Skibbereen's History Festival Goes Digital

The West Cork History Festival went digital today (Saturday, August 8^th) on its website.

Undeterred by Covid-19, Victoria and Simon Kingston told The Southern Star, ‘We aim to provide some of the elements – all of which are free-to-view – that would have been part of the physical festival, based around two themes, the events of 1920 in Cork and Ireland and Empire.’

All of these are pre-recorded and no log-in is required – just click  www.westcorkhistoryfestival.org to go to the festival’s home page.

On the theme of 1920 in Cork, the festival will feature Dr Eve Morrison of St Catherine's College Oxford on the Kilmichael Ambush, about which she is writing a new book to be published in November. In her talk, Eve discusses the interviews on which historian Peter Hart based his important, if controversial work, on the subject.

Professor Brian Walker of Queen's University Belfast will speak on inter-connected violence in Cork and Ulster in 1920 touching on, among others, the connected murders of Tomás Mac Curtain and Oswald Swanzy.

West Cork-based historian Kieran Doyle will be in conversation with the festival co-founder Simon Kingston about Kieran's project to map memorials of the Revolutionary Period across the county of Cork

A short film about the burning of Cork, commissioned by St Peter's in Cork city which is currently hosting an exhibition on the burning, will also be shown.

The organisers are also collaborating with St Peter’s and Nano Nagle Place, also in Cork City, through August to host and highlight content on #Cork1920.

Watch out for upcoming virtual programming and an on-site exhibition at Nano Nagle Place exploring everyday life in Cork in 1920, launching at the end of August.

In addition, they have a specially-commissioned History Ireland Hedge School podcast on Ireland, Empire and the Sea, chaired by History Ireland's editor Tommy Graham. The panel includes Lar Joye of the Dublin Port Authority, which is sponsoring the Hedge School, alongside Dr Aoife Bhreatnach, Professor Claire Connolly from UCC and Dr David Murphy from Maynooth. The theme of Ireland & Empire is something that both Victoria and Simon Kingston hope to develop further at their 2021 festival.

This year, they also have historian and writer Turtle Bunbury in conversation with Simon about Turtle's book Ireland's Forgotten Past: A History of the Overlooked and Disremembered.