by Irish Echo Staff
After being thwarted in an earlier attempt to visit the U.S., this due to a visa snafu in Dublin, author Tim Pat Coogan will make landfall in America next week and spend a busy eight days promoting his latest book and taking part in the Famine Tribunal set for Fordham University.
On Wednesday April 17, Coogan will be at the American Irish Historical Society in Manhattan while on the following day he will travel to Hamden, Ct. to visit the Great Hunger Museum at Quinnipiac University.
On Friday, Coogan will be at the Irish Consulate in Manhattan while over that weekend he will be participating in the tribunal. After the tribunal, the former Irish Press editor will be flying to Florida for a book event in Coral Gables on the 22nd, his birthday.
From Coral Gables he will proceed to Delray Beach for another book event after which he will fly to Boston for an appearance at Boston University this before his return to Ireland on the 25th.
Meanwhile, after being scheduled for the fall of last year only to be postponed, Fordham Law School will be hosting the Irish Famine Tribunal on April 20-21. the tribunal will examine the degree of responsibility of the British government, under international law, for the tragic consequences of Ireland's Great Hunger.
The Tribunal, according to a release from the organizers, will consider whether the British role during the Famine amounted to either genocide or a crime against humanity.
Prosecution and defense teams, including law students from Fordham Law School and Dublin City University, will present their cases before an international panel of judges: Judge Fidelma Macken, recently retired from the Supreme Court of Ireland and the first female judge to sit on the European Court of Justice; Judge John Ingram, a renowned New York Supreme Court judge who has presided over many high profile criminal trials; and, Judge William Schabas, professor of international law at Middlesex University in London, chairman of the Irish Centre for Human Rights at the National University of Ireland Galway, and widely considered the world's leading authority on genocide.
Joining them will be Mr. Coogan ("The Famine Plot: England's Role in Ireland's Greatest Tragedy") and John Kelly ("The Graves Are Walking: The Great Famine and the Saga of the Irish People"), along with historians Dr. Ciarán Ó Murchadha ("The Great Famine: Ireland's Agony 1845-1852") and Dr. Ruan O'Donnell, Head of the Department of History at the University of Limerick.
To RSVP re. attendance go to www.irishfaminetribunal.com. More details at info@theirishfaminetribunal.com. The Tribunal will be held at Fordham University Law School, 142 W. 62nd Street, Manhattan, April 20 at 10 a.m. and April 21 at 11 a.m.
