June 2022
 June 2022 News and updates on the programme of commemorations relating to the events in Irish history that took place between 1912 and 1923. If you would like to inform us of any suitable material for future newsletters – anything related to the Decade of Centenaries – please feel free to email [email protected]. 1. Lectures and Events (some require registration) Beyond 2022 Ireland’s Virtual Record Treasury The launch of Ireland’s Virtual Treasury will be live-streamed from Dublin Castle on Monday 27th June. Details to be announced – keep an eye on Beyond 2022 and social media channels. —- Irish Military Seminar 6th Irish Military Seminar 4-11 June 2022 The Irish Military Seminar returns with an exciting full programme of lectures this year in venues across the county, including Castletown House, Celbridge, Naas and Newbridge Libraries and Newbridge Town Hall, featuring renowned historians and authors, including Stella Tillyard (Aristocrats and Citizen Lord) and Professor Diarmaid Ferriter, our keynote speaker who will give a talk based on his most recent book, Between Two Hells: The Irish Civil War. “It is not the duty of the historian to lecture the people of the past …. on how they should have done better. The quest should be to understand and contextualise their positions, the lights that guided them and to humanise their dilemmas and the deadly consequences of their decisions.” Prof. Diarmaid Ferriter Join in on Saturday, 4 June at 15.00 in the Long Gallery, one of the most celebrated rooms in Castletown House, for Stella Tillyard’s talk on ‘The World Turned Upside Down: Lord Edward Fitzgerald, the British Army, and the battle for Irish Freedom’. Bring a picnic and take some time to enjoy the grounds of Castletown. Book at www.castletown.ie, cost €10.00. Naas and Newbridge Libraries will host Dr. Tomás Mac Conmara’s bi-lingual talk, The Irish Civil War, and the Memory of a Divided Landscape, on 9 and 10 June. James Durney’s talk Adolf Hitler: My part in his downfall, Mickser Mahon based on his recent book, will be on Tuesday, 7 June in Newbridge Library. One of the highlights of the annual Seminar is the Friday night talk for retired and serving Defence Forces personnel. This year Ranger 22, Ray Goggins, will be in conversation with Declan Power on Friday, 10 June in Riverbank Arts Centre, Newbridge, at 19.30. Copies of both authors’ books will be on sale. All welcome to join us before the event for refreshments. A varied and interesting programme is on offer in the Town Hall (Old Garrison Church), Newbridge on Saturday, 11 June from 09.15, with authors, archaeologists and historians including Paul Duffy (From Carrickfergus to Carcassonne: The Crusade against the Cathars); Dr. Gerri O’Neill (Sex for Secrets? The IRA’s ‘honey-trap’ operation, 1920-21); Dr. Patrick Mulroe (From Confusion to Counter Insurgency: The Irish Security Response to the Outbreak of Violence in Northern Ireland 1969-1972), and Dr. Connie Kelleher (Military and naval tactics and the suppression of historic piracy in Ireland – where it all went wrong). Woodbine Books will be offering a wide range of local, national, and international history publications at Newbridge Town Hall. Free event. Book via https://bit.ly/3kIUbXA Booking is essential for all events. Part of Kildare County Council’s Decade of Commemorations Committee programme, in association with the OPW, Castletown House, Kildare Library & Arts Service, June Fest, and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport, and Media. DETAILS HERE —- Capturing Conflict The War of Independence & Civil War@ Irish Film Institute For the month of June, the Irish Film Institute will be screening films related to the War of Independence and Civil War. This will conclude with a one-day seminar on 24th June. DETAILS & BOOKING HERE —- The Life and Works of W.M. Letts (1882-1972) Winfred Mabel Letts was a poet, playwright and children’s author. Her children’s books including The Story-Spinner (1907) and Naughty Sophia (1912), were very popular and were regularly adapted for Children’s Hour, the BBC Radio show. She was the second woman, after Lady Gregory, to have her plays dramatised by the Abbey Theatre. She worked as a nurse and a masseuse during the First World War and the publication of her war poetry including Hallow-e’en and Poems of War (1916) and The Spires of Oxford and Other Poems (1917) predate the collections of Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen. She is buried in Rathcoole cemetery. This new exhibition, marking the 50th anniversary of the death of W.M. Letts, will be launched by Mayor Peter Kavanagh at the County Library, Tallaght, on Thursday 9 June at 6.30pm. South Dublin Libraries will also host a symposium exploring her life’s work on 9 June from 2pm-5.30pm. All are welcome. Booking advised. DETAILS & BOOKING HERE —- The Irish Civil War Library Talks DETAILS HERE —- The Irish Civil WarNational Conference On 15-18 June, University College Cork will host a national conference to mark the centenary of the Irish Civil War. Supported with funding from the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, the four-day conference is one of the key events in the State’s Decade of Centenaries Programme for 2022. Over 130 scholars will gather on the UCC campus to explore the political, social, cultural, military, and economic dimensions to the Irish Civil War. Proceedings will be open to the public and recorded for viewing in collaboration with RTE.ie. DETAILS & REGISTRATION HERE —- Digital Preservation of Religious Collections: Conversations and Collaborations The Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI) is delighted to announce that registration is now open for DPASSH 2022, the biennial ‘Digital Preservation for the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities’ conference. This year’s conference will be on the topic of ‘Digital Preservation of Religious Collections: Conversations and Collaborations’. This will combine online practical workshops on 27 June with a hybrid-format conference on 29 and 30 June.The keynote speakers for the conference will be: Prof. John McCafferty (University College Dublin); Prof. Fallou Ngom (Boston University); and Dr Niamh Nicghabhann (University of Limerick), who each represent a different area of expertise and knowledge relating to the topic of the conference.Registration for DPASSH 2022 is €38 (€28 DRI members/reduced rate) and entitles you to attend both the workshops and the conference. DETAILS & REGISTRATION HERE —- Four Courts 100 Lecture Series June Lecture Michael Fewer, Caitriona Crowe and Ciaran O’Connor Thursday, 24th June. Launch of the photographic exhibition BOOKING FOR ALL LECTURES HERE —- 2. Exhibitions/Projects The Royal Munster Fusiliers In collaboration with Cork Public Museum, the students of University College Cork Museum Studies programme are launching a new featured exhibition, The Royal Munster Fusiliers: A Forgotten Regiment? to celebrate the centenary of the regiment’s disbandment in July 1922. The Royal Munster Fusiliers was an Irish infantry regiment in the British army that formed in 1881, though their roots can be traced back to India in the 17th century. The regiment’s headquarters was in Tralee and recruits came primarily from counties Cork, Kerry, Limerick and Clare. Irishmen enlisted in the Royal Munster Fusiliers throughout its history for a variety of personal and political reasons and served across four continents. The soldiers were tasked with protecting the British Empire’s interests domestically and in its colonies, particularly the Indian subcontinent. The regiment also served in the Second Boer War (1899-1902) and, perhaps most notably, in the Great War (1914-1918) during which they suffered heavy losses at Etreux, Galipoli, Aubers Ridge and the Somme, amongst others. This exhibition tells their history. The students have been hard at work in the last few months researching the history of the Royal Munster Fusilier regiment. They have been working alongside with museum staff and Gerry White, Island of Ireland Trustee at The Western Front Association. Dan Breen, the curator at Cork Public Museum, has been guiding the students through the process of setting up an exhibition. He says: “In the museum’s 75-year history, we have never held an exhibition on an Irish Regiment before. The Decade of Centenaries Programme has allowed us to focus on events that were often overlooked in the past, such as the Great War or the Irish Regiments in the British Army. The Royal Munster Fusiliers had a long historical connection with the city and county of Cork and we are delighted to bring their story to the public. We hope that this exhibition will kickstart our efforts to make Cork Public Museum an important repository for the study and research of those men who served and died with the regiment and that their stories, experiences and sacrifices will no longer be forgotten.” DETAILS HERE —- The Treaty, 1921: Records from the Archives [Exhibition visiting Cork and Limerick] Cork City Council St. Peter’s Church, North Main St, Cork 9 June – 5 July 2022 Limerick City and County Council Limerick City and County Council buildings, Merchants Quay (Istabraq Hall) 9 – 30 June 2022 EXHIBITION DETAILS HERE —- ‘Intervals of Peace’: The Civil War Prison Art of Alfred McGloughlin A new exhibition of previously unseen Civil War portraits in Kilmainham Gaol Museum 31 March to 25 October 2022 ‘INTERVALS OF PEACE’ a brand new exhibition of previously unseen