UCC to host conference on Home Rule Crisis of 1912-14
The British Ambassador will make a major statement at the conference on British Government policy regarding the ‘Decade of Commemorations’.
The British Ambassador will make a major statement at the conference on British Government policy regarding the ‘Decade of Commemorations’.
Key speaker at the event will be the British Ambassador to Ireland, Dominick Chilcott. On foot of British Prime Minister David Cameron’s speech this week outlining the British Government’s approach to the commemoration of the First World War, Ambassador Chilcott will make a significant statement regarding his government’s policy towards the upcoming ‘Decade of Centenaries’, the series of landmark events that characterised Irish history in the years from 1912 to 1923, including the crisis over Home Rule, the 1913 Dublin Lockout, the First World War, the 1916 Rising, the War of Independence, partition, and the Irish Civil War.
The event has attracted a number of historians from Irish, British, American and French universities, who will address a variety of aspects of one of the most significant periods in the modern history of both Ireland and Britain which, during the period between 1912 and 1914, faced the spectre of civil war for the first time since the seventeenth century.
The keynote address on the Home Rule crisis in Irish history will be offered by Professor Tom Bartlett, University of Aberdeen. Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at Cambridge University, Eugenio Biagina, will address the subject of the crisis in the context of British history while Dr. Martin Mansergh, member of the Advisory Group on Commemorations, will offer an expert assessment of the role of leadership during the crisis.
Conference organiser, Gabriel Doherty of UCC’s School of History comments:
“The conference on the Home Rule crisis offers historians and members of the public alike a unique opportunity to discuss issues that were both of monumental importance in their day, and which continue to influence the political landscape in Ireland to the present.” Earlier this year, Gabriel Doherty spoke in support of Michael Collins in the British Army Museum’s public campaign to nominate Britain’s Greatest Enemy Commander, in which Michael Collins was adjudged to be second only to George Washington.
The conference will take place in UCC from 9am to 5pm on Friday 19 October and from 9.30am to 5.30pm on Saturday 20 (final programme, including venue, to follow). The conference is open to members of the public. Further details may be obtained by contacting the School of History, UCC at 021 4902783 or by email at g.doherty@ucc.ie
The School of History acknowledges the support of the Reconciliation Fund of the Department of Foreign Affairs, and the College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences, UCC.