History Ireland

recorded @ National Photographic Archive, Temple Bar
pm Tuesday 4 December 2018

History Ireland editor, Tommy Graham, was joined by a panel of experts — Brian Hanley, Liz Gillis, Niamh Puirséil — for a discussion to coincide with the National Library’s photographic exhibition covering the turbulent years of 1918 and 1919. Covering the end of the First World War, the suffragette movement, the global flu pandemic, the first meeting of Dáil Éireann and the outbreak of the War of Independence.

Exhibition open Mon–Sat 10am–5pm
Sunday 12 –5pm
Closes May 2019
 

In Association with Dublin Port
Venue: Dublin Port HQ, Alexander Road, East Wall 
Time: 2.30PM – 3.30PM 

The popularity of Quinnipiac University’s travelling exhibition, Coming Home: Art & the Great Hunger(opening in An tSeaneaglais [Glassworks], Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin, Derry, in January 2019) and the recent release of the film Black ’47have renewed popular interest in the Great Hunger. For a reassessment of Europe’s greatest demographic crisis of the nineteenth century, History Ireland editor Tommy Graham was joined  by authors John Gibney (ed, TheGreat Irish Famine, Pen & Sword/History Ireland, 2018), Patricia Byrne (The Preacher and the Prelate: The Achill Mission Colony and the Battle for Souls in Famine Ireland, Irish Academic Press, 2018), and Peter Gray (‘The Great Irish Famine, 1845–1850’ in J.Kelly (ed.) The Cambridge History of Ireland, Vol.3 Cambridge University Press, 2018).

recorded @ Bedford Hall, Dublin Castle
2.30pm Friday 2 November 2018

A hundred years ago women in Ireland (then part of the UK) got the vote. To mark a century of women’s subsequent involvement in politics and public life, Dublin Castle is hosting a special exhibition in the Coach House. In conjunction, History Ireland editor Tommy Graham hosted a Hedge School for teachers and schools with Sinéad McCoole (curator), Deirdre Mac Mathúna (President, History Teachers’Association of Ireland), Mary O’Rourke (former Minister for Education) and Joe Lee (Professor Emeritus, New York University).

Supported by the Commemorations Unit of the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.

Recorded on Friday, 27 APRIL 2018 at 7pm
Venue: @ CAFE Readers’ and Writers’ Festival, Cobh Library, Co. Cork

The twentieth century was the century of mass death and yet, contrary to popular perception, the greatest killer of all time was neither Hitler nor Stalin, but was an illness often mistakenly associated with the common cold—epidemic influenza. It infected one billion people around the globe and may have killed approximately 100 million.

To discuss its effects in Ireland and worldwide, History Ireland editor Tommy Graham was joined by  Ida Milne, Guy Beiner, Patricia Marsh and Andrew McCarthy for a lively and informed discussion on this topic.

Sponsored by the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht

Recorded on: Monday, 23 APRIL 2018 at 7pm. Venue: @ Liberty Hall, Dublin 1

On 23 April 1918 the Irish Trades Union Congress, and the ITGWU in particular, called a one-day general strike against the imposition of conscription and brought the country to a standstill. While it was the largest strike to date in Irish history, it was, uniquely, fully endorsed by both the employers and the Catholic Church. Support for the strike in the heavily industrialised but unionist-dominated Belfast was conspicuous by its absence.

To discuss these contradictions and other related matters, History Ireland editor Tommy Graham was joined by Padraig Yeates, Sarah Ann Buckley, Thomas Morrissey and Ethel Buckley.

Sponsored by the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht

Recorded @ Kilkenny Medieval Mile Museum on Friday, 16 March 2018 at 6.30pm

The difference between history and archaeology is the difference between Neanderthal and Homo sapiens. The latter is more technologically advanced, and the former, although casually misunderstood, nevertheless boasts a bigger brain. Yet, it is hard to imagine one without the other’.

This tongue-cheek observation is attributed to Bethany Dean, then an undergraduate archaeology student at the University of Winchester. But what is the relationship between the two disciplines in developing our understanding of the past? How do they interact (if at all)? To discuss these and related matters History Ireland editor, Tommy Graham, was joined for a no-holds (or holes!)-barred discussion with medieval historians Seán Duffy (TCD, Atlas of Irish History) and Matthew Stout (DCU, Early Medieval Ireland 431–1169) and archaeologists Geraldine Stout (Newgrange and the Bend of the Boyne) and Ian Doyle (Heritage Council).

This event was run in conjunction with Kilkenny Tradfest and supported by Costello’s Brew Company.

Recorded on Wednesday, 14 March 2018 at 7pm
@ The Officers’ Mess, Custume Barracks, Athlone

March 2018 marks the centenary of the death of John Redmond, leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, which had dominated party political life since the heyday of Parnell in the 1880s. It would all but be wiped out by Sinn Féin in the December 1918 General Election. Was that inevitable? To what extent was Redmond responsible for this change or was it due to circumstances beyond his control? Is it fair in hindsight to judge Redmond on the final few years of a long and eventful career? Was the Treaty settlement of 1921 to a large degree ‘Home Rule for slow learners’ in any case?

To discuss these and related questions History Ireland editor, Tommy Graham, was joined by Martin O’Donoghue (National Library of Ireland), Brian Hanley (University of Edinburgh), and Dermot Meleady (Redmond’s biographer).

This History Ireland Hedge School was made possible by the support provided by the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht

Recorded on Tuesday 27 February at 7pm in the National Library, Kildare Street, Dublin 2

In Ireland in the revolutionary period, cinema was the latest form of mass entertainment. Previously ignored as a pernicious working class fad both by the British authorities and by their nationalist opponents, its propaganda potential was quickly recognised; in 1916 the British government sponsored the production of the documentary, The Battle of the Somme, which played in cinemas across Ireland; in 1917, within hours of the event, the Bohemian Cinema in Phibsborough screened footage of Thomas Ashe’s funeral. What effect, if any, did such interventions have on public opinion? How did both sides use the new medium?

To discuss these and related matters History Ireland editor, Tommy Graham, was joined by  Kevin Rockett, Ciara Chambers, Denis Condon and Joanne Carroll.