26 September—8 October 2014: Dublin Festival of History

By Editor | 03/09/2014 |

The Dublin Festival of History ran from 26 September to 8 October 2014. The festival, which is managed by Dublin Public Libraries, was first hosted in 2013, and consisted of a wide range of events: a series of lectures and discussions hosted in Dublin Castle Printworks; walking tours, public talks hosted in Dublin City Hall and across the Dublin Public Libraries’ network; and a number of associated film screenings and exhibitions. Given that 2014 marked the centenary of the outbreak of World War One, a number of the events took the war as a theme. In Dublin Castle on 27 September there was a recital of Irish war poetry hosted by Paul Rouse (UCD). Later that day there was a History Ireland Hedge School debate on ‘Women at war, 1914-18’, hosted by History Ireland editor Tommy Graham, and featuring John Borgonovo (UCC), Liz Gillis (OPW), Mary McAuliffe (UCD), and Fionnuala Walsh (TCD). Later that evening there was be a documentary theatre performance entitled ‘The Green Fields: The road to war’, and on Sunday 28 September John Horne (TCD) conducted a public interview with Hew Strachan (Oxford) on ‘Remembering the Great War’. Alongside these, a number of the lectures being hosted in DPL branch libraries took the First World War as a theme: topics included the outbreak of the war, the role of women in the war, and the history of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers.