The 2023 Kennedy Summer School is set to host a discussion on the rise of celebrity politics.
An expert panel is set to discuss ‘Celebrity Politics’ and Sarah Carey will moderate this. She will be joined by Dr Kathryn Cramer Brownell Kathryn Cramer Brownell is an associate professor of history at Purdue University. Her research and teaching focus on the intersections of media, politics, and popular culture, particularly emphasising the American presidency. Her first book is Showbiz Politics: Hollywood in American Political Life (University of North Carolina Press, 2014). It examines the institutionalization of entertainment styles and structures in American politics and the rise of the celebrity presidency.
Also joining the panel is Gerard Howlin, a public affairs consultant since 2008 and a newspaper columnist and political commentator since 2012. He spent fifteen years in politics as a Taoiseach’s adviser, government press secretary, ministerial adviser and parliamentary assistant from 1992 to 2007.
Ireland’s pre-eminent crisis manager Terry Prone also joins the panel. Terry has advised organisations facing public opprobrium because of executive misconduct, blackmail, regulatory non-compliance and environmental depredation. She has been retained to advise Ministers, Taoisigh, civil service and public service bodies.
Award-winning journalist, Dermot Murnaghan also joins this discussion. Dermot has spent 40 years in broadcast news in the UK, presenting all the major network news programmes for Channel 4, ITV, the BBC and Sky News during his career. He has reported from around the world and anchored elections in the UK since 1992 and the US since 1988. He interviewed 10 British Prime Ministers and broke the news of the deaths of both Diana Princess of Wales and Queen Elizabeth 25 years apart.
The annual Kennedy Summer School is set to host a number of expert discussions and is billed as ‘A Festival of Irish and American, History, Politics and Culture. There will be over 60 guest speakers participating with Her Excellency, Canadian Ambassador Nancy Smyth, set to open the occasion. Sports fans will be enthused to learn that football legend Martin O’Neill will also be taking to the stage to discuss his extraordinary life in football and share his views on the future of the beautiful game.
The weekend will be filled with panel discussions, debates and public interviews and addresses and the Kennedy Tea Party hosted by RTE’s Eileen Whelan. An expert panel will discuss the 50th anniversary of Ireland’s membership of the European Union with moderator Alex White SC, joined by Patrick Honohan, Ray Bassett, Suzanne Lynch, Lucinda Creighton and Dermot Murnaghan.
The Saturday interview will see a husband and wife political duo take to the stage to discuss their opposing political viewpoints. Husband and Democratic political consultant James Carville and Republican political consultant Mary Matalin. The annual JFK Summer School Speakers Lunch guest speaker is EU Commissioner Mairead McGuinness.
For further details and tickets for the 2023 events see http://www.kennedysummerschool.ie or call St. Michael’s Theatre on 051 421255.
