Dublin Festival of History Podcast

In this episode from the Dublin Festival of History 2023, Peter Sheridan marks the centenary of the birth of the writer Brendan Behan. Raised in Dublin’s north inner city and with strong connections to Dublin’s tenements, Behan is regarded as one of the greatest Irish writers and poets of all time.Sheridan discusses his engagement with the work of Behan and his career more broadly.Peter Sheridan, is a playwright, screenwriter and director.This episode was recorded at 14 Henrietta Street, on October 11, 2023.Please note: This broadcast contains strong language and themes throughout.The Dublin Festival of History is brought to you by Dublin City Council, and organised by Dublin City Libraries, in partnership with Dublin City Council Culture Company.

In this episode from the Dublin Festival of History 2023, Dublin City Council Historian in Residence, Dr Mary Muldowney, will discuss the 40th anniversary of the 8th Amendment to the Constitution, including a comparison with the successful campaign for Repeal of the 8th. The fifth anniversary of that Referendum was on May 25 and the signing of Repeal into law took place on September 18, 2018.This episode was recorded at Central Library on September 28, 2023.The Dublin Festival of History is brought to you by Dublin City Council, and organised by Dublin City Libraries, in partnership with Dublin City Council Culture Company.

In this episode, from the Dublin Festival of History 2023, Kathryn Milligan discusses the work of artist Harry Kernoff.Born in London on the 9th of January 1900, Harry Aaron Kernoff was a prolific figure in twentieth century Irish art. Well regarded for his portraiture and landscape painting, Kernoff often focused on the depiction of Dublin, a city with which he became intimately familiar with, after the Kernoff family moved there in 1914. Kathryn Milligan is the author of ‘Painting Dublin, 1886-1949: Visualising a Changing City’.This episode was recorded at Pearse Street Library, on October 9, 2023.The Dublin Festival of History is brought to you by Dublin City Council, and organised by Dublin City Libraries, in partnership with Dublin City Council Culture Company.

In this episode, from the Dublin Festival of History 2023, Francis Thackaberry explores the  attitudes and responses to poverty in eighteenth-century Dublin. The citizens of prosperous Georgian Dublin, associated poverty with idleness, disease and moral decay and sought ways to prevent ‘foreign’ vagrants from ‘infesting’ the city. One response was to found Dublin’s first tax-funded workhouse in James’s Street in 1703. Francis Thackaberry is a former teacher, journalist, and arts administrator.  This episode was recorded at 14 Henrietta Street, on October 9, 2023.The Dublin Festival of History is brought to you by Dublin City Council, and organised by Dublin City Libraries, in partnership with Dublin City Council Culture Company.

In this episode, from the Dublin Festival of History 2023, Fergus Whelan remembers the revolutionary and poet Dr William Drennan (1754-1820). Dr Drennan, a onetime elder of the Dublin Unitarian Church congregation, was born the son of a unitarian minister and made his life’s work the building of ‘a Brotherhood of Affection to Break Down the Brazen Walls of Separation’ which had been erected between ‘Irishmen by Distinctions of Rank, Property and Religious Persuasion’.Fergus Whelan is the author of ‘May Tyrants Tremble’.This episode was recorded at the Dublin Unitarian Church, on September 28, 2023.The Dublin Festival of History is brought to you by Dublin City Council, and organised by Dublin City Libraries, in partnership with Dublin City Council Culture Company.

In this episode, from the Dublin Festival of History 2023, Aodh Quinlivan illustrates the strained relationship between the Irish Free State and Dublin Corporation, which was central to his recent study. He examines how after the Civil War, the Corporation continued to irritate the central Government and how the dissolution of Dublin Corporation came to be. Aodh Quinlivan is an author and senior lecturer.This episode was recorded at the Mansion House on September 27, 2023.The Dublin Festival of History is brought to you by Dublin City Council, and organised by Dublin City Libraries, in partnership with Dublin City Council Culture Company.

In this episode, from the Dublin Festival of History 2023, Anne Chambers tells us about Lord Sligo - from a youth of hedonistic self-indulgence in Regency England, to a reforming, responsible legislator and landlord, Sligo became enshrined in the history of Jamaica as ‘Emancipator of the Slaves’ and in Ireland as ‘The Poor Man’s Friend’. Anne Chambers is a biographer, novelist, and screenwriter. This episode was recorded at the Central Library, on October 4, 2023.The Dublin Festival of History is brought to you by Dublin City Council, and organised by Dublin City Libraries, in partnership with Dublin City Council Culture Company.

In this episode, from the Dublin Festival of History 2023, Ann Marie Durkan will introduce the maps she prepared, which locate animals and animal-related businesses in Dublin City in 1911. It provides an insight into how in 1901, 803 Dubliners worked as cattle dealers, drovers, farriers and vets, yet over the course of the 20th century most of these animals, and most of these jobs, disappeared. Ann Marie Durkan is an Irish Research Council funded PhD candidate in Dublin City University.This episode was recorded at the Central Library, on October 3, 2023.The Dublin Festival of History is brought to you by Dublin City Council, and organised by Dublin City Libraries, in partnership with Dublin City Council Culture Company.