26 March 2015: History Ireland ‘Hedge School’: ‘Remembering 1916’, Ulster Museum, Belfast
On 26 March 2015 a History Ireland ‘Hedge School’ debate took place in the Ulster Museum, Belfast, as part of a free public evening of debate on 1916. While the Easter Rising and the battle of the Somme, both of which took place in 1916, are important historical events in their own right, their significance also lies in how they came to be understood as iconic moments in the emergence of the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland. This Hedge School explored how these events have been constructed, mythologised and contested over the past one hundred years, and the panel also considered how we should mark the upcoming centenary of both events. The debate was chaired by History Ireland editor Tommy Graham, and the panelists were Guy Beiner (Ben-Guriion University of the Negev), Dominic Bryan (Queens’ University Belfast), Jason Burke (East Belfast and the Great War), Tom Hartley (Sinn Féin), and Roisín Higgins (Teeside University).
From History Ireland: Charles Townshend on the Easter Rising and Timothy Bowman on the Irish at the Somme.