Comhdháil an Chraoibhín was founded 18 years ago to celebrate and remember the life and achievements of Dr. Douglas Hyde. His legacy to Ireland is a complex one, touching as it does on many aspects of culture, politics and identity. Ireland today is at a crossroads in its political and social development, just as it was more than a century ago when Hyde began to involve himself in the matter of Ireland. Our globalised economy has brought us to the point where we have begun again to ask searching questions about our present and our future, about the kind of civil society we might build for ourselves here on the island of Ireland. Our chosen theme this year is “A Land Inherited”, and the singers, musicians, poets, architects, folklorists and others who will take part in the conference will address themselves to our duty of care to the land that has been handed down to us, the land whose future is now in our hands. We name ourselves and our world in song and story, this is how we remember ourselves, who we are and what we have come from. We hope that this conference will honour tradition while suggesting ways in which we might make ourselves new again, fit for our future on this Atlantic island.