Dublin By Dusk | Twilight Talks
Join us for our third Twilight Talks which highlight how NLI collections have informed, shaped, or transformed Readers' research.
Join us for a series of four Twilight Talks, each just fifteen minutes! These talks are are intended to showcase the depth of scholarship, creativity and discovery emerging from registered readers' engagement with the library’s collections.
Please find a brief abstract of each presentation below.
Arrest of the Paltus: How a Soviet Fishing Trawler tested Irish Diplomacy in 1963 | Evie Kelly
In January 1963, the Irish Navy arrested a Soviet fishing trawler, the Paltus, off Dunmore East, Co. Waterford for fishing inside Ireland's territorial limits. Its skipper was convicted and fined at the local District Court. What appeared at first to be a routine fisheries arrest soon entangled itself with a complicated aspect of Irish foreign policy. Newspaper collections at the National Library of Ireland capture the colour of events at Waterford, from local and regional coverage to international commentary. This talk sets the public picture from the diplomatic headache that was unfolding behind closed doors at the Department of External Affairs in Dublin.
Servants and the Irish Country House | Andrea Katrina Byrne
Drawing on a range of archival sources, including collections held by the National Library of Ireland, this talk intends to bring servants’ experiences into focus, and seeks to highlight their contribution to the social, cultural, and economic history of Ireland.
The Light and Shade of Charlotte Grace O'Brien' | Dr. Jennifer Redmond
Charlotte Grace O’Brien (1845-1909) is familiar to many but about whom there are many erroneous or incomplete facts recorded in history. In her personal life and in her public activities, she was a remarkable woman who made a mark on her society. As a novelist and poet, she received international attention, particularly for her book Light and Shade which dealt with some of the key political themes that animated her life in Ireland and drew upon Fenian politics with which her father, William Smith O’Brien, was associated. As a botanist, she contributed to knowledge about local flora in her native Limerick and was recognised at national and international level. Her cultural nationalism saw her heavily involved in the Gaelic League and a promoter of Irish folklore, dress and products. Through her interests in the fate of female migrants leaving Ireland during the nineteenth century she successfully campaigned for better conditions aboard ships. Charlotte Grace’s papers are held as part of her family’s papers in the National Library of Ireland’s manuscripts collection, while the main library holds many of her published pieces.
Stanford’s Notes on Notes: Insights from scores and writings of a Dublin-born composer | Dr Adèle Commins
Dublin-born composer Charles Villiers Stanford (1852–1924) was a leading figure of the British Musical Renaissance. The music collections of the National Library of Ireland include some manuscripts and correspondence from Stanford, with some other collections also containing important source material. This presentation will reveal some of the insights gleaned from various collections in the library, providing information on his network, his compositional process and working with a collaborator. Along with concert programmes, photographs of cast members from a production of his opera Shamus O’Brien, and the collection of musician F.C.J. Swanton, which includes transcripts of talks given on Stanford in the early twentieth century, highlights the richness of the holdings in the library and their value in furthering research into Stanford and his music.
Evie specialises in Irish foreign policy during the Cold War. She holds an MSc in History of International Relations from the London School of Economics, where she previously worked as a Research Assistant at the Department of International History. Evie has also worked on the Policy Team at European Movement Ireland and at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris.
Andrea is a second-year PhD student at Maynooth University whose research explores the lives and experiences of servants who worked in Irish country houses during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Dr. Jennifer Redmond is Associate Professor in Twentieth Century Irish History in the School of History and Ancient Classics at Maynooth University. Her undergraduate degree is from University College Dublin while her M.Phil and PhD degrees are from Trinity College Dublin. She researchers, teaches and publishes in the areas of women’s and gender history with a focus on identity, citizenship, employment, sexualities and migration. She created the European research network COST Action HIDDEN: History of Identity Documentation in European Nations (CA21120) which brings together scholars in different disciplines across the EU and its affiliated members to examine issues of identity documentation, migration and citizenship historically and in the present. Dr Redmond sits on the editorial boards of the leading journals Women’s History Review and Irish Historical Studies and is a member of the editorial team for the Documents on Irish Foreign Policy series published by the National Archives of Ireland and the Royal Irish Academy. She is also a member of the Women’s History Association of Ireland national committee and a former President (2014-17).
Please contact learning@nli.ie with any queries.
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