Civil War portraits by prisoner and artist Alfred McGloughlin. The exhibition opened on Thursday, 31 March and will run to Tuesday, 25 October 2022 at Kilmainham Gaol Museum, Dublin. On 21 October 1922, several months into the Irish Civil War, Alfred McGloughlin was arrested in his home by Free State forces and brought to Wellington Barracks in Dublin. He spent the following year as a political prisoner, first in Wellington Barracks, then Hare Park in the Curragh, before a final stay in Mountjoy Prison from where he was released on 13 October 1923. Although he was an active supporter of the Anti-Treaty side, he was never charged with a specific offence. He experienced periods of severe ill-treatment during his incarceration but, as mentioned in his obituary in 1932, he also found ‘intervals of peace in prison, sketching in watercolours, and filling a portfolio with pencil-drawings of his comrades’. 39 portraits and watercolour sketches of Mountjoy by Alfred McGloughlin will go on public display for the first time in Kilmainham Gaol in a special exhibition to mark the centenary of the Civil War. Alfred McGloughlin was the nephew of 1916 leaders Patrick and William Pearse and grew up in the Pearse household. He later helped in the running of Patrick Pearse’s school, Scoil Éanna. He went on to become a draughtsman with J & C McGloughlin Ltd., a decorative metalwork business owned by his father’s family, and studied art part-time in the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art. McGloughlin also developed an interest in theatre where he wrote and performed in numerous plays. He joined the Irish Volunteers and was involved in the Howth gun-running of 1914. He was Sinn Féin’s director of elections in south Dublin for the 1918 and 1921 elections and stood as a candidate himself during the local elections of 1920. Following his release from prison he set up his own building company. When this business failed, he obtained a position as a draughtsman with the Office of Public Works. He remained active as a political journalist, and was a regular contributor to the republican newspaper ‘An Phoblacht’. His health never recovered from his time in prison and he died from heart disease aged just 44 in 1932. DETAILS HERE —- 3. Podcasts The ‘Belleek/Pettigo triangle’, May/June 1922 As part of the so-called ‘Northern Offensive’, on 27 May 1922, a combined force of pro-Treaty National Army and anti-Treaty IRA occupied the ‘Belleek/Pettigo triangle’, an enclave of Fermanagh/Northern Ireland only accessible over-land through Free State territory. Less than two weeks later they had been ejected by regular British Army troops; the ‘Northern Offensive’ was over. But how serious was it in the first place? Or was it just a ruse to keep the anti-Treaty IRA on-side? To address these and other questions join History Ireland editor, Tommy Graham, in discussion with Edward Burke, Margaret O’Callaghan and Éamon Phoenix. This Hedge School is supported by Donegal County Council, Fermanagh & Omagh District Council and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media under the Decade of Centenaries 2012-2023 initiative. LISTEN HERE —- Sister against sister—women, the Treaty split and the Civil War (Recorded @ Phizzfest [Phibsborough Community Arts Festival], Sun 15 May 2022, Glasnevin Cemetery Museum) Given their activism in the revolutionary period, now widely acknowledged by historians, why were Irish women and their organizations on the margins of deliberations on the Treaty? Why were Irish women under 30 denied the vote in the June 1922 general election? To what extent were they the victims of gendered violence (by either side) during the Civil War? Join History Ireland editor, Tommy Graham, in discussion with Síobhra Aiken, Leeann Lane, Mary McAuliffe and Margaret Ward. This podcast is supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media under the Decade of Centenaries 2012-2023 Initiative. LISTEN HERE —- The internal politics of the IRA before the Civil War The Anglo-Irish Treaty sparked turmoil within the IRA. Some accepted it and joined the ranks of the Provisional Government’s new ‘National Army’; some remained neutral; the majority opposed it, but with the added twist that on the eve of the Civil War there were two anti-Treaty factions of the IRA, not one. Two Army Conventions, on 26 March and 18 June 1922, failed to resolve these differences. To make sense of these complexities, join History Ireland editor Tommy Graham in discussion with Síobhra Aiken, John Borgonovo, John Dorney and Brian Hanley. LISTEN HERE —- Mná 100 “Seeking Peace” – a new episode in the Mná 100 podcast series – in partnership with the Department of Foreign Affairs Minister Catherine Martin T.D. announces a new episode in