St Mary’s Centre for Irish Studies to Run World War I Lecture Series

The Centre for Irish Studies at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, in conjunction with the Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith, is hosting a series of lectures explaining the impact of World War I on Ireland. Throughout May and June staff and students from St Mary’s, which offers an MA in Irish Studies, will deliver a series of talks at St Paul’s, Hammersmith Broadway to commemorate the centenary of World War I. The series will begin on 14th May with renowned historian Prof Joanna Bourke, Professor of History at Birkbeck College, with The Experience of Killing during the First World War. Joanna is a leader in the field and her previous research An Intimate History of Killing: Face-to-Face Killing in Twentieth Century Warfare won two high-profile historical book awards. Wednesday 21^st May will see Jim O’Hara, former Director of the St Mary’s Centre for Irish Studies, delivering his lecture on Ireland and the First World War, which will look at how the Irish people and political parties responded to the changing conditions that the conflict brought to the country. Dr Anne Goudsmit, St Mary’s Visiting Lecturer who completed a PhD in Northern Irish fiction at the University, will be talking about a number of Irish writers, including Irish nationalists Francis Ledwidge and Tom Kettle, in her lecture The First World War and Irish Literature on Wednesday 28^th May. The following week will see current MA Irish Studies student Peter Power-Hynes describing the role of the London Irish Rifles battalions on the Western front during the First World War. Dr Ivan Gibbons, Programme Director and Senior Lecturer in Irish Studies at St Mary’s, will round off the series on 11^th June with a talk on Ireland and the Aftermath of the First World War, which will explore the Great War’s significant impact on Ireland after 1918, including the election of the republican Sinn Fein party and the subsequent commencement of the IRA war against Britain. The St Mary’s MA in Irish Studies focuses on the history and culture of Ireland, as well as the experience of the Irish in London. The free lecture series in Hammersmith will be taking place at 7pm each Wednesday. For more information, and to register your interest, please visit the Irish Cultural Centre website.