Contributor:

Dr Peter Leary

Talk Title:

Life on the line: Partition at the Border

Talk Synopsis:

This talk explores how Partition affected the everyday life of border communities. It describes the ‘piecemeal and… protracted’ process by which the new boundary was established and how ‘it ruptured old connections… but still needed to be crossed.’ It looks at the extent of smuggling and the development of a ‘frontier bureaucracy’ and also how the Irish border continued ‘to be stalked by the very violence of which it was itself a product.’ It suggests that ‘the pain and irritation and… fury of partition seemed to grow a little dimmer’ by the end of the twentieth century and that by ‘the start of this millennium the border was more permeable than at any point since 1922.’ And it concludes with an assessment of Brexit’s impact on the Irish border, noting that whilst it remains one of ‘the many divisive and contested legacies’ of Partition, it ‘continues to be characterised by interconnection and exchange.’

Short Biography:

Peter Leary is a Vice Chancellor’s Fellow in History at Oxford Brookes University.

Further Reading:

Partitioned lives: the Irish borderlands – Catherine Nash, Brian Graham and Bryonie Reid

Contributor:

Dr Cormac Moore

Talk Title:

Sir Ernest Clark - 'Midwife to the New Province of Ulster'

Talk Synopsis:

This talk explores the role of Sir Ernest Clark in creating the administrative structures for the Northern Ireland government. It describes the background to his appointment as Assistant Under-Secretary to Ireland in September 1920, his relations with civil service colleagues in Dublin and unionist politicians and the challenges that he faced in establishing ‘government departments… at a time when the political environment in Ireland was extremely volatile’. It suggests that whilst Sir Ernest Clark is now a ‘largely forgotten figure’ he was ‘one of the main architects in giving the new Northern Ireland entity tangible form.’ It also looks at some of the security risks that Clark faced during his time in Belfast, his efforts to deal with community tensions and the affection that he came to feel for Northern Ireland – a place that he later described as having become ‘written across my heart and life’.

Short Biography:

Dr Cormac Moore is an historian with Dublin City Council’s Decade of Commemorations Programme.

Further Reading:

Birth of the Border: The Impact of Partition in Ireland – Cormac Moore

Contributor:

Professor Jennifer Todd

Talk Title:

Community, church and culture in boundary-making

Talk Synopsis:

This talk explores how partition ‘crystallised communities, empowered churches [and] slowed the process of cultural change’ on both sides of the border. It describes the ‘complex cultural mosaic’ that existed before partition and how much of this complexity was ‘transformed…‘into a sharp territorial line’ that ‘turned the cultural mosaic into solidary communities divided one from another on religious, national and political lines’. It suggests that ‘unionist and nationalist ideas and values were further simplified’ in the post-partition period and that whilst there were ‘areas of permeability in each society’, these ‘did not change the divisions’ and that the ‘new political systems stably reproduced ethno-religious divisions’ in ways that were ‘not seriously shaken until after the second world war.’ It also looks at social, economic and political change across the last 100yrs, including the recent effects of Brexit and suggests that a key legacy of partition has been ‘a failure of each to understand the other.’

Short Biography:

Jennifer Todd is Emeritus Professor in the School of Politics and International Relations, University College Dublin, Fellow of the Geary Research Institute, Research Director of the Institute for British-Irish Studies at the University College Dublin and Member of the Royal Irish Academy.

Further Reading:

Protestants in a Catholic State: Ireland’s Privileged Minority – Kurt Bowen

Contributor:

Professor Alvin Jackson

Talk Title:

Rethinking unionism and partition, 1900-1921

Talk Synopsis:

This talk explores how the partition of Ireland was ‘an evolving set of events, rather than a single act.’ It describes the ‘long-term drift within Irish unionist politics… towards a local, northern predominance’. And it looks at how partition changed from being a ‘tactical ploy’ for unionists to a ‘negotiating goal’ and how what had been intended as a ‘soft border between different parts of the British imperial world was… displaced by a newly minted international frontier.’ It suggests that partition ‘underlines the operation of the law of unintended consequences in Irish politics’ and explains how it led to the division of Ireland and its people and also ‘the division of unionism itself.’

Short Biography:

Alvin Jackson is Richard Lodge Professor of History at the University of Edinburgh. He is an honorary member of the Royal Irish Academy.

Further Reading:

Partition in Ireland, India and Palestine: Theory and Practice – T.G. Fraser

Contributor:

Professor Jane Ohlmeyer

Talk Title:

Partition: imperial contexts

Talk Synopsis:

This talk explores ‘the imperial contexts of partition and… the interconnections between Ireland and India’. It looks at how the Government of Ireland Act ‘formed the basis of the legislation that partitioned India and Pakistan’ and the ways in which Irish people facilitated British rule in India. It also describes some of the links between Irish nationalists and their Indian counterparts, suggesting that ‘the Irish… taught the Indians their ABC of freedom fighting’. It details how the ‘shared imperial histories of Ireland and India’ are still apparent in street names, buildings and statues. And it concludes by noting how one of Lord Mountbatten’s last official functions as Governor General of India was with Eamon De Valera and Jawaharlal Nehru – something that Professor Ohlmeyer suggests was ‘rather fitting… given the part played by Ireland in the breakup of the British Empire.’

