THE WORKERS' PARTY OF IRELAND
Árd Fheis Guest Speakers

High Profile European guests to speak on Lisbon Treaty
 
Leading Trade Unionists to address Workers' Party Árd Fheis also

The Workers' Party was proud to have a number of high-profile guest speaker's at this year's Árd Fheis, including two representatives of the European Left and two of Ireland's leading trade union figures.   Profiles of  some of our guest speakers are shown below.

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Athanasios Pafilis MEP

Athanasios Pafilis MEP: The first of these speakers was Greek Communist Party MEP Athanasios Pafilis who is a member of the European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs and its sub-committee on Security and Defence. He is a member of the Central Committee of the Greek Communist Party and sits on the European Parliement as a member of the European United Left - Nordic Green Left (GUE-NGL) group.   A law graduate from the University of Thessaloniki, Comrade Pafilios is also the Secretary General of the World Peace Council.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Jack O'Connor

Jack O'Connor: SIPTU General President leads Ireland's largest trade union, SIPTU which represents some 200,000 Irish workers.  SIPTU, founded as the Irish Transport and General Workers Union by Big Jim Larkin is by far the largest workers organisation in Ireland.    Jack O'Connor has been its General President since 2003 and was re-elected unopposed in 2006. He is on both the General Purposes Committee and the Private Sector Committee of the ICTU.   A native of North County Dublin he worked in the agriculture, construction and local authority sectors before becoming a branch secretary of the Federated Workers Union of Ireland in 1980.  The FWUI later merged with ITGWU to form SIPTU. 
 
 

Mafalda Guerreiro
Mafalda Guerreiro

Mafalda Guerreiro: is a member of the Communist Party of Portugal and works fulltime at the European Parliament office of the group of the European United Left / Nordic Green Left.  She is a member of the Regional Development Committee of the European Parliament and its Fisheries Committee.  She is currently a member of the European United Left / Nordic Green Left Lisbon Treaty strategy committee.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Jimmy Kelly
Jimmy Kelly

Jimmy Kelly: A native of Waterford, Jimmy Kelly became Regional Secretary of the newly merged UNITE trade union in 2007.  Previously he held the position of President of the ATGWU.  Jimmy worked all his life as a glass cutter at Waterford Crystal and became a shop steward in the union at an early stage.  UNITE has roughly 100,000 members in Ireland, split roughtly 50/50 between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
 
 
 
 
 
 

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