the Mná 100 podcast series The Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Catherine Martin T.D. has launched the fourth episode in the Mná 100 podcast series, titled ‘Seeking Peace’, as part of the Decade of Centenaries Programme 2012-2023. Minister Martin said: “The ‘Seeking Peace’ episode in the Mná100 centenary podcast series, gives us a really important understanding of the peace delegations led by women in 1922 trying to prevent Civil War. Many of these women were part of the international peace movement at that time. The podcast gives us a unique insight into those challenging months. Mary Robinson, Maria Butler and Áine Hearns are all Irish women who have worked internationally, whose interesting life stories will resonate with the historic women of a century ago.” This podcast examines events of 100 years ago and women’s participation in seeking peace – from chairing the Peace Committee meetings in May to delegations organised in June and July 1922 as hostilities in the Civil War escalated. It explores the historic background to those delegations, profiling some of the participants. Maud Gonne MacBride organised delegations. Hanna Sheehy Skeffington, Charlotte Despard and Rosamond Jacob of the Irishwomen’s International League participated. It also explores the League’s links to the wider peace movement of that time, such as the role of Jane Addams and the organisation of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. By looking at these historic events through a wider lens, Mná 100 also reflects on some of the achievements and personal experiences of the podcast participants. The podcast features three women; the first female President of Ireland and Chair of The Elders, Mary Robinson; Áine Hearns, Director of the Conflict Resolution Unit at the Department of Foreign Affairs; and Maria Butler, Deputy Secretary General of the Women’s International League of Peace and Freedom, who in May 2022 has just been appointed as Executive Director of the Nobel Women’s Initiative. LISTEN HERE —- 4. Publications DOWNLOAD HERE AVAILABLE HERE AVAILABLE HERE Stories of those who taught and studied at MIC during Irish Revolution remembered in new publication A new collaboration between Mary Immaculate College (MIC) historians and Limerick City & County Council explores how everyday life, teaching and learning continued – sometimes with difficulty – throughout the turbulent period of the Irish Revolution. Produced as part of Limerick City & County Council’s Decade of Centenaries programme, Studying Revolution: Accounts of Mary Immaculate College, 1918-1923 collates primary source material to tell the story of how staff & students navigated the revolutionary period, how ordinary life was interrupted and of the times that the war quite literally arrived at the College gates. Solely dedicated to teacher training and exclusively for female students at the time, MIC’s place in Limerick saw it become caught in the crossfire of the war. Sr Frances McGrath’s diary of the July 1922 Siege of Limerick, which is replicated in Studying Revolution, gives a striking and emotional insight into the lives of citizens amid open street violence. Her diary, which is introduced by Marian Fogarty, recalls the rumoured ‘arrival of the big guns’, the emotional turmoil of the war raging around MIC and the penetration of off-course bullets through College buildings on a regular occurrence – with one staff member even struck and injured. When not directly in the crossfire of the wars, MIC was – like anywhere else – a crossroads for different opinions and political support. In the memoirs of Catherine Daly, who studied at MIC from 1919-1921, we learn of the intertwining of the Irish Revolution in Limerick and her native Bantry with her studies. This remarkable account, introduced by Dr Brian Hughes and Dr Úna Ní Bhroiméil, blends the ordinary with the extraordinary as it weaves from memories of uncomfortable uniforms, sarcastic teachers and shopping for copybooks, to the shooting dead of an Gaeilge teacher, discreetly sharing news of ambushes with a politically sympathetic teacher and sitting alongside soldiers when a train was robbed by ‘the so and so Sinn Feiners’. While the period the accounts reflect on was a bloody one, some of the primary material suggests little disruption to some regular activities. Dr AnneMarie Brosnan introduces teaching practice reports between 1915 and 1924 which detail the performance of four students – namely Annie Kelly, Hannah McQuinn, Elizabeth Duignan and the aforementioned Catherine Daly – on placement in classrooms in Limerick, Kerry, Cork and Dublin. Dr Paul O’Brien introduces a letter from J.P. Goodbody, a businessman and politician, who lived at Summerville House, which is now part