SILENCED STORIES: THE PROTESTANT EXPERIENCE OF 1916 AND AFTER

This conference, to be held on Saturday November 14th, 2015, at the University of Maynooth, on the eve of the centenary celebrations of 1916 and the journey towards Irish independence, explores stories from a group that is sometimes overlooked in the grand Irish narrative of nationalism, heroic struggles and, ultimately, independence.

Although Irish Protestantism has many historic links with various aspects of Irish Nationalism, by 1916 the nationalist movement had become overwhelmingly, although not exclusively, a Catholic phenomenon. In the years that followed, Catholicism and the Irish identity became ever more inextricably intertwined. Largely inadvertently, in the process alternative or other experiences of Irishness and identity have often been overlooked.

This one day event is an invitation to consider and explore the experience of the Irish Protestant minorities of 1916 and the years that followed, particularly elements within Protestantism that are rarely mentioned in popular narratives about the Rising and its aftermath, including the urban and rural poor and minority denominations within Protestantism. The conference also invites participants and guests to contemplate the past with a view to building a better, stronger future and to think about the experience of minorities of all kinds in a world that often doesn’t seem to see them.

For more information and to register, please visit the event website here.