The NUI Galway Alumni Group will present Michael D. Higgins T.D., Labour Party President and Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and NUI Galway graduate, in conversation with Harry McGee of The Irish Times. The event will take place on Friday, 12 February at 7.30pm in the Aula Maxima, NUI Galway, in aid of COPE Galway. The interview will give NUI Galway graduates and friends access to the life, passions, interests, and writings of Michael D. Higgins. Guests will enjoy recitals of his poetry chosen especially for this occasion. Among his many distinctions, Michael D. Higgins was honoured in 2003 by his alma mater with the NUI Galway AIB Award for Literature Communication and the Arts. In 2006 he was appointed Adjunct Professor to the University's Irish Centre for Human Rights. He was also the inaugural winner of the McBride Peace Prize awarded by International Peace Bureau in Helsinki in 1991. The interview is open to all and entry is €10, with all proceeds to go to COPE Galway. COPE Galway provides services to the most isolated in the community including a refuge for women and children affected by domestic violence, accommodation for those experiencing homelessness and sustenance and social supports for older people at home. Booking for this event is essential, contact Justin or Bríd in COPE Galway on (091) 778750, or email fundraising@copegalway.ie. Early booking is advised. This is first event of the year for the NUI Galway Alumni Club following a highly successful calendar of events in 2009. For information on future events visit: www.nuigalway.ie/alumni/upcomingevents.html -ends-

NUI Galway, in partnership with Business in the Community Ireland (BITCI), has announced that the BITCI's Portrait Exhibition, entitled 'The Face of Corporate Responsibility, Ireland' will go on display at the University. The free photography exhibition will be open daily to the public, from 9-14 February, in the Orbsen Building at NUI Galway. The exhibition will be officially opened by the President of NUI Galway, Dr James J. Browne, and the Chief Executive of BITCI, Tina Roche on Tuesday, 9 February, at 2pm. The opening will also feature short talks by representatives from two of BITCI's local member companies, IBM and Boots. Each speaker will highlight the importance of corporate responsibility from their own perspectives, giving an interesting insight into the perception of socially responsible business practice from each sector. BITCI is a national non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting corporate responsibility in Ireland. A business driven network, with major social initiatives, membership is drawn from Ireland s most progressive companies. Corporate responsibility is about companies continually improving the impact they have on society, specifically in the community, environment, marketplace and workplace. The photo exhibition showcases employees from some of Ireland's largest companies who epitomise corporate responsibility in their day to day roles. The exhibition consists of unique portraits taken by photographer Kevin Fox in the studios of the National Gallery of Photography. Each portrait is accompanied by a caption explaining the reasons why this particular employee was nominated to take part in the exhibition. NUI Galway, through the Community Knowledge Initiative (CKI), is committed to corporate responsibility whereby civic engagement opportunities are embedded into mainstream teaching and research activities. According to the Project Coordinator of CKI, Lorraine McIlrath: "To date over 25 degree programmes offer students a service learning experience whereby they use their knowledge to enhance the capacity of community. In addition, over 700 students volunteer every year in local, national and international communities through the NUI Galway ALIVE Student Volunteering Programme". Lorraine McIlrath added: "Through these activities NUI Galway strides to create civic minded graduates and professionals that will continue their commitment to community and society. The BITCI's exhibition further demonstrates the potential for students to maintain their civic engagement endeavours throughout their working lives". Speaking about the partnership on the exhibition with NUI Galway, Tina Roche, CEO for Business in the Community, Ireland said: "BITCI wants to show university graduates that a responsible attitude towards society and the environment can continue well after they have graduated. The exhibition, therefore, portrays to students and the community alike that extraordinary contributions to society can be made and are being made by thousands of employees nationwide". -ends-

