Category: Community News

HSTM Webinar Thursday 1 May 2025 @ 1pm.  

Registration: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/Pj-4lUQISoaYQGYyhHSwCA#/registration

Bio: 

Helen Doyle is a 4th year PhD student with the History Department at Maynooth University, under the supervision of Dr. Dympna McLoughlin.  Her PhD study is examining the impact of the Criminal Lunatic (Ireland) Act 1838 on committal numbers to Irish district lunatic asylums. She is also investigating the link between this legislation and mental health stigma in Ireland today.  Helen works as a post-graduate teaching assistant with Maynooth University Academic Writing Support.  She is also Secretary of Carlow Historical & Archaeological Society. 

Irish District Lunatic Asylums, Institutions of Confinement or Care: The Case of Edward Flynn.  

In 1864 Edward Flynn was committed to Clonmel District Lunatic Asylum.  The treatment he received while in the asylum became the subject of a government inquiry, and a topic of parliamentary debate in the House of Commons. His story gives insights into the deterioration of the standard of care in district asylums, following the passing of the Criminal Lunatic Act in 1838.  This legislation criminalised, and stigmatised the mentally ill, creating a culture of fear, and a belief that those convicted as ‘dangerous lunatics’ should be locked away in asylums for the safety of the public.   

Prior to the introduction of this legislation, Ireland had been viewed as a world leader in the care of its lunatic pauper population.  The Lunacy (Ireland) Act passed in 1817 and amended in 1821 had resulted in a number of small asylums being built across the country.  These asylums embraced the new and pioneering ‘moral treatment’ model of care. However, the introduction of the Criminal Lunatic Act in June 1838, led to unprecedented numbers being committed to these asylums. It became impossible for staff to maintain the high standard of care that had singled out Irish district asylums in their earlier days.  This downward spiral continued until by the1950s, Ireland, with a population of less than three million, had over 21,000 people confined in district asylums.  The majority were, like Edward Flynn, committed as ‘dangerous lunatics’.  

Dr Sorcha O’Brien
Lecturer in Design History & Theory, IADT, Dun Laoghaire

Dr. O’Brien is a design historian interested in technology and identity, in both 3D physical and digital forms. With a background in industrial and digital design, she is interested in issues surrounding the design of electrical appliances, computers and networked devices at work and in the home. She completed her AHRC-funded PhD on the representation of electrical technology in 1920s Ireland at the University of Brighton, which was published in 2017 by Irish Academic Press as Powering the Nation: Images of the Shannon Scheme and Electricity in Ireland. Dr O’Brien was the curator of the exhibition Kitchen Power: Women’s Experiences of Rural Electrification, which ran in the National Museum of Ireland – Country Life from July 2019 to December 2020, as part of her AHRC Early Career Leadership Fellow, through Kingston University.

The Kitchen Power research project looks at electrical ‘labour saving’ appliances in the Irish home in the wake of rural electrification in the 1950s and 1960s. Influenced by Ruth Schwartz Cowan’s groundbreaking More Work for Mother (1983), it focuses on the intersection of gender roles, electrical technology and ideas about domesticity in the rural kitchen. As a design historian, Dr O’Brien uses objects and advertisements as a way into the analysis of housewives and their appliances, as well as the organisational, educational and networking roles of the ESB and the Irish Countrywomen’s Association (ICA). As well as the NMI exhibition, the project included a number of oral history interviews, and a collaborative textile art project with Age & Opportunity and women in the Castlebar area, and she is currently working on the accompanying book.

Registration via Zoom: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/dRobrIcqQoedCTNFbPNpcQ

The Irish Conference of Historical Sciences will hold it’s biennial symposium on the topic of Professor Raymond Gillespie’s impact on local history. Prof. Gillespie’s 1998 book co-authored with Myrtle Hill, Doing Irish Local History: pursuit and practice, opened up the field of local history to academic researchers and had an enduring legacy in educating generations of students in the field, and in encouraging academic rigour in the area of study. These points were reiterated in Prof. Gillespie’s paper to the ICHS symposium in Belfast in 2019 on the topic of public history. His contributions to many historical societies, including those affiliated with the ICHS, inspired engagement and excellence.

To reflect Prof. Gillespie’s legacy to local history the symposium will consist of two papers. Dr. Brendan Scott deliver a paper titled ‘The Book of Fenagh: a case study in local history’. Prof. Marian Lyons, Maynooth University, will give a paper entitled ‘Thomas Arthur, M.D. (1593-1675): a case study of medical practice and moneylending in Limerick’.

The seminar will be begin at 11.30am on Saturday 23rd November at the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland at 63 Merrion Square, and there will be light refreshments afterwards which will be a chance to remember Ray in an informal setting.  All are welcome but we would recommend booking a seat as it is limited. To do so please contact Kieran Hoare, our secretary at kieran.hoare@universityofgalway.ie by Friday 22nd November.

Clans of Ireland (Finte na hÉireann), together with the Standing Council of Irish Chiefs and Chieftains (Buanchomhairle Thaoisigh hÉireann) and the History Department of Trinity College, Dublin alert their correspondents that the deadline for submission of essays is 1 June 2024.  

Entry is open to all persons over 18 years who are NOT on the academic staff of a history department in any third-level institution.

Encouraging evidence-based and original research is a chief aim of the Clans of Ireland. One palpable way to encourage this is to showcase excellence in scholarship which has been applied to researching, promoting and promulgating Irish-Gaelic history. 

Clans of Ireland and the Standing Council in association with the History Department of Trinity College, Dublin, and History Ireland magazine, offer a prize of €500 for the winning entrant. At the May 2025 Clans of Ireland Cultural Summit the winner will be invited to present their findings and be presented with the Ó Ceallaigh Dal gCais Perpetual Cup. Essays will be evaluated by Dr. Katharine Simms, Mr. Luke McInerney and the evaluation team.

Further information on this competition can be found HERE

Prize: The winning entrant will receive a prize of €250.

Eligibility: The competition is open to undergraduate and postgraduate students. Essays must be written in English and be the work of students who are enrolled in a third level institution in Ireland or abroad, or within one year expiration of that enrollment.

Essay/Submission Details: Essays must be no longer than 5,000 words (including all references). All entries must use an accepted referencing style (such as APA, Harvard, Oscola), be typed, double-spaced, and include an abstract of approximately 100 words. 

Deadline: Essays should be received no later than 31st May 2024.

For full details and to enter see: https://www.irishlegalhistorysociety.org/?page_id=1464