Inclusion

Exploring how the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion agenda is pursued and progressed throws up many challenges, some of which cut to the core of how we limit what is up for debate and advancement.

Elaine Feeney has published three collections of poetry including The Radio was Gospel and Rise. Feeney teachers at NUI Galway, where she is also Creative on the Tuam Oral History Project. In 2017 she wrote the multi award-winning drama piece for the Liz Roche Company, WRoNGHEADED. Her debut novel As You Were (Vintage) won the 2021 Kate O’ Brien Award and shortlisted for Novel of the Year at the Irish Book Awards, The Rathbone Folio Prize, Dalkey Literary Awards and was an Observer Best Debut of 2020.

Tanya Farrelly is the author of three books: a short fiction collection When Black Dogs Sing (Arlen House), which was longlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize and named winner of the Kate O’ Brien Award 2017, and two novels: The Girl Behind the Lens and When Your Eyes Close (Harper Collins). She holds a PhD in Creative and Critical Writing from Bangor University, Wales, and teaches at numerous institutions, including the Irish Writers Centre, Dublin, and the People’s College. She is the founder and director of Bray Literary Festival and is the current Writer-in-Residence at NUI Galway. Her second short story collection Nobody Needs to Know is forthcoming from Arlen House. 

Deirdre Sullivan is a writer and teacher from Galway. She has written seven acclaimed books for young adults, including Savage Her Reply (Little Island, 2020),Perfectly Preventable Deaths (Hot Key 2019) and Tangleweed and Brine (Little Island 2017). She was the recipient of the CBI award in 2018 and the An Post Irish Book Award for YA in 2020. Her short fiction has previously appeared in Banshee and The Dublin Review and her first collection of short fiction for adults, I Want To Know That I Will Be Okay (Banshee Press, 2021) was released in May 2021.

When we think of equality we think of fairness and ways to increase diversity, but stopping there is stopping short. As society strives for meaningful equality it is up to all of us to ensure that everyone feels included.