulster Volunteer Force to accept the 1993 cease fire agreement.

Tony FaheySenior Research Officer in the Economic and Social Research Institute, Dublin; editor of Social Housing Need in Ireland: A Study of Success, Failure and Lessons Learned (2000); has published extensively, particularly on topics of the family, demography, the elderly, housing, and various aspects of social policy.

Gerald Fogarty SJ William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Religious Studies and History at the University of Virginia; author of Commonwealth Catholicism: A History of the Catholic Church in Virginia (2001) and The Vatican and the American Hierarchy from 1870 to 1965 (1982); editor of Patterns of Episcopal Leadership (1989); former Gasson Chair for Distinguished Jesuit Scholar for History at Boston College.

Roy FosterProfessor of Irish History at Oxford University; author of Modern Ireland: 1600-1972 (1988), The Irish Story: Telling Tales and Making It Up in Ireland (2001), The Oxford Illustrated History of Ireland (1989), W. B. Yeats, A Life I: The Apprentice Mage, 1865-1914 (1997), winner of the James Tait Black Prize for biography, and Paddy and Mr. Punch: Connections in Irish and English History (1993), among others; Fellow of the British Academy and official biographer of W. B. Yeats.Photo: Hugo Glendinning

Luke Gibbons Professor of English and Professor of Film, Television, and Theatre, Notre Dame University, South Bend, Indiana/Dublin, Ireland; Permanent Fellow at the Keough Institute for Irish Studies, Notre Dame University; author of Transformations in Irish Culture (1996) and Ireland and the Question of National Cinema (1998); contributing editor of the 1991 Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing.  Project Consultant.

Alan Gilsenan Irish documentary director of the films Stories from the Silence, Prophet Songs, The Road to God Knows Where, Between Heaven and Woolworths, The Green Fields of France, Private Dancer, and the documentary series God Bless America, The Irish Empire , and The Ghost of Roger Casement; film dramas directed include Samuel Beckett’s Eh Joe, the short film Zulu 9, and the experimental feature film All Souls’ Day;  directed theater productions of The Patriot Game, Small Craft Warnings, and The Balcony; chairperson of the Film Institute of Ireland; member of the Irish Film Board; board member of the International Dance Festival of Ireland.

Henry Glassie Author of Passing the Time in Ballmenone, All Silver and No Brass, An Irish Christmas Morning, Pattern in the Material Folk Culture of the Eastern United States, Irish Folktales, Material Culture, The Spirit of Folk Art, and Irish Folk History (1982); Professor of Folklore and Co-Director of the Turkish Studies Program at Indiana University; former president of the American Folklore Society and the Vernacular Architecture Forum; member of the National Council on the Humanities.

Len Graham and Pádraigín Ní Uallacháin -- two of the foremost exponents and authorities on the Ulster song tradition in the Irish and English Languages, their recordings have received wide critical acclaim; Ní Uallacháin has recorded four albums of songs, including a comprehensive collection of children's songs in the Irish language, "A Stor 'S A Stoirin"; Graham received the Sean O'Boyle Cultural Traditions award in recognition of his work as a song collector and performer; his discography includes Do Me Justice and You Lovers All.

Breda Gray Senior Lecturer in the Department of Government and Society at the University of Limerick; former Director of Research at the Irish Centre for Migration Studies, University College Cork.

The Green Fields of America Irish-American traditional music and dance touring group formed in 1978 by renowned musician and folklorist Mick Moloney; sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts five times; introduced Irish step dancing to general American concert audiences for the first time; five members of the group have been awarded a National Heritage Award; albums include The Green Fields of America – Live in Concert.

Patrick Griffin Assistant Professor of History at Ohio University; author of The People With No Name: Ireland's Ulster Scots, America's Scots Irish, and the Creation of a British Atlantic World, 1689-1764 (2001), as well as several articles on Scots Irish identity and experience; recipient of  Price, Filson, and Andrew Mellon Fellowships, among others.

Constantin T. Gurdgiev Director of the Open Republic Institute, a Dublin-based social policy think-tank; lecturer at Trinity College, Dublin; focuses research on macroeconomic theory, open economy macroeconomics and international finance; has produced academic and policy publications in several scientific and professional journals, policy magazines, and newspapers; a frequent contributor to several national newspapers, magazines, radio, and television programs.

