A Free Speech Union Belfast Speakeasy.
Friday 20th September, 2024
Hosted at the historic Crumlin Road Gaol, this was the Free Speech Union’s second Northern Ireland Speakeasy and the launch of its new Northern Ireland Advisory Council. At a time of rising social tensions, it is more important than ever that people can come together to raise the issues that concern them and to debate solutions.
SPEAKERS
- Kate Hoey, Labour MP 1989 to 2019, now Baroness Hoey of Lylehill and Rathlin
- Heather Binning, Director of Women’s Rights Network
- Simon Chambers, solicitor in the ‘TERFed Out’ case and ‘Sara Morrison vs Belfast Film Festival’
- Ruth Dudley Edwards, journalist, historian and crime novelist
- Toby Young, general secretary of the Free Speech Union
- Jeffrey Dudgeon MBE, veteran gay rights activist, author and Belfast city councillor.
About our speakers
Kate Hoey was born in Country Antrim where her parents were farmers, Kate Hoey served as Labour MP for Vauxhall in south London for 30 years and was appointed the UK’s first woman Minister for Sport in 1999. She maintained a strong interest in foreign affairs and gained a reputation for being one of the most independent, non-tribal members of parliament.
Heather Binning was born in Scotland and began her career in the Foreign & Commonwealth Office where she held a number of overseas postings in places such as Washington DC to Kuwait. An experienced businesswoman, she went on to establish the first public internet access across the UK before becoming an economic development consultant for a range of organisations. Heather took up the baton of women’s rights in July 2021, bringing together a number of local women’s groups which grew to become the (entirely voluntary) Women’s Rights Network. The Network already connects thousands of women, and continues to grow with more than 60 groups right across the UK.
Simon Chambers has been practising as a litigation specialist and “problem solver” for nearly 25 years and is based just outside Belfast in Newtownards at Russell and Company Solicitors. Simon also practises in Family and Criminal law, conveyancing and commercial matters. He is a member of the Law Society Council. Simon is currently pursuing two gender-critical discrimination cases in NI in both the Employment Tribunal and County Court.
Ruth Dudley Edwards is an historian, crime novelist, political commentator and an enthusiast for truth-telling. She runs a free speech Facebook page and ignores libelous bile on Twitter/X. Members of Sinn Fein have made unsuccessful efforts to silence her with legal threats. Index on Censorship filed a media freedom alert to the Council of Europe over a libel case taken against her by senior Sinn Fein ex-IRA figure Gerry Kelly as having ‘several characteristics of strategic lawsuits against public participation’. In March 2024, he had to pay her costs in his failed suit.
Jeffrey Dudgeon has held office in the Northern Ireland Gay Rights Association (NIGRA) since its foundation in 1975 and has led landmark campaigns for gay rights and personal freedom. He was awarded an MBE in the 2012 Honours List for “services to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in Northern Ireland”. Between 2014 and 2019 he served as an Ulster Unionist Councillor to Belfast City Council and was chair of the council’s Diversity Working Group. He has written books on Roger Casement (2002) and H. Montgomery Hyde (2018).
Toby Young is the general secretary of the Free Speech Union, a non-partisan, mass membership public interest body that stands up for the speech rights of its members. He co-founded the West London Free School and is the author of four books, the best known of which is How to Lose Friends & Alienate People. He is an associate editor of the Spectator, where he’s written a weekly column since 1998. He also runs a blog called DailySceptic.org that has received over 40 million page views.