Here are an article and a related podcast by one of our Festival contributors, Caitriona Beaumont, touching on subjects she will explore in her talk on Saturday 12 August - the Afterlives of Activist Women - as part of our theme of the Civil War and the Decade of Centenaries. The article was published originally in The Conversation. Featured above is a photo showing the executive of Cumann na mBan in February 1922, including Beaumont's grandmother (from the UCD/Sighle Humphreys archives).
Commandant Daniel Ayiotis is another of our Saturday speakers on 12 August and his subject is 'Crests and Troughs: Preserving the Records of the Irish Revolution’. Here is an extract from his recently published book The Military Archives: A History.
Our Festival concert (evening of Saturday 12 August) by our long-term collaborator Jessie Kennedy is partly inspired by the story of Sir John Franklin. He led an ill-fated expedition in 1845 to find a north-west passage to the north of Canada.You can read all about the expedition here on the website of Royal Museums Greenwich in London, which holds many relics of the expedition. There were a number of Irish men in the crew, including Francis Crozier (1796-?) from Banbridge in Co Down, who captained one of the two ships on the quest. He and Franklin vanished, along with the entire crew of both the ships. Crozier is pictured below.
We also have two articles by Tara McConnell who will speak on Sunday 13 August on 'Dining with Jonathan Swift' in connection with our theme of Ireland's 18th century trade links, particularly in wine. One of her articles is on drinking wine as medicine in 18th century Ireland and the other on making different kinds of alcoholic drinks in the same period, using fruits, flowers, vegetables and even tree-bark!
And finally, this profile of an extraordinary woman Dr Mary Bew, who died recently and whose son Paul (now Lord) Bew contributed to one of our online Festivals during lockdown.
Just a reminder that our full programme is available on this website here and tickets can be booked via this page.
