Monthly Archives: February 2017

‘Coming and going’ — Ireland and migration today

@ National Library, Kildare Street
7pm Tues 21 Feb

(In conjunction with Beyond Leaving at the National Photographic Archive, Temple Bar)

In the c. 120 years after the Great Hunger, half of the people born in Ireland ended up somewhere else. In previous centuries there had been waves of inward migration — Vikings, Normans, English, Scots, Huguenots, etc. But Ireland is not unique — the history of humanity has been a history of migration, of coming and going. The Celtic Tiger years witnessed a net inflow of people to Ireland for the first time in centuries, whilst its collapse has seen a revival of emigration, the subject of David Monahan’s current photographic exhibition. Ffor this round table discussion, History Ireland editor, Tommy Graham, was joined by Mary Corcoran (Prof. of Sociology, Maynooth University), Susan McKeown (Grammy Award-winning singer & migrants’ rights activist), Joanna Siewierska (PolsksaEire festival).

Ireland & the UK from 1916 to Brexit

@ the London Irish Centre, Camden.
7pm Wed 25 January 2017 .

At the heart of the past year’s commemoration of the 1916 Rising has been consideration of Ireland’s evolving relationship with the United Kingdom — from being an integral part of it, to Home Rule devolution (realised in the North but not in the South), to Commonwealth dominion, sovereign republic (albeit partitioned), and finally co-members of the European Union. An implicit assumption in this exercise has been the contrast between an Irish state of flux and the apparent stability of the UK. Brexit has now turned this assumption on its head, with major implications for the European Union, the Northern Ireland peace process and the UK itself.

To discuss these and related matters History Ireland editor Tommy Graham was joined for a lively round table discussion by Dan Mulhall (Irish ambassador to the UK), Mary Kenny (writer & journalist), Michael Kennedy (Royal Irish Academy’s Documents on Irish Foreign Policy), and Martin Mansergh (vice-chair of the Advisory Group on Centenary Commemorations).