Monthly Archives: May 2017

Ireland and Europe: then and now

@ Micheál Ó Clérigh Summer School, Franciscan Friary, Rossnowlagh, Co. Donegal

3.45pm Sat 13 May

Declán de Breadún (Irish Times), Alan Titley (UCC), John McCafferty (UCD), Mark Empey (NUIG) joined Hedge School master Tommy Graham of History Ireland to debate this topic

Ireland and the United States from 1917 to Trump

@ the National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street
recorded at 7pm Tuesday 23 May

The centenary of the entry of the United States into the WWI provides a timely opportunity to review the ‘unique relationship’ with Ireland. But it was not always close or cordial. The 1916 Rising had cast Ireland’s ‘exiled children in America’ in the role of potential subversives, in league with Imperial Germany. After the war, to their great disappointment, Irish nationalists discovered that President Woodrow Wilson’s advocacy of self-determination did not apply to the subject nations of the victorious Allied powers. Relations reached their nadir with US ambassador David Gray’s ‘American note’ of February 1944, implicitly threatening violation of Ireland’s neutrality unless Dublin’s Axis missions were expelled. Things only improved in the wake of JFK’s 1963 visit, and, notwithstanding continuing popular opposition to US foreign policy, particularly during the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bushe, reached their high-point with the ‘shamrock diplomacy’ of the Clinton era. But where stands the ‘unique relationship’ in the wake of the election of the xenophobic and protectionist Donald Trump? To discuss these and related matters join History Ireland editor, Tommy Graham, fwas joined by Michael Kennedy (RIA’s Documents on Irish Foreign Policy), Bernadette Whelan (UL), Patrick Geoghegan (TCD) and John Borgonovo (UCC).

Ireland, the United States and the war at sea, 1917

1917 was the pivotal year of the First World War. At its outset German U-boats were inflicting huge damage on Allied shipping, while in the land war the loss of one ally, Russia, was not compensated by the gain of another, the United States. How did the Allies swing the balance in their favour by the year’s end, particularly at sea? How central was Ireland (and Cork in particular) in this conflict? To address these and related questions History Ireland editor, Tommy Graham was joined by John Borgonovo (UCC), Michael Kennedy ( RIA’s Documents on Irish Foreign Policy), Jennifer Wellington (UCD) and Michael Martin (Titanic Trail).

Recorded @ CAFE Readers’ and Writers’ Festival, Cobh Library, Co. Cork
7.30pm Thur 4 May
(100th anniversary of the arrival of the US navy into Cork)
This History Ireland Hedge School was supported by the Commemorations Unit, DAHRRG

‘Now you see them…now you don’t’: women in the Irish Revolution

@ Mechanics Institute, Middle Street, Galway
(in association with the Women’s History Association of Ireland)
Recorded on Friday 21 April at 8pm

One of the features of last year’s 1916 centenary commemorations was the extent to which the role of women in the national movement was acknowledged. Their role intensified in the immediate aftermath of the Rising, particularly since hundreds of male activists were in jail. Why then were women subsequently marginalized? Did they voluntarily step back into the shadows or were they elbowed aside? To discuss these and related matters History Ireland editor, Tommy Graham was joined by Mary McAuliffe (UCD), Linda Connolly (NUI Maynooth), Elaine Sisson (IADT, Dún Laoghaire), and Conor McNamara (NUIG).