On 26 April 2023, Dr Síobhra Aiken provided the annual William English Lecture to the Old Athlone Society in Lough Ree Yacht Club. The lecture forms part of Westmeath County Council’s Historian in Residence programme for 2023. Historian in Residence Dr Ian Kenneally provides a brief introduction to the lecture:

Summary

In this lecture, Síobhra Aiken reflects on the codes of silence surrounding the Irish Civil War. She considers the many civil war testimonies that were published, particularly in the 1920s and 1930s, but which were overlooked by contemporaries and subsequent generations. Among the figures discussed in the lecture is Anthony O’Connor, a Westmeath-based soldier in the National Army, whose later novel He’s Somewhere in There provides a remarkable fictionalised version of a young recruit's activities during the Irish Civil War.

Speaker

Dr Síobhra Aiken is a lecturer in the Department of Irish and Celtic Studies at Queen’s University Belfast and has published widely on the social and cultural history of twentieth-century Ireland. A former Fulbright Scholar, her publications include the monograph Spiritual Wounds: Trauma, Testimony and the Irish Civil War (Irish Academic Press, 2022) and the edited volumes The Men Will Talk to Me: Ernie O’Malley’s Interviews with the Northern Divisions (Merrion Press, 2018) and An Chuid Eile Díom Féin: Aistí le Máirtín Ó Direáin (Cló Iar-Chonnacht, 2018). Her current research project, funded by the Royal Irish Academy, considers multilingual responses to Ireland’s revolutionary period.

The forty-five minute documentary, researched and written by Dr Ian Kenneally, Historian in Residence with Westmeath County Council, and produced by Midlands 103, looks at four stories from the midlands during the Irish Civil War: an ambush in Glasson in August 1922; the shooting of Patrick Mulrennan in Athlone in October 1922; the civil war diaries of Alice Ginnell; and the state-sanctioned executions that took place in Athlone's Custume Barracks on 20 January 1923. It also contains a never-before broadcast interview related to those executions. This documentary was originally broadcast by Midlands 103 on 26 December 2022.

In the latest edition of our podcast series, Historian in Residence Ian Kenneally speaks with Dr Paul Hughes in the second of two episodes devoted to the remarkable political career of Westmeath’s Laurence Ginnell. The second episode covers the period 1918-1923. During 1920 and 1921, Ginnell was a Dáil Éireann representative in the USA and Argentina. He opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921.

In the latest edition of our podcast series, Historian in Residence Ian Kenneally speaks with Dr Paul Hughes in the first of two episodes devoted to the remarkable political career of Westmeath’s Laurence Ginnell. The first episode covers the period 1908-1918, a time during which Ginnell established his reputation in the British House of Commons before joining Sinn Féin after the 1916 Rising.

This episode (and earlier editions) can also be found on anchor.fm/wcchistorian

More information on Ginnell’s career, as well as that of his wife, Alice King, can be found on Westmeath County Council’s Decade of Centenaries blog.

This episode's guest, Dr Paul Hughes, is a Mullingar-based journalist who holds a PhD in History from Queen’s University, Belfast (2018). His doctoral thesis explored the Irish republican activism of Laurence Ginnell (1852-1923). From March to July 2021, he held the post of Westmeath County Council’s Decade of Centenaries Historian in Residence. He works as sports editor with the Westmeath Examiner and contributes regular history columns to the newspaper.

In the latest edition of our podcast series, Historian in Residence Ian Kenneally speaks with Dr Anne Marie O’Brien, about the role played by Alice King (later Ginnell) in Cumann na mBan, Sinn Féin and as part of Dáil Éireann’s international publicity efforts during the War of Independence.

Alice Ginnell, born near Mullingar in 1882, was a branch organiser for Cumann na mBan and an active member of Sinn Féin, working as the election agent for Laurence Ginnell, her husband, during his successful campaign in the 1918 general election. She would subsequently work with Laurence Ginnell as part of his publicity and diplomatic activities in the USA and Argentina. While Alice Ginnell is a relatively unknown figure, more information can be found in the following articles: a Westmeath County Council blog post from 2020 written by Ann Marie O’Brien and an entry to mná100 which focusses on research by Dr Paul Hughes into Ginnell’s life (and the lives of other Westmeath figures).

