Tuesday 30 June | 13:30 – 15:30
This plenary is conceived as a deliberately dialogic intervention into ongoing debates on culture, power, and belonging, situated firmly within the Irish context while resonating far beyond it. Under the theme Cultúr ar an Imeall | Culture on the Periphery, the session will interrogate how cultural authority is produced, who is authorised to speak, and which identities continue to be rendered marginal, conditional, or invisible within dominant narratives of Irish society.
The session will be chaired by Irish Author of the Year 2025, Elaine Feeney. Contributions will come from Irish Traveller writer and activist Oein DeBhairdúin, Leon Diop of Black & Irish, and Islammiyah Saudique-Kadejo of GOCOM Radio.
The plenary asks how representation actually operates across literature, media, activism, and public life; how intersectional and hybrid identities are articulated, negotiated, and at times constrained within institutions that were not designed with them in mind; and how peripheral voices can move from symbolic inclusion to structural influence. Particular attention will be paid to race, ethnicity, Traveller identity, class, gender, migration, and cultural hybridity, and to the tensions that arise when marginalised communities are simultaneously celebrated and regulated.
Panellists will reflect on lived experience, cultural production, and institutional engagement, with the aim of opening a shared space for critical reflection. In doing so, the plenary seeks to model a forward-looking cultural conversation: one that treats the periphery not as a deficit or a temporary condition, but as a vital site of knowledge, creativity, and political imagination.
Positioned at the heart of IAMCR, this session invites participants to reconsider how culture on the margins reshapes the centre—and to reflect on what more inclusive futures for Irish and global media cultures might demand in practice, not just in principle.
Panel chair
Elaine Feeney
Irish writer and lecturer at the University of Galway, working across poetry, fiction, drama and nonfiction.
Her debut novel As You Were won multiple prizes and widespread acclaim. Her second novel How to Build a Boat was Booker Prize–nominated and widely listed among best books of 2023 including in The New Yorker. She won Irish Author of the Year 2025 for her third novel, Let Me Go Mad in My Own Way. Feeney has published several poetry collections and works on the Tuam Oral History Project in University of Galway.
Panellists
Oein DeBhairduin
Irish Traveller author, educator and cultural curator.
He is the Curator of Traveller Culture with the National Museum of Ireland, where he works to develop and preserve the national collection relating to Traveller history, culture, and heritage.
Oein is the author of the award-winning Why the Moon Travels, Twiggy Woman, Weave, and The Slug and the Snail, works that draw on Traveller oral traditions, folklore, and storytelling. Through his writing, public engagement, and cultural advocacy, he promotes authentic Traveller representation and explores the role of storytelling, memory, and heritage in contemporary Irish society"
Leon Diop
Mixed race man from Tallaght, Dublin.
Leon graduated from Maynooth with a degree in psychology before going on to be Maynooth Students’ Union President for two terms. In June of 2020 he founded Black and Irish. An organisation working on the behalf of Black and mixed race people in Ireland. He is the co-author of the award winning book, Black and Irish: Legends, Trailblazers and Everyday Heroes and a host of the Black and Irish podcast.
He currently serves on the board of the Childhood Development Initiative, Tallaght and Work Equal. In September 2024, Leon was named as a European Leader for the Obama Foundation. In November 2025, Leon published his second book, “Mixed Up” to help young people become more comfortable in their identity. Leon is currently the head of equality, diversity and inclusion at the Arts Council of Ireland.
Islammiyah Saudique-Kadejo
Purpose-driven leader with more than two decades of experience advancing social justice, gender equality, and community development. Her work focuses on transforming lives through advocacy, innovation, and inclusive media practices, with a particular emphasis on creating innovative solutions for social change.
She is the Founder and CEO of GOCOM Radio, Ireland’s first multilingual ethnic minority community radio station. Through the platform, she champions cultural inclusion and equitable representation by amplifying the voices of migrants, ethnic minorities, and people with limited English proficiency. Her work in ethnic media seeks to reshape public narratives, foster belonging, and strengthen intercultural dialogue.
In 2019, Saudique-Kadejo founded Amdalah Africa Foundation (AMDAF), where she serves as Project Director.
