Monthly Archives: March 2018

John Redmond: his life and legacy

Recorded on Wednesday, 14 March 2018 at 7pm
@ The Officers’ Mess, Custume Barracks, Athlone

March 2018 marks the centenary of the death of John Redmond, leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, which had dominated party political life since the heyday of Parnell in the 1880s. It would all but be wiped out by Sinn Féin in the December 1918 General Election. Was that inevitable? To what extent was Redmond responsible for this change or was it due to circumstances beyond his control? Is it fair in hindsight to judge Redmond on the final few years of a long and eventful career? Was the Treaty settlement of 1921 to a large degree ‘Home Rule for slow learners’ in any case?

To discuss these and related questions History Ireland editor, Tommy Graham, was joined by Martin O’Donoghue (National Library of Ireland), Brian Hanley (University of Edinburgh), and Dermot Meleady (Redmond’s biographer).

This History Ireland Hedge School was made possible by the support provided by the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht

Cinema in Revolutionary Ireland

Recorded on Tuesday 27 February at 7pm in the National Library, Kildare Street, Dublin 2

In Ireland in the revolutionary period, cinema was the latest form of mass entertainment. Previously ignored as a pernicious working class fad both by the British authorities and by their nationalist opponents, its propaganda potential was quickly recognised; in 1916 the British government sponsored the production of the documentary, The Battle of the Somme, which played in cinemas across Ireland; in 1917, within hours of the event, the Bohemian Cinema in Phibsborough screened footage of Thomas Ashe’s funeral. What effect, if any, did such interventions have on public opinion? How did both sides use the new medium?

To discuss these and related matters History Ireland editor, Tommy Graham, was joined by  Kevin Rockett, Ciara Chambers, Denis Condon and Joanne Carroll.