Ann Marie O’Brien graduated in 2017 from the University of Limerick with a Ph.D. in history which was funded by the Irish Research Council. Currently, she is a tutor and lecturer at Maynooth University. She has published nationally and internationally on women and Irish diplomacy and her book, The Ideal diplomat? Women and Irish foreign affairs, 1946-90, was published by Four Courts Press in 2020. She is currently undertaking a new research project, The Irish Diplomatic Oral History Project which interviews retired diplomats from the Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade about their careers and experiences in the Irish diplomatic corps.

In the latest edition of our podcast series, Historian in Residence Ian Kenneally speaks with author and historian Dr John Burke. It is the first of two episodes which discuss Roscommon during the years 1917-1921. Of course, there are many crossovers and connections between Roscommon and Westmeath, particularly through areas such as Athlone.

John Burke MA, PhD is a graduate of the National University of Ireland, Galway. As well as having authored numerous articles on the years 1900-23, he has written two books dedicated to the Irish revolutionary period – ‘Athlone 1900-1923: politics, revolution and civil war’ (Dublin, 2015) and ‘Roscommon: the Irish revolution, 1912-23’, which was published by Four Courts Press in September 2021.

More details on the War of Independence can be found at the Westmeath County Council Blog.

In the latest edition of our podcast series, Historian in Residence Ian Kenneally speaks with author and historian Dr John Burke. It is the first of two episodes which discuss Roscommon during the years 1917-1921. Of course, there are many crossovers and connections between Roscommon and Westmeath, particularly through areas such as Athlone.

John Burke MA, PhD is a graduate of the National University of Ireland, Galway. As well as having authored numerous articles on the years 1900-23, he has written two books dedicated to the Irish revolutionary period – ‘Athlone 1900-1923: politics, revolution and civil war’ (Dublin, 2015) and ‘Roscommon: the Irish revolution, 1912-23’, which was published by Four Courts Press in September 2021.

More details on the War of Independence can be found at the Westmeath County Council Blog.

In the latest edition of our podcast series, Ian Kenneally speaks with Zoë Reid, Senior Conservator in the National Archives of Ireland, and Dr John Gibney of the Royal Irish Academy about the upcoming exhibition: ‘The Treaty, 1921: Records from the Archives’.

The exhibition gives the public an opportunity to see some of the most significant historical documents held by the National Archives. It will open in Dublin Castle on the 6 December 2021 and run until 27 March 2022. This will be the first time that many of the relevant papers from the Treaty negotiations, including the Treaty document itself, will be shown to the public. The exhibition is presented by the National Archives in partnership with the Royal Irish Academy.

More details on the War of Independence can be found at the Westmeath County Council Blog.

In 1921, a team led by Charles-Howard Bury, an Irish explorer and veteran of the First World War, entered Tibet from India with the goal of mapping Mount Everest/Chomolungma for the first time. The team, which contained renowned mountaineers such as George Leigh Mallory, also hoped to discover a route to the summit of the world's tallest mountain. Frank Nugent, historian and deputy leader of the successful Irish expedition to Mount Everest in 1993, describes the challenges that faced the 1921 team. The podcast is hosted by Ian Kenneally, Historian in Residence with Westmeath County Council. More information on the expedition can be found at everest1921.com.

In our third Westmeath Decade of Centenaries podcast, Dr Paul Hughes speaks to Marika MacCarvill, granddaughter of  Eileen MacCarvill (née McGrane). Eileen McGrane went to UCD and became a leading officer in the Dublin  university’s Cumann na mBan branch, but became best known for her close  working relationship with Michael Collins as his private secretary and  trusted intelligence confidante. Less known is the fact that Eileen was a native of Killucan, and a  former student of Loreto College, Mullingar – making her one of  Westmeath’s strongest connections to the revolutionary period.

More details on the War of Independence can be found at the Westmeath County Council Blog.