Conference Programme

Kerry Civil War Conference

History, Memory and Legacy

Civil War in Kerry and Beyond: A Centenary Conference

Siamsa Tíre Theatre, Tralee, County Kerry

23/24/25 February 2023

Thursday, 23 February

7.00pm: Official Opening

Cllr John Francis Flynn, Cathaoirleach, Kerry County Council

Moira Murrell, Chief Executive, Kerry County Council

Martin Mansergh, Vice-Chair, Expert Advisory Group on Centenary Commemorations

Opening keynote address, ‘Faith, Reason and Betrayal: The Irish Civil War’,
Professor Diarmaid Ferriter, University College Dublin

Friday, 24 February

9.45am: Opening of Day Two of Conference

10am: Panel 1 – The Civil War in Ireland

Liz Gillis – historian and author

Easter Week Repeats Itself: The Battle for Dublin June – July 1922

John Dorney – historian and editor of the Irish Story website

‘They treated Kerry as a hostile country’: National Army Reprisals in Cork and Kerry during the Civil War

Dr Thomas Earls Fitzgerald – historian and author

‘From Bandits to Government’: The Move from Insurrection to Constitutionality by anti-Treaty Republicans in the post-Civil War Period

11.30am: Break

12.00pm: Panel 2 – The Civil War in Kerry

Dr Daithí Ó Corráin – Dublin City University

‘Bullocks, Provisions and Motor Cars’: Compensation Claims for Commandeered Property during the Civil War in Kerry

Orson McMahon – PhD candidate and researcher, University of Leiden

Civil War Violence in Kerry: Targeted Killings and the Dynamics of Escalation and Revenge

Dr Richard McElligott – Dundalk Institute of Technology

‘The last cry of Aero Lyons echoed in the ears of Kerrymen for long years after’: Kilflynn – a Community Case Study of the Irish Civil War

1.30pm: Lunch

2.30pm: Keynote address, ‘The Geography of the Civil War: Kerry and Beyond’, Dr Bill Kissane, London School of Economics

3.30pm: Break

3.45pm: Panel 3 – Memory and the Civil War

Professor Laura McAtackney – University College Cork and Aarhus University, Denmark

(Re)remembering the Civil War during the Decade of Commemorations: Issues of Gender,

Geography, Class and International Relations

Dr Héléne O’Keeffe – University College Cork

A Troubling Inheritance: The Civil War in Kerry in Oral History and Memory

Cécile Chemin – project manager, Military Service Pensions Collection

The Ripples of Kerry’s Civil War – Military Service Pensions Collection Dependency Claims

5.15pm: Conclusion of Day Two of Conference Papers

8.00pm: Ballyseedy Screening

Venue: Siamsa Tíre Theatre

Admission: Free

More info here »

Saturday, 25 February

9.00am: Opening of Day Three of Conference

9.15am: Panel 4 – Civilian and Socio-Economic Impacts of the Civil War

Dr Fionnuala Walsh – University College Dublin

‘A gallant fight’: Violence, Trauma and Loss at Clashmealcon Caves

Kieran McNulty – historian and author

Class, Gender, Labour and Civil War in Kerry, 1921-23

Helen O’Carroll – curator, Kerry County Museum

‘Decade’: Ten Objects which Portray the Lived Experience of People in Kerry during the Turbulent Period of 1918 – 28

10.45am: Break

11.15am: Panel 5 – Gender and Violence in Ireland’s Civil War

Dr Mary McAuliffe – University College Dublin

‘Unmitigated Blackguardism’: The Treatment of Militant anti-Treaty Women in Kerry by the National Army during the Irish Civil War

Dr Margaret Ward – Queen’s University Belfast

‘Keeping our Heads Down’ – Northern Women and the Impact of the Civil War

Dr Gemma Clark – University of Exeter

A new State Forged by Fire?: The Role of Arson in the Irish Civil War

12.45pm: Lunch

1.45pm: Keynote address, Constructing the Civil War: Dorothy Macardle’s Tragedies of Kerry, Dr Leeann Lane, Dublin City University 

2.45pm: Break

3.00pm: Panel 6 – Trauma and its Enduring Legacy

Owen O’Shea – historian and author

‘What in God’s Holy Name am I to do?’: The Traumatic Legacy of the Civil War for the Families of Combatants in Kerry

Tomás Mac Conmara – historian and author

‘The Wish to Forget It’ – The Drumboe Martyrs and its Landscape of Memory 

Dr Síobhra Aiken – Queen’s University Belfast

Understanding the ‘Spiritual Wounds’ of the Irish Civil War from 1922 to 2023

4.30pm: Break

4.45pm: Roundtable Discussion – 100 Years on: The Legacy of the Civil War

Chairperson: Dr David McCullagh – historian and author

Dr Mel Farrell – Carlow College

Dr Leeann Lane – Dublin City University

Owen O’Shea – historian and author

Dr Mary McAuliffe – University College Dublin

Dr Martin Mansergh – vice-chair, Expert Advisory Group, Decade of Centenaries

5.45pm: Conclusion of Day Three of Conference Papers

8.00pm: Their Memory Will Endure: The Civil War in Kerry – an Evening of Poetry, Music and Song Marking the Centenary of the Civil War in Kerry

Venue: Siamsa Tíre Theatre

Admission: €16/€14

More info here »

Thursday, 16 February to Wednesday, 1 March

Exhibition: Mise, le Meas opens at Siamsa Tíre on Friday 17 February and runs until Wednesday 1 March 2023. MTU Kerry students and learners from Kerry College Clash Campus have created inspiring visual responses to Civil War narratives, focusing on original documentation and poignant letters sent and received during this tumultuous and formative period in Irish history.

The exhibition, which is an innovative visual media project, is a collaboration between the Animation, Visual Effects and Motion Design students at MTU Kerry Campus and learners on the Digital Design and Visual Communication Programme at Kerry College.

The project has been funded by Student Transitions Fund at MTU Kerry Campus. Exhibition entry is free.

Venue: Siamsa Tíre

Admission: Free

More info here »