An education conference at NUI Galway on Saturday, 27 February, will look at an emerging method of teaching languages which is gaining popularity across Europe. With 40% of marks being allocated to the oral in the Leaving Cert Irish exam from 2012, the conference will be of specific interest to teachers of Irish at second-level. The one-day conference is organised by NUI Galway's School of Education and Gaelscoileanna Teo. The conference will focus on Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), a method for teaching subjects and language together. In recent years, CLIL has become the umbrella term for learning another subject, such as geography, through a language which is not the mother tongue of the learners. This method would be of particular interest to Irish teachers who could perhaps teach part of their second subject through Irish. According to conference organiser Sinéad Ní Ghuidhir of NUI Galway's School of Education: "This method can have students speaking the language without them even being aware of it. CLIL is being used to great effect all over the EU, and it has huge potential for Irish language, Irish teaching and for Irish schools. The challenges around teaching Irish which we face in Ireland every day are not something that should be seen as particular to this country alone. Our colleagues around Europe have much experience to share". The conference will feature a case study by Olive Ní Chonghaile of the Mercy College, Tuam, who will describe her own experience of putting CLIL into practice in a secondary school in Ireland. Speakers in the area of CLIL and language acquisition at the event include: María Jesús Frigols-Martin, Valencia, will give the background to the growth and success of CLIL in Europe. Do Coyle, University of Aberdeen, will discuss the issues related to training teachers in this method. Muiris Ó Laoire, IT Tralee, world renowned in the area of language and language acquisition, will speak on CLIL in the Irish context. Áine Furlong, IT Waterford, will show practical ways of creating materials and resources for the CLIL lesson. Yolanda Ruiz de Zarobe, University of the Basque Country, will discuss the CLIL experience with a minority language in the Basque Country. Carmel Mary Coonan, Universita Ca'Foscari di Venezia, Italy, will talk about CLIL in the classroom. NUI Galway's Sinéad Ní Ghuidhir added: "This is a chance to explore new ways of teaching Irish by incorporating the CLIL methods – which are known to work in other European countries. We hope the conference will provide the opportunity for those involved in education to share with colleagues around the country and to invigorate teaching with new possibilities". The cost for the day, including lunch and refreshments is €55. For more information and online booking, see www.conference.ie or call phone 091 492861 / 01 8535191. -ends-

The archaeology of 19th century Ireland, a subject of growing interest, will be the topic of a free public lecture hosted by the discipline of Archaeology at NUI Galway on Monday, 8 February. Specifically, the talk will look at 'The Art and Archaeology of the 19th Century Farmhouse Interior'. The lecture will be delivered by Professor Charles E. Orser Jr. and will take place at NUI Galway's Moore Institute at 4pm. Professor Orser is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Illinois State University and Curator of Historical Archaeology at the New York State Museum. He has also served as an Adjunct Professor at NUI Galway. He is an historical archaeologist and uses anthropology and archaeology to investigate the lives of men and women, often ignored by official written history, and their interactions with people of power. According to Professor Orser: "Taken by themselves, the analysis of archaeological findings and works of art can provide valuable information about the material culture of 19th century rural Ireland. The union of both sources of information is even more powerful for offering a more complete picture of the material lives of farm families. In this talk, I present examples of the ways in which the two sources can be used together as a way of demonstrating what we can learn from them". Professor Orser's textbooks are used to train archaeologists in many countries and he has carried out fieldwork in Latin America, the US and Ireland. For over a decade his field research has focused on the west of Ireland in the 19th century. Maggie Ronayne, Lecturer in Archaeology at NUI Galway, who has organised the lecture said: "We are delighted to host this distinguished international scholar. Historical archaeology of our more recent past, especially when professionals work in partnership with the community whose heritage it is, can make a vital contribution, here in Ireland and globally, to our appreciation of the collective human endeavour of our ancestors, and the often miraculous accomplishments of tenant villages. With this knowledge we may better understand and support communities today who defend their culture and heritage". -ends-

Kathleen O'Toole, Chief Inspector of the Garda Síochána Inspectorate, will be the keynote speaker at a special networking event hosted by NUI Galway's Child and Family Research Centre. The eighth in a series, the Child and Family Welfare Network Event takes place at 6pm on Tuesday, 9 February, in Áras Moyola, NUI Galway. Kathleen O'Toole will deliver a presentation on 'Youth Justice – Prevention and Intervention', which will be followed by a practitioner response by local Community Garda Ciara Moran. Chief Inspector O'Toole began her career as a patrol officer in the Boston Police Department and rose through the ranks of local and state law enforcement in Massachusetts. She was also a consultant to the United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division on police profiling cases, was a member of the Independent Commission on Policing in Northern Ireland as part of the Peace Process, and chaired the Boston Fire Department Review Commission. According to Professor Pat Dolan, UNESCO Chair in Children, Youth and Civic Engagement, NUI Galway: "Community-based prevention programmes and community policing offer real world solutions both in supporting young people at risk and those who are in conflict with the law. In the current economic crisis it is crucial that we invest more in preventing youth crime with a view to savings for the taxpayer in the long-term". The Child and Family Welfare Network Event is aimed at practitioners, managers, policy makers and academics working or interested in the area of children and family wellbeing. The bi-annual event aims to allow for discussion, dissemination of information, shared learning and networking with the ultimate aim of improving outcomes for children and families. For further information or to RSVP for the event please contact Carmel Devaney, Child and Family Research Centre at NUI Galway on 091-495733. -Ends-