DUBLIN, May 4 (Xinhua) -- A two-day international seminar to mark the 200th birthday Karl Marx opened at Maynooth University in Ireland's eastern city of Maynooth on Friday.

Nearly 200 people including researchers and scholars from about 15 countries including the United States, Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain attended the opening session of the seminar.

Some local parliamentarians and social activists also participated in the seminar apart from experts and professors from all over Ireland.

Addressing the opening session of the seminar, President of Maynooth University, Philip Nolan, extended a warm welcome to the participants and wished a success of the seminar, which is claimed to be the largest of its kind ever held in the university with a history of over 200 years.

During the two-day seminar, participants will explore Marx's far-reaching contributions to analysis, political practice, the ways in which his life and work helped shape history and culture around the world, said organizers.

They will also discuss how people can understand the legacy and ongoing relevance of Marx today, in a world which has changed so much and how Marxism can continue to contribute intellectually and practically to critique, understanding and transformation, in Ireland and globally, they said.

The seminar was held in the forms of plenary sessions, parallel sessions and roundtable discussions on a rotating basis. Keynote speakers for the first day of the seminar included Toni Negri, a well-known Italian activist and theorist, who delivered a speech entitled Beginning again from Marx.

Jodi Dean, a professor from William Smith Colleges of the United States, will be among one of the keynote speakers on the second day of the event, who will deliver a speech titled Theory of the Comrade.

The seminar will also organize a Freddy Engels Memorial Buffet to commemorate the historical contributions made by Friedrich Engels, the close friend of Marx and co-author of The Communist Manifesto.

Karl Marx was born in the German city of Trier on May 5, 1818.