Changing Shades of Green

Pluralism and the Changing face of Ireland

Milltown Institute
Friday October 13 2006

"Changing Shades of Green" conference

Friday October 13^th 2006
Milltown Institute, Dublin

Ireland is changing. The world is becoming smaller. Like the Irish were looking for work and a chance for a better life abroad for so many years, now people from all over the world are coming to Ireland and search for the same.  When we sit in the bus or walk in the street we hear different languages, see faces of different colours, in general we experience the growing cultural diversity of Irish society. So how do we live together peacefully? How can we understand and respect each other?

While this diversity offers great opportunities it also presents great challenges. The social fabric and texture of our society have in fact been altered and the historical social bonds have changed considerably. It could be said that we are coming into a situation where we have to renegotiate a new social contract for a changed society. This requires the research, reflection and understanding at different levels of society that inform good policy decisions.

As a third level institution, with a very diverse constituency of 46 nationalities, the Milltown Institute feels that it can make a contribution to this process. So in partnership with SPIRASI (The Spiritan Asylum Services Initiative) and the Irish Missionary Union, the conference "Changing Shades of Green", is hosted here at Milltown on October 13, 2006.

This will be an academic conference that will seek to address the issues from a number of angles, with speakers from overseas as well as from Ireland, both Irish and non-Irish. The target audience will be people involved in issues of cultural diversity in Ireland, whether in statutory bodies, NGOs or other academic institutions. It is hoped that from this Milltown Institute, building on its experience in cultural studies, may be able to develop academic programmes at different levels that seek to address this issue in a critical and positive way.

The Milltown Institute, located in the heart of Dublin is a specialist recognized college of the National University of Ireland that is open to everyone, young and old, believers and non-affiliated. It offers civil and ecclesiastical awards up to doctoral level in Theology, Philosophy and Spirituality.The College offers a high level of personal student support due to the generous ratio of staff to students, giving learners the opportunity to discuss their work in detail with course presenters. The Institute's motto is "Bringing Scholarship to Life" and it sees itself as having an important role in the development of an ethical conscience in a culturally diversified Europe, through regular hosting of international conferences and an active publishing record.

It costs €60 to attend the conference. To register, download the appplication form, print and return to Dr. Patrick Claffey of the Milltown Insitute, Dublin 6.

More information on the programme of the conference and biographies of the key speakers is available in the Conference Leaflet (PDF). For any additional questions please contact Ursula Glienecke from the Milltown Institute.

DEPARTMENT OF MISSION THEOLOGY AND CULTURES
In association with
SPIRASI
and
THE IRISH MISSIONARY UNION