Politicians and academics gather in Co Wicklow today for the annual five-day Parnell Summer School.
New Fianna Fáil TD Joe Behan will open the event, which will focus its 2007 theme on the changes in Irish culture, society and politics.
Speakers include Labour deputy leader and local TD Liz McManus and Oxford University history professor Roy Foster.
Organisers said the school's programme had to be reshuffled at the last minute because holidaying TDs were unavailable for a debate featuring newcomers to the 30th Dail.
All lectures, discussions and workshops will be held in Avondale - the ancestral home of the "Uncrowned King of Ireland" Charles Stewart Parnell.
The Irish parliamentary party leader died in 1891 and is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery. Supporters of Parnell began hosting the summer school in 1991 - the centenary of his death.
PA