BATTLE OF IDEAS FESTIVAL
CONVERSATIONS FOR THE PUBLIC, WITH THE PUBLIC, IN PUBLIC
JOIN US, LISTEN, HAVE YOUR SAY
Prepare to come with a point of view and an open mind. We will be hosting diverse and lively discussions – and there’s nothing like ‘being there’, in the midst of the discussion.But these will not be black–and–white debates. The festival will be a day of collective conversations to really get everyone thinking – both about the challenges thrown up by a changing world and the new opportunities emerging to shape the future.
If that sounds like your cup of tea, join us at
THE CHURCH, RDS, DUBLIN 4
SATURDAY 22ND NOVEMBER 2025
1PM – 6:30PM
Book your tickets below:
Ticket sales are now closed.
SESSIONS
Session 1 – Over-Diagnosis? Mental Health’s Expanding EmpireThe language of illness is steadily replacing the language of ordinary hardship. Sadness becomes “depression”, pressure becomes “trauma”, and normal emotional struggle is now treated as pathology. Diagnoses are rising sharply among children and young adults, while services already strain under demand that cannot be met.
Is this a crisis of mental illness, or a crisis of interpretation – a culture teaching people to see adversity as a medical category? If we medicalise ordinary distress, flooding services with the “worried well”, who pays the price: those in genuine crisis, or society’s capacity to endure hardship at all?
Session 2 – Gender Ideology: Ireland’s New Religion?Beyond the UK – dubbed “TERF Island” – gender-identity ideology remains embedded in policymaking across Europe. Ireland’s Gender Recognition Act was among the first to permit full self-ID without medical evaluation, allowing legal documents to be changed for a €20 fee.
Germany, Spain, and France have since pushed even further, while Hungary has gone the opposite direction, reaffirming biological reality in law. Yet in Ireland, dissent is often silenced. Why does the state continue to treat gender ideology as sacred truth – and what does this mean for free speech, education, and public reason?
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DEBATE
Session 3 – The Return of Patriotism: Democratic Strain or National Renewal?Across Europe, nationalist sentiment is resurging – from farmers’ protests to reassertions of civic identity. In Ireland, patriotism once meant sovereignty; today, political legitimacy is often measured by alignment with Brussels. As supranational institutions increasingly shape domestic law, many citizens feel disconnected from decisions made in their name.
Does this revival of national feeling signal democratic renewal or democratic strain? Is love of country a form of resistance to remote governance, or the basis for civic renewal? Can a confident national identity still belong to Irish public life?
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SESSIONS
Session 4 – Immigration, Integration and Cultural CohesionIreland has shifted from emigration to mass immigration in a single generation, but without a declared integration model. As schools, housing, and civic life absorb rapid demographic change, the question is no longer abstract.
Is integration about shared citizenship, shared values, or merely shared geography – and who defines what “belonging” means? If a nation cannot say what newcomers should integrate into, does diversity strengthen solidarity or fragment it into bureaucratically managed enclaves? What does social cohesion mean when the centre can no longer define it?
Session 5 – Narrative Control: Media, Misinformation and the Fight for TruthGovernments now speak openly of “countering disinformation”. But as the definition of disinformation becomes ever more elastic and political, who decides what counts as truth, and on what authority?Ireland’s new Counter Disinformation Strategy signals a shift from open contest to the policing of public narratives. Once the state claims the power to decide which opinions are legitimate, does journalism risk becoming enforcement rather than scrutiny? Is the goal to stop lies, or to delegitimise dissent? And if truth is centrally curated, does a democratic public still have the right to think for itself?