The RTE Radio 1 History Show and Hinterland/Kells will collaborate again this year (having teamed up for Gallipoli100 in 2015) in the first History Show Festival. A dozen leading historians will participate as the festival commemorates the centenary of 1918 and the fiftieth anniversary of 1968.
In our ‘Remembering 1918’ strand Sergeant Paul Maher will examine changing roles of the RIC and the DMP at the end of the Great War. Dr. Emma Lyons of UCD will discuss the role of women in that conflict. RTE presenter Dr. David McCullagh will highlight the increasingly important role of Eamon de Valera, subject of his recent biography, in Irish politics in 1918, while Dr. Ida Milne of TCD will assess the impact on Ireland of the appalling influenza pandemic of that year. Professor Pauric Travers emeritus professor at DCU will examine the course of the Conscription crisis in April 1918 and beyond, while Liz Gillis, History Show researcher will underline the role played by women in the fight against involuntary enlistment. Broadcaster, archivist and History Show contributor Catriona Crowe will assess the role that Irish suffragists played in the struggle for votes for women, and Professor Roy Foster will look at some of the most significant and influential members of the younger generation of Irish nationalist activists in 1918.
In ‘Remembering 1968’ Catriona Crowe will celebrate the ‘second wave’ feminists of the Women’s Liberation Movement. History Show presenter Dr. Myles Dungan will look at the pivotal 1968 U.S. Presidential election, fought on the hustings and the streets of America. Professor Glen Gendzel from San Jose State University will discuss some of the truisms and the myths of the Vietnam War. Berkeley, California historian Tony Bucher will cast his eye over the radical and subversive underground press in the Bay Area of the late 1960s. He will also mark the legalisation of cannabis in California by looking at the state’s relationship with ‘weed’ in the 1960s.
In addition to our themed events Trim-based historian Noel French will be talking about his new book on the history of our own precious hinterland, Discovering the Boyne Valley.
On the morning of 28 June 1922, Dubliners woke to the sound of the National Army shelling the Four Courts, Headquarters of the anti-Treaty IRA Executive. Three days later, the garrison surrendered - the Four Courts lay in ruins, the Public Records Office was destroyed. Historian Liz Gillis will discuss the opening battle (for the capital city) of the Irish Civil War. It was eight days of a war that lasted eleven months but which affected this country for generations.
After the initial phase of conventional warfare the conflict moved into a chapter reminiscent of the guerrilla/official reprisal struggle of the War of Independence. While Anti-Treaty Republican forces were responsible for atrocities it was the Free State which wreaked most havoc with 77 executions, extra-judicial killings (Ballyseedy) and unsanctioned murder (Oriel House). It was this phase of the conflict that led to the real bitterness that persisted for decades.
After the retreat from Dublin of the anti-Treaty IRA Ireland witnessed the first conventional warfare on its soil since the Williamite/Jacobite war of the late 17th century. Artillery and seaborne landings, briefly replaced ‘hit and run’ guerilla tactics as the two sides tried to take or hold territory. UCC historian John Borgonovo describes this opening phase of the bitter Civil War.
Almost 200 alleged civilian spies were killed by the IRA during the War of Independence and these killings have been one of the most controversial aspects of the conflict debated by historians for decades. By contrast very little is known about the intelligence struggle between the Republican and Free State Forces during the Irish Civil War. Dr Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc will examine the approximately 20 alleged civilian spies executed by the Anti-Treaty IRA to see what their deaths can tell us about that conflict.
During the Irish War of Independence and Civil War over one hundred people were 'disappeared' by the IRA and the British forces. These victims were executed in secret and their bodies were hidden in fields, bogs and rivers. Dr Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc's lecture will explore the history of this phenomenon in Ireland with a focus on the IRA victims who were 'disappeared' in County Meath.
Dr Andrew Sneddon will plunge you into the world of the European witch-hunts that claimed 50,000 lives between 1450 and 1782, and tell stories of Irish witches and witch trials. Vividly told with contemporary artwork, we will encounter along the way, wise women, the demonically possessed, and poltergeists, as well as the great Scottish witch-hunter King James VI/I.
The Bad Bridget Project tells the stories of those Irish women who emigrated to North America in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and ended up on the wrong side of the law. Hear about the Irish women who were behind bars for being drunk, stealing, fighting and even murder. These are the emigration stories that are not often told, tales of loneliness and despair, discrimination and drink but also of resilience, survival and determination.
Award winning singer/songwriter Michael Brunnock returns to Kells with a very special concert of new songs composed in response to the Decade of Centenaries. Inspired by Roger Casement, Ernie O’Malley and Brunnock's own family stories, exploring the Irish experience from the rising through to the civil war. Winner of an Italian Oscar, the David Di Donatello Award, for his work with David Byrne, on the Sean Penn movie This Must Be the Place, Michael possesses an extraordinary voice, his powerful melodies and harmonies are driven by a strong personal vision drawing the listener in with an authentic vision and Irish soul. Michael will be joined by some very special guests on the night, blending some of Ireland's top Rock and Trad musicians, making this evening of music & song one not to be missed!
A whirlwind tour of world history through the eyes of men and women from Ireland, great and otherwise, who have left their indelible mark on global history over the centuries past. As BBC History Magazine put it, Turtle will give people “a new sense of the many ways in which Ireland has interacted with the world beyond its shores, and of some of the extraordinary careers that have resulted.”
The Landscapes of Revolution Project (www.landscapesofrevolution.com) was established to raise awareness of Ireland’s revolutionary-era archaeology through engagement with local communities. In this special tour, the largely untapped potential of this surviving physical landscape of revolution will be demonstrated by exploring the War of Independence and Civil War in Kells. Participants will also be shown some of the techniques and methodologies the project employs to identify and map these vulnerable sites.