Mick HanniganDirector of the Cork Film Festival since 1994 and former member of Bord Scannn na hÉireann, the Irish Film Board; owner and programmer of the Kino Cinema, Cork; former director of Cork’s Triskel Art Centre and the Irish Film Centre, Dublin; has served as Council Member of the Irish Film Institute, Chairman of the Irish Federation of Film Societies, on the Governing Body of University College Cork, and as Irish representative on the Advisory Committee of the European Film Distribution Office.

Martin Hayes Irish traditional musician; six-time All-Ireland Fiddle Champion; named Traditional Musician of the Year by Ireland’s National Entertainment Awards; awarded as Best Traditional Act of 1995 by the Hot Press/Heineken Rock Awards; former member o f the famed Tulla Ceili Band; albums include Under the Moon, The Lonesome Touch, and his debut album Martin Hayes, which was named among the Top Ten best albums of 1993 by the The Irish Times and the Irish Echo; has appeared on radio, television, and at festivals around the world; called “… the most important individual musician in Ireland right now” by Eamonn McCann of the Hot Press.

Ellen Hazelkorn Co-author of numerous articles and books on Irish politics and society; Contributing Editor of Science and Society (New York), co-editor of Irish Communications Review (DIT), member of the Editorial Board of the Film Institute of Ireland/Cork University Press, and Deputy Chairperson of Committee on Information Technology and Education.

Mary Hickman Professor of Irish Studies and Director of the Irish Studies Centre at the University of North London; main research interests are Irish migration and diaspora, with a particular focus on the Irish in Britain and the USA; author of Religion, Class and Identity: The State, the Catholic Church and the education of the Irish in Britain (1995); and Discrimination and the Irish Community in Britain (1997) – a report of the Commission for Racial Equality.

Warren HofstraHistorian, professor, and author, focusing on settlement patterns of the Scots-Irish in Virginia; his numerous research reports, exhibits, and publications include “Beyond the Great Blue Mountain: Historical Archaeology and 18^th-Century Settlement in Virginia West of the Blue Ridge” (1996) and “Ethnicity and Community Formation on the Shenandoah Valley Frontier, 1730-1800” (1997); speaker at conferences worldwide; recipient of an NEH fellowship (1994-5), an NEH summer stipend (1992), and several Mellon Fellowships with the Virginia Historical Society, as well as several grants.

Noel Ignatiev Author of How the Irish Became White (1996); co-editor of Race Traitor (1996 – winner of 1997 American Book Award); teaches at the Department of Critical Studies at Massachusetts College of Art; fellow of the W.E.B. DuBois Institute for Afro-American Research, Harvard University; co-editor with David Jacobsen of In the Shadow of the Tiger: New Approaches to Combating Social Exclusion  (1998); author, Poverty Amid Plenty: World and Irish Development Reconsidered (1997) and Ireland and Latin America: Links and Lessons (1992).

Tom InglisLecturer in Sociology at University College, Dublin; author of Moral Monopoly: The Catholic Church in Irish Society (1998) and Lessons in Irish Sexuality (1998); co-editor, Religion and Politics: East-West Contrasts from Contemporary Europe (2000).

Andy Irvine Irish singer, songwriter, bouzouki and mandolin player; formed the groups"Sweeney's Men," "Planxty," and "Patrick Street," but has always done and continues to do much solo work; spent 1968 and 69 in The Balkans where he first became interested in Bulgarian Folk Music; recent albums include Way out Yonder, Rain on the Roof and East Wind.

Catherine Joyce Member of the Traveller community in Ireland; coordinator of Irish Traveller Movement; received People of the Year Award (1991); Chairperson of a local Traveller’s group and member of steering group of the National Traveller’s Women’s Forum.

Nan JoyceAuthor of the book My Life on the Road: The Autobiography of a Traveller (2000), an account of the life of an Irish Traveller.

Kieran Keohane Lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Government and Society, National University of Ireland; author of “All the Way from Tuam to Zooropa: Traditionalism and Homelessness in Contemporary Irish Music,” on emigration and traditional Irish music.

