€225k blow as Kennedy Summer School gets postponed
The area will be at a loss of around €225,000 following the cancellation of the 2020 Kennedy Summer School Festival.
The festival of Irish and American politics draws people from throughout Ireland and America to New Ross every year but had to be postponed due to the expected fall-out from the Covid-19 health crisis.
The summer school has taken place each September in the ancestral hometown of President John F. Kennedy since 2013 and the US election would have been top billing in talks this year. The event is organised by Larry Donnelly, Eileen Dunne, Willie Keilthy, Dr Robert Mauro,
Sinéad McSweeney and Dr Brian Murphy who have hosted a number of virtual discussions over the last number of weeks and they have decided for health and safety reasons due to the Covid 19 pandemic the event will not take place during 2020.
Chairman of the Kennedy Summer School Willie Keilthy said: ‘The health and safety of the community in New Ross, our speakers, patrons and our organising committee – together with all our partners – are of the utmost importance to us. After closely monitoring the risk and impact of COVID-19 over the past two months, and speaking at length with members of the organising team, the Kennedy Summer School New Ross, which had been scheduled for September 3 to September 5 2020, has been officially postponed.’
Mr Kielthy said recent developments regarding COVID-19 make it impossible to effectively and safely run the event which, he said, ‘unfortunately will not bring the annual visitors to our town to boost the economic activity in the shoulder months of our most important tourism activity’. Dr Robert Mauro of Boston College who had been working on organising the US guests for the Summer School said: ‘It has been a difficult decision to postpone the 2020 event in New Ross, however, it would be unrealistic to expect all of our US guests and speakers to travel at this time. The future of the evolution of this pandemic in the US is much unknown at present and aside from the organisational aspects for the Kennedy Summer School 2020, the health and wellbeing of our guests and speakers must come first.’
Organisers say that the next Kennedy Summer School is now scheduled for September 2 to September 4, 2021, where they plan to publish a programme of speakers from the national and international pool, as they bring everyone together again to discuss the past, present and future of local and global politics and hopefully reflect upon the impact of Covid-19.
Mr Keilthy said: ‘We remain committed to this project. We are already planning to make 2021 our most successful summer school yet.
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