Maurice Fitzpatrick, who scripted and co-produced a documentary film, The Boys of St. Columb's, and has also written a book based on the documentary, will introduce the film and, after showing the film, will take questions from the audience.

The Boys of St. Columb's, the film and the book, tells the story of the first generation of children to receive free secondary education as a result of the ground-breaking 1947 Education Act in Northern Ireland. This book shows how the political and historical conditions of Northern Ireland altered as a result of the mass education of its population, culminating in the Civil Rights Movement of the late 1960s which drew its inspiration from the USA. The book profiles St. Columb's school in Derry as a lens to understand the effect of the 1947 legislation. "The Boys of St. Columb's" consists of interviews with eight graduates, including Nobel Prize winners, writers, diplomats, musicians and a socialist campaigner. St. Columb's is a high school that has produced two Nobel Prize winners among its graduates, Seamus Heaney (Literature) and John Hume (Peace). Both of these prize-winners have appeared at Iona in past years. In his introductory lecture, Fitzpatrick will discuss the ways in which the political concerns of Hume and the literary focus of Heaney and the Field Day Theatre Company found support among the Irish diaspora here in the United States.

Free admission. Open to the public.

(-30-)

For questions or more information please contact:
Dawn Insanalli
Public Relations Office
Iona College, 715 North Avenue, New Rochelle, N.Y. 10801
Office: (914) 637-2726
Fax: (914) 637-2711
dinsanalli@iona.edu

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