Peadar Kirby Senior lecturer at the School of Law and Government, Dublin City University, where he lectures in the Master’s Degree programs on International Relations and Globalization; author of The Celtic Tiger in Distress: Growth with Inequality in Ireland (2002);  co-editor with Luke Gibbons and Michael Cronin of Re-imagining Ireland: Culture, Society and the Global Economy (2002); served as visiting professor at the Catholic University of Chile in Santiago where he wrote the book Introduction to Latin America: Twenty-First Century Challenges (forthcoming, April 2003).

Larry KirwanIrish musician and playwright; co-founder, lead singer, and guitarist for the band Black 47, which tackles controversial issues and mixes Irish traditional music with rock, rap, reggae, and political, street-smart lyrics; CDs include Green Suede Shoes, Live in New York City, Trouble in the Land, On Fire, and the solo album Kilroy Was Here; author of the play collection Mad Angels: The Plays of Larry Kirwan (1994), Livin’ in America: Fire of Freedom; Home of the Brave (1995), and the upcoming Liverpool Fantasy (2003).

Brian Lambkin Founding Director of the Centre for Migration Studies at the Ulster- American Folk Park, Omagh, Co. Tyrone, Northern Ireland; formerly founding teacher and principal of Lagan College, Belfast, Northern Ireland's first planned integrated school; author of Interpreting Northern Ireland After the Conflict (1996).

Joe Lee Professor of History and Chair of Department at University College Cork; former independent member of the Irish Senate; author of the prize-winning Ireland 1912-1985: Politics and Society (1990), and The Shifting Balance of Power: Exploring the Twentieth Century (2000); former Visiting Glucksman Professor of Irish Studies at New York University.

Ronit Lentin Director of the postgraduate program in Ethnic and Racial Studies and lecturer in Sociology at Trinity College Dublin; editor of Gender and Catastrophe (1997); The Expanding Nation: Towards a Multi-Ethnic Ireland(1998); and Emerging Irish Identities (2000); co-editor, with Robbie McVeigh of Racism and Anti-racism in Ireland (2002).

Edna LongleyProfessor of English History at Queen’s University, Belfast; editor of Culture in Ireland:  Division or Diversity? (1991); an editor of the Irish Review; author of Poetry and Posterity (2000) and The Bloodaxe Book of Twentieth-Century Poetry from Britain and Ireland (2000); writes on Irish cultural issues.

Maria Luddy Author of A Directory of Sources for Women’s History in Ireland (2002), Women in Ireland, 1800-1918: A Documentary History (1995), Women and Philanthropy in Nineteenth-Century Ireland (1995), and Hanna Sheehy Skeffington (1995); editor of the Women’s History Review; joint editor of Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing, vols. 4 and 5, “Irish Women's Writings and Traditions”; Reader in History at the University of Warwick, England; former Director of the Dublin-based Women’s History Project, which was funded by the Irish government; currently completing a book on the history of prostitution in Ireland between 1800-1940.

Gordon LucyDirector of the Ulster Society, a cultural and educational organization promoting Ulster-British Heritage and Culture; Hon. Treasurer of the Ulster-Scots Heritage Council; member of the Power to the People consortium; author of books on Unionist history, including The Ulster Covenant (1989) and The Great Convention (1995); co-editor (with John Erskine), Varieties of Scottishness (1995), on the relationship between Ulster and Scotland, and (with Elaine McClure) The Twelfth: What It Means to Me (1997), Remembrance (1997), and Cool Britannia? What Britishness Means to Me (1999).

Jacki Lyden Senior Correspondent and longtime alternate host for National Public Radio; foreign correspondent for NPR in Afghanistan, Iran, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and many ports of call in the U.S. and Europe; recipient of the 2002 Gracie Award from American Women in Radio and Television for best foreign documentary, together with producer Davar Ardalan, for their story Loss and Its Aftermath; author of the best-selling Daughter of the Queen of Sheba (1997), the photo book Landmarks and Legends of Uptown, and numerous articles for The Atlantic Monthly, the Washington Post Magazine, the New York Times, among others.

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