History lecture series – The memory and afterlives of the revolutionary generation in Northern Ireland.

Dr Sarah Campbell (Newcastle University)

23 March 2017 7.30pm Free

‘They may kill the revolutionary but never the revolution’: The memory and afterlives of the revolutionary generation in Northern Ireland.

The leaders of the revolutionary generation present many faces to posterity, and have been claimed by many – and often conflicting – political traditions. In Northern Ireland, where memory and myth play key roles in creating identities and legitimizing conflict, figures from the revolutionary generation were resurrected during the ‘troubles’ to bolster foundational narratives and took on new meanings for those coming of age in the 1960s. This lecture will focus on how Connolly and Carson were used by both communities in Northern Ireland and how both their legacies continued to resonate long after the revolutionary decade.