Join us from 2pm - 3.30pm GMT on the 17th & 19th of February 2021 as our two panels of expert commentators, historians and academics examine the road to and legacy of the partition of the island of Ireland and creation of the Northern Irish state 100 years ago.

Taking place via Zoom webinar, this online conference is part of a programme of events in conjunction with the Tower Museum Derry-Londonderry's latest exhibition 'Dividing Ireland - The Origins, Impact and Legacy of Partition'. Details of how to join the webinar will be emailed to ticket holders a few days in advance and audience questions are encouraged to be submitted via the twitter hashtag #DividingIreland

Panel 1: The Road To Partition

17th February 2021, 2pm - 3.30pm GMT

From 1912 to 1920-21, Ireland experienced major political and social change, including the creation of two new political jurisdictions on either side of an uncertain border line.

This panel reflects on the political and social developments of the 1910s, culminating in the creation of Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State, and the partition of the island reflecting these constitutional changes.

Moderator: Susan McKay

Panellists: Dr. Margaret Ward, Dr. Robert Lynch, Dr. Myrtle Hill

Panel 2: The Legacy of Partition

19th February 2021, 2pm - 3.30pm GMT

This panel explores the impact of the constitutional changes that took place in Ireland in the early 1920s, including discussion of life and politics in Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State.

We will look at the legacy of partition with a focus on how it impacted the newly created border communities and how the new governments north and south built two very different political jurisdictions and cultures. The panel also discusses how this impacted on people on both sides of the border.

Moderator: Susan McKay

Panellists: Dr. Johanne Devlin-Trew, Prof. Brendan O'Leary, Dr. John Regan

Speakers

Susan McKay is an award-winning Irish writer and journalist who currently writes for the Guardian/Observer, New York Times, Irish Times and London Review of Books. One of the founding members of Belfast Rape Crisis Centre, she has written extensively on social affairs as well as the legacy and impact of The Troubles in Northern Ireland. Her books include Northern Protestants – An Unsettled People and Bear in Mind These Dead a history of The Troubles from the perspective of those who were bereaved. She has also produced award-winning documentaries for radio and television, including The Daughter's Story about the daughters of Fran O'Toole one of the victims of the Miami Showband Massacre in 1975, and Inez, A Challenging Woman about Northern Irish trade union leader and human rights activist Inez McCormack.

Dr Margaret Ward is Honorary Senior Lecturer in History at Queen’s University, Belfast. She is a feminist historian. Her latest publication is ‘Gendered Memories and Belfast Cumann na mBan 1917-1922’, in Linda Connolly (ed) Women and the Irish Revolution, feminism, activism, violence, Irish Academic Press, 2020. Margaret has a Ph.D. from the University of the West of England and an Honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Ulster, for her contribution to advancing women’s equality. As part of the Decade of Centenaries Margaret has been involved in delivering lectures on women's involvement in suffrage, nationalist and unionist movements.

Dr. Myrtle Hill is a visiting research fellow in the School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics in Queen’s University Belfast, where she was formerly a Senior Lecturer and Director of the Centre for Women’s Studies. She has published widely on Irish Women’s, Religious and Social History, with many book chapters and articles on the Irish Suffrage movement, 19th century female missionaries, Ireland and Empire and Disability and Conflict. She is currently researching links between ‘feminism’ and ‘the left’ in Irish history and is active in the wider women’s and community relations sectors in the north of Ireland.

Dr. Robert Lynch has taught and researched at various universities across Britain and Ireland. His research interests are in the History of Ulster in the twentieth century with particular focus on partition and the establishment of Northern Ireland. Alongside numerous scholarly articles and contributions to edited volumes, he has written three books including a study of Irish Republicanism in Ulster, The Northern IRA and the early years of partition, 1920-22 (Dublin, 2006) and The Partition of Ireland, 1912-1925 (Cambridge, 2019). He currently works at the University of Glasgow, Scotland.

Johanne Devlin Trew, PhD, is lecturer in the School of Applied Social & Policy Sciences, Ulster University, specialising in migration studies. She is the author of: Leaving the North: Migration and Memory, Northern Ireland 1921-2011 (Liverpool UP, 2016) and with M. Pierse, ed. Rethinking the Irish Diaspora (Palgrave, 2018).

John M Regan lectures in history at the University of Dundee, Scotland. After completing his first degree in History and Politics at Magee College and a doctorate at Queen’s University Belfast in 1994, John became the first Irish Government’s Senior Scholar at Hertford College, Oxford. He was later elected to a Research Fellowship at Wolfson College Oxford, and awarded a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship. In 1999, John published The Irish Counter-Revolution 1921-36: Treatyite Politics and Settlement in Independent Ireland (Gill & Macmillan), and in 2013 Myth and the Irish State: Historical Problems and Other Essays (Irish Academic Press). He has published extensively in Historical Journal, Irish Historical Studies, History, Reviews in History, Dublin Review of Books, and The Journal of British Studies. His essay ‘Kindling the Singing Flame: The Destruction of the Public Record Office (20 June 1922) as a Historical Problem’, appears in Cormack K. H. O’Malley (ed.), Modern Ireland and Revolution: Ernie O’Malley in Context (Irish Academic Press, 2016).

Brendan O'Leary is a political scientist, who is Lauder Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania. He was formerly a professor at the London School of Economics. In 2009–10 he was the second Senior Advisor on Power-Sharing in the Standby Team of the Mediation Support Unit of the Department of Political Affairs of the United Nations.

For further information or to make us aware of any disability access needs, please contact p.larkin@gmail.com

This event is part of the Understanding the Decade of Commemorations project, delivered by the Nerve Centre in partnership with the Tower Museum. The project is supported by the European Union’s PEACE IV Programme, managed by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB), match-funded by The Executive Office in Northern Ireland and the Department of Rural and Community Development in Ireland.