Féile 18 to look at birth of Civil Rights 50 years on

The Gasyard Féile 18 will be hosting a series of discussions, screenings and debates centred around this year's festival theme, '˜Rights'.
Martina Anderson MEPMartina Anderson MEP
Martina Anderson MEP

With 2018 being the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Movement, the 100th anniversary of women securing the right to vote and with equal marriage rights, language rights and abortion rights still key issues across the country, the programme of events will examine various rights issues on a local, national and international basis.

This year’s Féile lecture will be delivered by Fintan O’Toole at Pilots Row Community Centre on Tuesday August 7.

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The lecture is titled ‘The Right to Dignity: Civil Rights and the Legacy of Martin Luther King’.

Fintan O’Toole is a columnist with the ‘Irish Times’ and a Visiting Lecturer in Irish Letters at Princeton. His writings on Brexit have won both the European Press Prize and the Orwell Prize for journalism.

‘Civil rights to Brexit: Continuing the Fight for Rights’ on Wednesday August 8 at the Gasyard Centre will look at how 50 years ago people took to the streets of Derry and elsewhere to demand their rights, with Sinn Féin MEP Martina Anderson hosting a discussion on rights and Brexit, with civil rights activist Michael Farrell.

Civil Rights at 50, meanwhile, on Thursday August 9 at the Pilots Row Centre will see panellists Elisha McCallion, Colum Eastwood, Gary Middleton and Ben Lowry discuss the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement.

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