Jim Gavin to speak at UCC lecture series

FORMER Dublin senior football manager Jim Gavin and Social Democrats TD for Cork South West Holly Cairns will be speaking at University College Cork (UCC) on Thursday night as part of the Centre for Local and Regional Governance (CLRG) Public Lecture Series.

Mr Gavin, who guided the Dublin senior footballers to five consecutive All-Ireland titles between 2015 and 2019, currently chairs the Dublin Citizens’ Assembly.

It is in that capacity that he will address the seventh annual public lecture series of UCC’s CLRG.

Mr Gavin will reflect on the work of the deliberative assembly, which recently saw the assembly members recommend the first directly elected mayor for Dublin with strong executive powers and the ability to raise revenue.

In May 2019, Corkonians voted by a margin of 50.7% to 49.3% against a directly elected mayor on Leeside.

Social Democrats TD for Cork South West Holly Cairns will also be speaking at the event. She was famously elected to Cork County Council in the 2019 local elections, winning the last seat by a single vote. The following year, she successfully contested the general election.

The third speaker is Dr David Sweeting of Bristol University. In a local referendum in 2012, the people of Bristol agreed to introduce a directly elected mayor. However, in May 2022, the city voted to abolish the position in a referendum, replacing it with a committee system from May 2024.

The CLRG public lecture series will be chaired by head of the department of government and Politics at UCC, Dr Theresa Reidy. The opening remarks will be delivered by the Lord Mayor of Cork, Councillor Deirdre Forde.

The CLRG public lecture series will take place this Thursday, October 6 at 6.30pm in UCC’s Boole 1 lecture theatre. It is free and open to all, without prior registration.