Monday 29 April 2013

Next Hedge School: Too many histories?

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of History Ireland magazine, a special Hedge School debate will be held on 16 May to discuss the question: Has Ireland ‘too many histories’?

The roller-coaster generation has witnessed the end of the Troubles in the North, the rise of the Celtic Tiger… and its catastrophic collapse. How has scholarship of the ‘revolutionary decade’ — the Home Rule crisis, First World War, 1916 Rising, War of Independence, Civil War and Partition — evolved over that period? What insights has the burgeoning of women’s history brought to the debate? Given that we have two jurisdictions on this island, should we have one history or two?

History Ireland magazine editor, Tommy Graham will be acting ringmaster at the roundtable discussion and will be joined by some of the island's foremost historians – Prof. Joe Lee, Prof. Diarmaid Ferriter, Mary Cullen and Éamon Phoenix – to discuss these issues.

The theme is explained by the organisers, as follows:

When Alfred Cope, a former British assistant undersecretary in Dublin Castle, was approached in the 1940s to give a statement to the Bureau of Military History (BMH) he refused, saying ‘Ireland has too many histories: she deserves a rest’.

Date: Thursday 16 May
Venue: RCPI, 6 Kildare Street, Dublin 2.
Time: 7pm.
Cost: Free

Note: Seats will be allocated on a first-come basis, but you can reserve a seat by email.

This event is organised in association with the Irish Association for Cultural, Social & Economic Relations (marking their 75th anniversary) and is supported by the Reconciliation Fund of the Dept. of Foreign Affairs and Trade.