Comhaltas Archive

eu lra Cops in
Britain
71
- mong
the rec ipients of the
prestigious Irish Post award s
in Britain this year were John
Ferguson, who works as a police officer
in Leeds; Christine Byrne, a lecturer in
Computer Studies at Park Lane College,
Leeds; and joe Sheeran, a teacher of
Religious Studies and Sociology at
Ca rlton Boi ling Co llege in Bradford.
Together th ey are the core team
responsible for the annual Cu lra
programme of Comhaltas Ceolt6iri
Eirean n in Britain.
Culra (the word is Gaelic for
'background') is an annual programme
of Irish cu ltural and historica l studies
aimed at filling th e gap that ex ists in
understandin g and awareness of the
Irish cultural heritage on the part of
young second and third generation Irish
people in Britain. The school system in
Britain does not have as part of its
normal curri cul a content which is
specifically Irish and therefore much of
the cultural and historica l legacy of the
Irish nation is unknown to young
people of the Irish diaspora.
The Honorary Director, the National
Adm inistrator and the National
Coordinator of Culra, respectively john,
Christine and joe, began organising in
1989 th e annual Culra programmes,
w hich each year carry a different theme
and take the triune form of one seminar
day in each of the fou r regions of
Com haltas in Britain; a national
res idential summer school in Britain
and a full week of study in Ireland
based at the headquarters of
Comhaltas, CultUrlann na hEirea nn, in
Monkstown, Co. Dublin. Th emes which
have featured to date are 'The Women
of Ireland'; 'The Irish Langu age';
'Ulster' (not alone dwelling on the
current embroglio, but covering the
rich cultural life of the whole of Ulster);
'E migration' and this year, to mark the
150th anniversa ry of the event, 'The
Great Hunger' . During the programme
there is a strong emphas is on active­
lea rning methodologies wh ich serve to
compliment the usual lecture format
delivered by experts in various fie lds
(a lbeit, without the content being
overly academic), plu s exercises in
democratic dec ision-making in the
context of the stru cture and form of the
overall programme. On completion of
the programme, participants receive a
certificate awarded by the Executive
Council of Comhaltas.
An tArdmheara Sean Dublin-Bay Loftus, BL, agus a bhean cheile Una in eineacht
le hionada ithe An Chomhaltais, Bdd de Brun, M{cheal Mac Aogain agus Labhras
6 MurchU, ag Failtiu i dTeach an Ardmheara.
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