October Business Breakfast : Irish Themes of Halloween
Date/Time
October 5, 2023
7:30 am - 9:00 am
Event Registration Link
Register Now ->
Location
Consulate General of Ireland
1095 West Pender Street #1300,
Vancouver
On Thursday, October 5th, join the Consulate General of Ireland for their October Business Breakfast: Irish Themes of Halloween.
Did you know that Ireland is considered the home of Halloween? Hear about some of the traditions surrounding the Irish holiday of Samhain, known in Canada as Halloween, that helped define the holiday, and how it has evolved throughout centuries of change and migration.
Currently on a leave of absence from her job as associate professor at the University of British Columbia, Siobhán McElduff will be joining us virtually from Ireland to share her knowledge of Irish and Classical traditions surrounding the holiday of Samhain.
Alongside Siobhán, we are delighted to have the Ambassador of Ireland to Canada, Dr. Eamonn McKee joining us in person to contribute his own cultural insights.
As this will be a hybrid event, we are delighted to be able to welcome guests to attend the Consulate General of Ireland in person. However, tickets will be at a limited capacity and will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.
At our business breakfast events we invite people to introduce themselves, whether you’re a newcomer to Vancouver, a job-seeker, or just new to the Irish community. This is also an opportunity for our Irish community organisations to provide an update on their upcoming activities or introduce their organisation to the gathered attendees. Please fill out the related section in the form to avail of this opportunity. Make sure to include your current industry or the community group you represent in the “company” section of the form if applicable.
Speaker Biographies
Ambassador Eamonn McKee graduated from UCD with a degree in history (modern Irish) and economics in 1982, followed by a Ph.D. from the National University of Ireland in 1987 for a thesis on Irish economic policy, 1939 to 1952.
He joined the Department of Foreign Affairs in 1986 and worked in Anglo-Irish Division, which would become the focus for his work for the following twenty years, including for six years at the Embassy Washington from 1990 to 1996.
He served twice more in Anglo-Irish Division focused on security issues, including Bloody Sunday, contentious parades, policing and confidence in the rule of law, the use of lethal force, the Cory process and criminal justice reform. He was a member of the Irish Government’s talks team that negotiated the Good Friday Agreement and was later involved in its implementation on the policing and justice agenda. He served for two years as press officer at the Consulate General New York.
From 2004 Eamonn served in Irish Aid (on the emergency humanitarian side), as UN Director and founding Director of the Conflict Resolution Unit. He served as Ambassador to Seoul from 2009 to 2013 and Israel from 2013 until 2015. He would then go on to take up duty as Director General, Trade and Promotion Division in August 2015.
Siobhán McElduff is an accomplished writer, translator, researcher, and associate professor in the Department of Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Studies at the University of British Columbia. She is originally from the North West of Ireland, but has spent much of her adult life in the United States and Canada either working or as a graduate student.
She completed her BA at Trinity College, Dublin in the Department of Classics; and her MA at the University of Victoria, British Columbia. After that she worked in Silicon Valley for a range of both public and private organizations for several years. After a few years working in California she ventured on to the University of British Columbia.
Siobhán has created and instructed a number of university level courses on Classical Rome with titles like ‘Gladiators, Games, and Spectacle in the Greek and Roman Worlds’ & ‘UnRoman Romans’ while leading thoughtful discussions about the less well-known parts of Roman society, like magic, ghosts, and the like.
She has given papers at a variety of institutions including the University of Oslo, the University of Pittsburgh, Princeton University, and UC Berkeley in California. A sample of her works include: “Irish Didos.” in Classics and Irish Politics, 1916-2016 (2020); Roman Theories of Translation: Surpassing the Source. Routledge (2013); and Cicero: In Defense of the Republic. Penguin Classics (2011).