Short Biography:

Professor Jane Ohlmeyer is Erasmus Smith's Professor of Modern History at Trinity College Dublin and current Director of the Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Research Institute

Further Reading:

Ireland, India and the Empire: 1780-1914 – C. A. Bayly

Contributor:

Professor Richard English

Talk Title:

The IRA and the Partition of Ireland

Talk Synopsis:

This talk explores the ‘substantial and complex politics that lay behind the IRA’s violence’. It focusses on the views and outlook of Ernie O’Malley and Peadar O’Donnell and suggests that there was a paradox inherent in their politics inasmuch as what was ‘alluring to the followers of Irish republicanism’ was ‘off-putting and repellent to those of a unionist tradition’. It also looks at the politics of the Provisional IRA and suggests that violence (from whatever source) had the effect of deepening polarisation and division ‘on this island and these islands more broadly’. And it concludes by making a case for ‘historical and contemporary empathy’ and the benefits of a ‘patient and listening approach’ to the concerns and experiences of others.

Short Biography:

Richard English is Professor of Politics at Queen's University Belfast. His books include the award-winning studies Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA and Irish Freedom: The History of Nationalism in Ireland. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, a Member of the Royal Irish Academy, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Further Reading:

Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA – Richard English

Contributor:

Professor Henry Patterson

Talk title:

Social Class: A Family’s Story

Talk Synopsis:

This talk explores the central role of social class in determining people’s life chances and experiences in Northern Ireland in the pre-Troubles period. It draws on the story of Henry Patterson’s own family and describes how it was affected by social and economic change, community divisions and world affairs. It also looks at the effect of WW2 on his father’s political outlook and how ‘like many servicemen’ he had ‘his horizons widened and his politics radicalised’; the ‘great social reforms introduced by the Labour government after 1945’; his father’s involvement in trade unionism and labour politics; class tensions in Bangor; and the role played by ‘the labourist tradition’ of his father’s generation in erecting what Frank Wright has described as ‘barriers of restraint against the real possibilities of madness’.

Short Biography:

Henry Patterson is Emeritus Professor of Irish Politics at Ulster University.

Further Reading:

A History of the Northern Ireland Labour Party – Aaron Edwards

Contributor:

Dr Marie Coleman

Talk title:

Partition and southern Irish Protestants

Talk Synopsis:

This talk looks at the decline of the Protestant population in southern Ireland between 1911-26. It makes use of church and official records and draws on the experiences of people living in different areas, including those who left and remained. It suggests that the ‘decline in the number and proportion of non-Catholics in the Irish Free State by 1926’ was a ‘significant demographic change in modern Irish history’ and details the different factors involved - and debate about their effect. It also explores how ‘adapting to life in the new state was not an easy or seamless process’ for many Protestants and notes how this ‘resilient minority’ has made a ‘valuable contribution to a century of life in independent Ireland.’

Short Biography:

Dr Marie Coleman is a Reader in Modern Irish History at Queen's University Belfast.

Further Reading:

Southern Irish Loyalism, 1912-1949 – Brian Hughes and Conor Morrissey (eds.)

Contributor:

Professor Graham Walker

Talk title:

Northern Ireland: the first example of UK devolution

Talk Synopsis:

This talk explores the practical outworking of the Government of Ireland Act (1920), focussing on the experience of the new devolved administration in Belfast and its relationship with Westminster. It looks at the arrangements that were put in place to deal with welfare and security costs in Northern Ireland and the development of a ‘step by step’ policy of alignment with the rest of the UK in areas such as welfare benefits. It describes the effect of discrimination on community relations and politics in Northern Ireland and some of the changes brought about by the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement. And it concludes by suggesting that London’s ‘devolve and forget’ approach to Stormont finds its echo in current relationships with Scotland and Wales and that there remains much in Northern Ireland’s experience of devolution that has ‘great significance for students of UK politics today.’

Short Biography:

Graham Walker is Professor of Political History at Queen's University Belfast.

Further Reading:

Northern Ireland 1921 - 2001: Political Power and Social Classes – Paul Bew, Peter Gibbon & Henry Patterson

Contributor:

Professor Roy Foster

Talk Title:

Partition and the Southern Irish Protestant experience.

Talk Synopsis:

This talk explores the ‘complex and varied’ story of southern Irish Protestantism after 1921. It describes the changing position and status of this community in the pre-partition period and its declining numbers afterwards. It also notes how southern Protestants adapted to life in the new state, the diversity of their experiences and the extent to which ‘Protestant society remained fairly distinct, endogenous and conscious of their difference’ until the 1970s. It suggests that in terms of ‘cultural attitudes and markers, Southern Irish Protestants felt more affinity to Sothern Irish Catholics than to the culture of Northern Protestantism’ and that their experience was a ‘testament to the majority political culture of independent Ireland, the realism and adaptability of its small cohort of Irish citizens, and… the perhaps underestimated degree of tact exercised by both traditions in the new Irish state.’

Short Biography:

R.F. (Roy) Foster is Emeritus Professor of Irish History at Oxford and Emeritus Professor of Irish History and Literature at Queen Mary University of London. He is the author of many prizewinning books and is a well-known cultural commentator and critic.

Further Reading:

Protestant And Irish: The Minority’s Search for Place in Independent Ireland – Ian d’Alton and Ida Milne (eds.)