of the MIC Limerick campus. Goodbody’s letter to a Dublin friend, Mr. Brown, is written during near the midpoint of the previously mentioned Siege of Limerick. His account differs from that of Sr McGrath and he gives an interesting insight into the attempts to maintain operations at his mill while his supplies – both food and mechanical – are requisitioned by ‘Free Staters’ and ‘Republicans’. His observations point to conditions faced by ordinary citizens who were short of food and under curfew. Studying Revolution can be downloaded below. A limited number of hardcopies are available through Limerick City and County Library Service’s Local Studies Department at Watch House Cross Community Library who can be contacted by emailing [email protected] Civil War in Co Kildare Poster now available A poster of an illustrated timeline of the Civil War in Co. Kildare has been produced as part of Kildare County Council’s Decade of Commemorations programme to mark the 100th anniversary of its outbreak in June 1922. It details the main events that took place throughout the county during the period. ‘War with the foreigner brings to the fore all that is best and noblest in a nation – civil war brings out all that is mean and base’.Frank Aiken, August 1922 Copies of the poster are available free via Co. Kildare’s public library network. It will be of interest to anyone curious about the history of Co. Kildare at this time, particularly secondary school students. It may help direct them to many of the key events which took place in Co. Kildare in 1922-23. Some of the main incidents which occurred on the national stage are also included to give context. For further information please contact: [email protected] The Civil War in Co. Kildare poster was supported by the County Kildare Decade of Commemorations Committee and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport, and Media under the Decade of Centenaries 2012-2023 initiative. The War of Independence in Wexford A Timeline Poster An information booklet entitled ‘County Wexford War of Independence and Civil War: an educational resource’ has been published. It charts the events and timeline of the War of Independence and the Civil War in County Wexford. It is a resource for young people from 4th class to 3rd year. The booklet was researched and written by local historian, Monica Crofton and edited by Executive Librarian, Hazel Percival and Library Assistant, Michael Dempsey. It was designed by Nicola Bailey. If your school would like to have a visit from the Wexford Historian-in-Residence to discuss the booklet with your students, contact our Local Studies Librarian at: [email protected] or 053 919 6330. VIEW HERE AVAILABLE HERE Four Courts Press Revolution Series MORE DETAILS HERE AVAILABLE HERE This book illustrates the 1922 handover of power by the outgoing British administration to the Provisional Government of Ireland led by Michael Collins in early 1922. The handover fell between the Treaty split of January 1922 and the outbreak of the Civil War in June 1922 and is usually overshadowed by both. The book bridges this gap by telling a relatively unfamiliar but hugely important story. BUY HERE Ireland 1922 provides a snapshot of a year of turmoil, tragedy and, amidst it all, state-building as the Irish revolution drew to a close. BUY HERE The fourth volume in the History Ireland commemorative series on aspects of the Irish Revolution. The Treaty, Civil War and partition profoundly shaped the Ireland in which we live. To mark the centenary of the Treaty and Civil War, History Ireland has produced a special supplement, The Split: From Treaty to Civil War 1921–23, featuring historians and writers. The Split introduces ground-breaking articles on women and the Treaty, the role of Eamon de Valera, the establishment of the Gardaí, the dead of the Civil War, the global reaction to Ireland’s independence, and the violence inside the new Northern Ireland state and along the border. It discusses controversial questions regarding Michael Collins and military dictatorship, why the Free State won the Civil War and how Northern Ireland came into being. It looks at how the war has been remembered and asks whether the era of Civil War politics has ended. Featuring contributions from:President Michael D. Higgins / David McCullagh / Mary McAuliffe / Rob Delaney / John Gibney / Kate O’Malley / Darragh Gannon / John Borgonovo / Lar Joye / Kieran Glennon / Paddy Mulroe / Charles Townsend / Bill Kissane / John M. Regan / Robert Gerwarth / Elizabeth Malcolm / Niamh Puirséil / Alison Martin / John Dorney / Margaret O’Callaghan / Ciara Chambers / Caitlin White / Frank Barry / Brian Hanley / Theo Dorgan Available in newsagents and bookshops, or online at the link below. BUY HERE |