Guantánamo Diary: A Development Education Conversation with Larry Siems

Start Date: 17/05/2015 End Date: 17/08/2015

Event Location: IDEA Offices
6 Gardiner Row,
Dublin 1,
Ireland.

IDEA is delighted to welcome Larry Siems, the editor of Mohamedou Ould Slahi’s Guantánamo Diary.  In the Diary, Mohamedou tells the story of his rendition, torture and detention without charge at the hands of the USA. Dr. Audrey Bryan will engage Larry in a conversation about Mohamedou, the diary, how Larry became involved as editor, the issues the diary raises, and how the diary might be used in a Development Education context. Audience members will be invited to respond to excerpts from this powerful text and to reflect upon how it could be used in their own practice. The event is free but we ask you to register in advance.

Time: 15:30 – 17:00

Register: eimear@ideaonline.ie

Find out more about Guantánamo Diary here and here

Mohamedou Ould Slahi was born in Mauritania in 1970.  He earned a scholarship to study engineering in Germany when he was 18, and lived and worked in Germany and briefly in Canada before returning to Mauritania in 2000. He has been detained in Guantánamo Bay since August 2002.

Larry Siems directed the Freedom to Write and International Programs at PEN American Centre, where he led PEN’s ongoing efforts to defend writers facing persecution around the world and protect freedom of expression in the US. He left PEN at the end of 2013 to concentrate on editing Slahi’s memoir. He is the author of The Torture Report and is a poet and a non-fiction writer.

Dr. Audrey Bryan is a lecturer in Sociology at St. Patrick’s College, Drumcondra. She has published nationally and internationally in the areas of racism and anti-racism, gender and sexuality studies, development studies and citizenship education. She is the co-author (with Meliosa Bracken) of Learning to Read the World? Teaching and Learning about Global Citizenship and International Development in Post-Primary Schools. Audrey is a member of IDEA’s National Council.  

September 26, 2025
Date: Tuesday, 04 November, from 3.30–4.30pm Location: Online via Zoom IDEA is thrilled to invite members to the online launch of our new “Theory of Impact for Global Citizenship Education” on Tuesday, 04 November, from 3.30–4.30pm, Online via Zoom. During this session, we will present the model, share insights into the process behind its development, and explore how it will be used to strengthen impact across the sector. We will also introduce a new tool in progress, an interactive data visualisation map designed to showcase our collective impact as a network. For many years, IDEA and its members have been grappling with the concept of impact in Development Education/Global Citizenship Education (hereinafter ‘GCE’). As GCE practitioners, tracking impact helps us to identify how, where and with whom our work is creating positive change, as well as investigating areas in which our impact could be stronger. Furthermore, we can also benefit from examining the collective impact of GCE carried out by the wide-ranging work of IDEA members, and from exploring how these impacts contribute to the major social changes to which the GCE community aspires. Driven therefore by the need to understand how projects and programmes are collectively “making a difference” in IDEA we looked at models that could help us visualise and capture GCE “impact networks”. We formulated our vision of impact and then a theory of how we expect this desired impact to be achieved to allow us to map our activities and collect data to corroborate that theory. This Theory of Impact model is how we hope to illustrate this complex GCE impact network. Building on work done by IDEA over many years including building sectoral capacity in using Results Frameworks for GCE, our Quality & Impact working group, engagement with Irish Aid on their Performance Measurement Framework (PMF), and the successful roll-out of a Code of Good Practice for DE/GCE, this Theory of Impact represent the next stage of our effort to ‘develop a consistent approach to measuring impact among the sector’. We are therefore thrilled to invite you to the presentation of our ‘Theory of Impact for GCE’. At this online presentation, we will tell you about the process that led to the creation of this model, how it will be used and what we hope it could bring to the sector. We will also touch on a new tool being developed based on the model, which should allow the creation of an interactive data visualisation map of our collective impact as a network. Join us as we launch into this exciting new phase of our Impact Measurement work. Join us as we begin this exciting new phase of our Impact Measurement work. Register below!
September 26, 2025
Date: 11 November, 10.30am – 4.30pm. Location: IDEA offices, 6 Gardiner Row IDEA launched its new Advocacy Toolkit and GCE Policy Guide resource pack in early March. The advocacy toolkit and policy guide were developed for IDEA members to strengthen their capacity to effectively advocate with policymakers and to actively engage in policy processes on GCE in Ireland and the wider world. IDEA will facilitate a full-day in-person workshop on these resources in the IDEA offices on Tuesday, 11 November ,10.30am – 4.30pm. Places are limited to 20 participants and will be given on a first come, first served basis. Please note that this is a repeat of the workshop that took place in May and is aimed at members who did not have the opportunity to participate in May. A vegetarian lunch will be provided. Register below!
September 26, 2025
Date: 06 November a nd 18 November from 3.30–4.30pm Location: IDEA offices, 6 Gardiner Row, Dublin 1 Due to positive feedback following a workshop during our annual conference, we are thrilled to invite members to a full 2-part interactive workshop about “Racial Justice” on 06 November and 18 November. This event will take place in-person in Dublin. Our facilitators Bronwyn April and Mdahyelya Bassi will guide participants through a critical exploration of the interconnections between racial justice, philanthropy, migration, and decolonisation within global and Irish contexts. The workshop will delve into how historical and ongoing colonial legacies influence contemporary issues of racial equity and social justice in Ireland and beyond. The dates for this event are fast approaching, so if you have any specific accessibility requirements, please email events@ideaonline.ie as soon as possible. Places for this event are limited, and registration is mandatory. Deadline to register is Monday, 04 November. Register below!