Thursday January 01 1970
IRISH SOCIALIST LIVES
galway |
history and heritage |
event notice 
Friday January 16, 2009 15:32
by John Cunningham - Irish Labour History Society
john.cunningham at nuigalway dot ie
c/o
086-834-36-67
Two day event in Galway
- Moore Institute, NUI Galway, Fri, 13 Feb.
- Nuns’ Island Theatre, Fri. night, 13 Feb, & Sat. 14 Feb.
The manifest deficiencies of the economic system that has dominated the world in recent decades make this an opportune time to consider alternatives. Where better to start than with an examination of the unorthodox ideas espoused by radical Irish men and women of the past? An ‘Irish Socialist Lives’ symposium offers an opportunity to do just that.
A range of contributors, including leading historians, will describe the lives and consider the ideas of syndicalists, social democrats, trade unionists, agrarian radicals, Christian socialists, Marxists, Chartists, anarchists, and co-operators who worked in Ireland during the past few centuries, and many of whom had Galway connections. Some, like James Larkin, were world-famous; others, like Mary Galway the leader of the Belfast millworkers, had some prominence; others still, like the Árainn-born writer and founder of American Trotskyism, Tomás Ó Flatharta, laboured in relative obscurity.
The event will be held under the auspices of the History Dept, NUI Galway (Friday 13 February), and the Irish Labour History Society (Saturday 14 February).
There will be a concurrent exhibition of historic trade union banners.
Highlights will include:
Friday, 8 pm: Keynote Lecture,
Emmet O’Connor: ‘Big Jim Larkin Hero or Wrecker’
Saturday, 11 a.m: Chips off the old Block?
Niamh Puirseil on James Larkin Jnr and Charlie Maguire on Roddy Connolly
OTHER SUBJECTS WILL INCLUDE Bobby Burke, The King of the Claddagh, E.T. Craig, Sandy Crawford, Molly Davidson, Jack Dowling, William Paul Dowling, Mary Galway, Matt Harris, Luke Kelly, Gilbert Lynch, Michael McKeown, Catherine Mahon, Constance Markiewicz, Peadar O’Donnell, Maureen O’Carroll, Thomas O’Flaherty, Shane O’Neill, Palladius, William Thompson, Helena Molony, Capt Jack White,
OTHER CONTRIBUTORS WILL INCLUDE Tony Varley, Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh, Dáibhí Ó Cróinín, Aindrias Ó Cathasaigh, John Moulden, Theresa Moriarty, Gerard Moran, Laurence Marley, Christopher Maginn, Alf MacLochlainn, Fintan Lane, Leo Keohane, Michael D. Higgins, Des Geraghty, Dominic Haugh, Penny Duggan, James S. Donnelly Jr, Barry Desmond, John Cunningham, Charles Callan, Mick Brennan, John Arden, Margetta D’Arcy
Comments (2 of 2)
Jump To Comment: 1 2MOORE INSTITUTE, NUI GALWAY
10.00
Chair: James S. Donnelly, Jr.
Professor of History, Univ.of Wisconsin-Madison
Laurence Marley on Michael Davitt, 1846-1906
This contribution considers Davitt's career as a labour activist and journalist, the international dimension to his radicalism, and his place in Irish labour history.
Gerard Moran on Matt Harris, 1826-1890
Ballinasloe-based member of Supreme Council of IRB, tenant right advocate, Land League leader and Irish Parliamentary Party MP for East Galway, 1885-1890.
Alf MacLochlainn, on William P.Dowling, 1824-1877
Artist, confederate, and Chartist, transported to Van Dieman’s Land: neglected in Ireland because he was arrested and tried in London; neglected by Chartist studies because he was 'only' the link with Irish confederates.
11.30 COFFEE
12.00
Dáibhí Ó Cróinín on Palladius
Palladius was sent to Ireland, AD 431, by Pope Celestine I as ‘first bishop of the Irish’, but he disappeared from the historical record thereafter. His recently discovered writings reveal a personality deeply imbued with radically socialist ideas. These may have informed the spirit of the Early Irish Church
Christopher Maginn on Shane O’Neill, 1529-1567
Irish socialists for long viewed Ireland's Gaelic past as a high point in Irish social development. Does the life of Shane O'Neill shed any light on the matter?
13.00 LUNCH
14.00
Therese Moriarty on Mary Galway (c.1864-1928)
Galway was a machinist in the Belfast linen industry. She was outspoken on behalf of women workers as leader of the Textile Operatives Society of Ireland from 1897.
John Moulden on Sandy Crawford (c.1870 - 1940)
'Clodhopper': Alexander Crawford, an extraordinary common-man and his role in popular (labour) radicalism in North Antrim between 1918 and 1939.
15.00 COFFEE
15.30
Chair: Caitríona Clear, historian,
School of Humanities, NUI Galway
Barry Desmond on Molly Davidson, Eleanor Butler
‘Labour Women of the 1940s and 1950s’: Davidson, party secretary and senator; Butler, architect, senator (1948-52), and Countess of Wicklow.
Charles Callan on Maureen O’Carroll, 1913–1984
Tuam-born graduate of UCG, 1935; secretary, `Lower Prices Council’ and `Women’s Parliament’ from 1946, first woman elected a Labour Dáil deputy, 1954-1957.
Tomás Finn on David Thornley (1935-1978)
Thornley was a practicing Catholic, a Marxist academic at Trinity College, an outstanding broadcaster, and a Labour TD. This paper considers the conflicts between his Christianity, his republicanism, and his socialism.
17.00 BREAK
NUNS ISLAND THEATRE
20.00
Chair: Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh, staraí agus ollamh ollscoile, OÉ, Gaillimh
Emmet O’Connor on Big Jim Larkin, 1875-1947
Big Jim Larkin was Ireland’s greatest labour agitator and the hero of 1913. Yet, from the 1920s, the ITGWU saw him as a wrecker. So what was he, hero or wrecker?
Niamh Puirseil on Young Jim Larkin, 1905-1969
Young Jim was the antithesis of his showman father. Reviled for his communist past, respected for his ability and intellect, he shunned power and ultimately abandoned politics for his union. Was he really Labour's lost leader?
For the full programme of the above event
http://www.nuigalway.ie/history/documents/socialist_liv...e.pdf
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