Online Talk | The Irish and the European Empires
Funeral entry of Abigail Bollard, whose father was a merchant of Antwerp. NLI GO MS 70 f. 523r
Join us on Zoom for the concluding lecture of the new 'Strangers to Citizens' online talk series, delivered by Professor Jane Ohlmeyer.
From the sixteenth century Ireland experienced – at the hands of their English Protestant rulers – expropriation, settler colonialism, and extreme violence. This triggered a major diaspora to Europe. Over the course of one hundred years, thousands of Catholic Irish men, women, and children left Ireland, often as refugees, in search of opportunities. Over time Irish communities emerged in Ostend and Bruges in Belgium; in Cadiz, La Coruña, Malaga, Seville, and Bilbao in Spain; in Lisbon in Portugal; and in Bordeaux, La Rochelle and Cognac in France. This talk explores how over the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries these migrants – working as sailors, soldiers, and slave traders - served in the empires of their host nations. How the Irish established themselves on the world stage and became global citizens.
The new Strangers to Citizens online talk series is part of the official Cultural Programme for Ireland’s Presidency of the European Council. The series explores the story of Irish migration to Europe between 1600-1800, examining both the political and cultural context of this period, as well as the fascinating tales of individuals who made the journey from Stranger to Citizen. In keeping with the spirit of the official Cultural Programme for Ireland's Presidency of the European council, we look forward to welcoming attendees to this online talk series from across Ireland, the European Union and beyond.
The Strangers to Citizens talk series is inspired by a newly developed travelling banner exhibition of the same title, which is currently touring partner organisations across the country. For more information, click here: Irish Presidency of the EU 2026 | National Library of Ireland
Jane Ohlmeyer is Erasmus Smith's Professor of Modern History (1762) at Trinity College Dublin. In 2023 received an Advanced ERC for VOICES, a project on the lived experiences of women in early modern Ireland. Her latest book is Making Empire: Ireland, Imperialism and the Early Modern World (Oxford, 2023). In 2023 she was awarded the Royal Irish Academy Gold Medal in the Humanities. She is currently working on a booked called From that Small Island. The story of the Irish which is based on a 4-part documentary and a feature which won the Best International Documentary award at the 2025 Newport Beach Film Festival.
If our team can be of any assistance, please contact us on learning@nli.ie.
Tuilleadh
