Festival of History 2019
Robert Barton: the Wicklow landlord who became a key player in the struggle for independence, 1918-1922
Friday 18th October 2019 at 11am
Lecturer: John Dredge
Robert Barton was a Wicklow landlord from a unionist background who was elected to the first Dáil as a Sinn Féin TD in December 1918 and played a key role in the struggle for independence that followed the election.
The time he spent as a British army officer in Richmond Barracks – where, following the 1916 Rising, he served as officer in charge of prisoners’ effects – had a profound effect on Barton’s development as an Irish nationalist.
The talk explores the development of Barton’s political views, the impact of his time in Richmond Barracks, and the important roles he played in the independence struggle that followed.
Past Inspirations
Friday 11th October 2019 at 2.30pm
Poetry reading with poet Catherine Phil MacCarthy and historian Fionnuala Walsh
Old documents, paintings, maps and images help us trace the past and uncover our history but poets look at primary documents in a different way to historians. Catherine has been inspired to write poems about various history topics and will reads some of her history poems while historian Fionnuala Walsh contextualises the time for us.
Themes explored include the Post-Famine period, the Land League Movement, the Founding of Inghinidhe na hÉireann and the Growth of Nationalism, the Revolutionary Period & Cumann na mBan and the First World War. Daughters of the House by Catherine Phil MacCarthy was published by Dedalus Press in 2019.
The Housing Crisis 1915-1923
The Housing Crisis 1915-1923 – 11:00 am, Monday 7th October 2019
Lecturer: Cathy Scuffil, Historian in Residence South Central Area, Dublin City Council
“Going through these streets and alleys today… there is little or no evidence … that there are any of the industries left…. I found in Francis street sixty of the houses are marked ‘tenements’ and fourteen ‘ruins’..”
Alderman Tom Kelly’s description in 1909 of housing conditions in Dublin’s Liberties sets the scene for the city’s social housing situation that reached crisis point during the second decade of the 20th Century. This talk looks at how this was addressed despite the troubled times of war and revolution.