Cillian Murphy, the acclaimed Irish actor and star of Peaky Blinders and Ken Loach's The Wind That Shakes The Barley film, will launch a new book on politics of memory in post-independence Ireland.
'Family Histories Of The Irish Revolution, edited by Ciara Boylan, Sarah-Anne Buckley, and Pat Dolan, and published by Four Courts Press, will be launched by Cillian Murphy, patron of the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre, on Thursday February 1 at NUI Galway. This is strictly an invite-only event, and not open to the public.
The book gathers stories and testimonies from current and retired staff at NUI Galway, shedding new light on the complex politics of memory in post-independence Ireland, with examinations of Peadar O’Donnell, Tom Kettle and the Sheehy-Skeffingtons , nationalists and unionists, British army soldiers, Irish Volunteers, members of Cumann na mBan, and the RIC.
The contributions discuss how family history and memory was imparted, and aim to explore that legacy on succeeding generations. The book includes a foreword by Uachtarán na hÉireann Michael D Higgins on ethics and memory, and a background chapter from Prof Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh looking at gender, memory, violence, reconciliation and family history.
Ciara Boylan is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Child and Family Research Centre, NUIG; Sarah-Anne Buckley is lecturer in history at NUIG; Pat Dolan holds the prestigious UNESCO Chair in Children, Youth and Civic Engagement at NUI Galway.
