Ireland, the Revolution and the First World War. Continuities, Ruptures and Legacies (1913-1919)

PRESENTATION

We are pleased to host, at the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris, an international conference on Ireland and the First World War as part of the national commemorations for the Centenary of the First World War. The conference received the Centenary Certification  from the Mission du Centenaire (project 07 CONF 0118) and is part of the French national official program for commemorations of the Centenary of the Great War. It is supported by the Embassy of Ireland to France.

During the decade 1913-1923, Ireland went through a profound period of social, political and cultural changes, which together transformed the island. In less than ten years, Ireland experienced the repercussions of a global conflict, a rebellion, a war of independence and a civil war, not forgetting a constitutional settlement which had led to a partition on the island.

The aim of the conference is to contribute to a fuller appreciation of the contribution of the First World War to the transformation of Ireland, while analysing the influence of the Irish revolutionary period on the varied political and memorial legacies of the First World War. As we enter the Centenary of the Paris Peace Conference, we would like a panel to be dedicated to the first diplomatic steps of Dáil Éireann and the Irish Delegation sent to Paris in 1919 to negotiate the future of Ireland.

OBJECTIVES

The Conference has been elaborated as an interdisciplinary scientific gathering. We seek to blend history, literature, cultural studies, with international relations and diplomacy.  Keynote speakers will deliver research-based talks and we hope to capture the attention of a large audience. PhD candidates are encouraged to attend and/or present their research during round-tables and panels in order to receive feedback on their ongoing projects.

We believe the conference can give even more visibility to the place of Ireland during the Great War and send a strong message to the public as to Ireland’s participation in the war. On the evening of 27 June 2019, there will be a public event and a reception with members of cultural services.

The conference language will be English. Graduate students, PhD candidates and early-career researchers are strongly encouraged to participate. There will be no registration fees. Associated costs will not be covered, even partly.

SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE

-Cornelius CROWLEY (Paris Nanterre University)

-Emmanuel DESTENAY (University College Dublin)

-Anne GOARZIN (University of Rennes II/President of the SOFEIR)

-Pierre JOANNON (Honorary Consul General of Ireland/Historian)   

-Fearghal MCGARRY (Queen’s University Belfast)

-Sylvie MIKOWSKI (University of Reims)

-Clíona NÍ RIORDÁIN (Paris III Sorbonne) 

PROGRAMME

THURSDAY 27 JUNE

09:00. Registration/coffee

09:30. Opening talk: Her Excellence Patricia O’Brien, Ambassador for Ireland to France

Panel One: Ireland in War and Revolution

Chair: Emmanuel Destenay (University College Dublin)

10:00- 10:20: Conor Mulvagh (University College Dublin): Armaments and instability in Ireland on the eve of the First World War

10: 20-10:40. Richard Grayson (Goldsmiths, University of London): Dublin’s Great Wars

10:40-11:00. John Borgonovo (University College Cork): The Flying Corps and the Flying Column:  Irish Revolutionaries and First World War Culture

11:00-11:20. Shane Browne (University College Dublin): Ireland’s Fighting Sons

11:20-11:40. Discussion

11:40-12: 10. Round-table: What is left of the 1916 Rising?

Panel Two: Ireland and the Paris Peace Conference

Chair: Anne Goarzin (Rennes University)

13:00-13:20. Gerard Keown:  'The most clamorous of all the national groups'. Ireland and the Paris Peace Conference

13:20-13:40. Fearghal McGarry (Queen’s University Belfast): Irish and Korean nationalists in 1919: a Wilsonian moment?

13:40-14:00. Síobhra Aiken (NUI Galway): Revelations and Silences: The First World War in Irish Republican Autobiographies

14:00-14:20. Anne Goarzin (University of Rennes): From the Somme to the Versailles Peace Conference: Wiliam Orpen’s pictorial record of the Great War

14:20-14:50. Discussion

Panel Three: Commemorations, Memories and Representations of the Great War in Ireland

Chair: Cornelius Crowley (Nanterre University)

15:20-15:50. Sylvie Mikowski (University of Reims): Sebastian Barry’s A Long Way (2005); the challenge of representing the First World War in Irish Fiction

16:00-16:20. Antía Román-Sotelo (University of Santiago de Compostela): Reverberations of Trauma through Irish Literature of the Great War

16:20-16:40. Clíona Ní Riordáin (Paris III-Sorbonne Nouvelle): Remembering the Great War in Irish Children's Literature

16:40-17:00. Marion Sarrouy (University of Rennes): Commemorating in music: from Ulster’s sacrifice to piper’s courage

17:00-17h30. Discussion

17:30-18:00. Round-table: Sense of belonging: Towards a Collective Memory of the First World War?

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We would like to express our gratitude to the Embassy of Ireland to France for their generous funding without which it would have been impossible to organise this event. We are equally thankful to the Irish Cultural Centre in Paris for welcoming the event and to the French Mission du Centenaire (Centenary Partnership Program) for awarding the conference the Centenary Certification (project 07 CONF 118).

REGISTRATION

Please contact the conference organiser Emmanuel DESTENAY (emmanuel.destenay@ucd.ie) to register before 22 June 2019.