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Post by kj on Jul 12, 2017 9:25:20 GMT
As a Nationalist and a Corkman I am deeply disturbed and irritated by the predominance of revisionist and anti-nationalist participants in West Cork's first ever History festival. Roy Foster, Ruth Dudley-Edwards, Eoghan Harris, Marianne Elliott, Kevin Myers and others. We can be assured of a nationalist-bashing, "the IRA were sectarian bigots" weekend. This strikes me as tragic in the area where most of the hard fighting was done. At the risk of massive rhetorical exaggeration, it's almost like having a Holocaust Revisionist conference at Auschwitz. (I did say I would exaggerate.) www.westcorkhistoryfestival.org/ |
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Post by Maolsheachlann on Jul 12, 2017 10:09:36 GMT
Well, with Eoghan Harris, you never know. He might be in a nationalist phase that day. He seems to bob around all over the place. Last time I read him he was complaining about the war on Christmas. Actually I should add him to the "conservatives in public life" list, mad as he is.
If they substituted a different four-letter word for the name "Cork", it would make more sense...
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Post by kj on Jul 12, 2017 10:18:10 GMT
I don't think Harris has been in a nationalist phase since the 60s. He's the most tedious and predictable of the lot of them.
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Post by kj on Jul 14, 2017 10:58:24 GMT
The Phoenix has an interesting article on the Festival today:
"WEST BRIT HISTORY FEST
(A news item published in "The Phoenix", July 14, 2017)
ASSEMBLING Roy Foster, Eoghan Harris, Kevin Myers, Ruth Dudley Edwards and various academic and media fellow travellers in the same room to discuss the War of Independence sounds like a humorous two fingers to the government’s Decade of Centenaries. Already the West Cork History Festival has been dubbed the West Brit History Festival by a letter writer to the Southern Star, the local Cork newspaper covering the Skibbereen area where the fest takes place later this month.
Moving forces behind the fest include ex-Workers Party members Harris and Gerry Gregg, his collaborator in Praxis Pictures. In letters to the Star, modern history commentator Tom Cooper has criticised the festival for focusing on the sectarian analysis of the Tan War as peddled by Harris and Gregg. Cooper pointed out that RTÉ had been compelled to concede that a Praxis film it screened in 2012 – An Tost Fada – claiming sectarian killings by the Cork IRA nearly a century ago contained factual errors. In a recent frenzied letters debate in the newspaper, Gregg ignored Cooper’s point about RTÉ’s censure before comparing the Old IRA to those who carried out ethnic cleansing of Jews in Eastern Europe. Gregg also claimed that the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland had rejected the same complaint from Cooper. In fact, the BAI had declined jurisdiction over the complaint as it said the Praxis film “did not have to comply with statutory requirements for fairness, objectivity and impartiality”.
Cooper has been in correspondence with RTÉ executive producer Kevin Cummins over the An Tost Fada film the festival plans to screen. Cummins reiterated his 2012 pledge, namely that RTÉ “would not authorise any re-screening of the programme that included the factual errors which we acknowledged at the time”. Cooper emailed festival organiser Simon Kingston this week requesting that the festival respect RTÉ’s pledge that any screening of the film would not include the errors referred to.
The festival will also include discussion on the late historian Peter Hart’s contention that IRA icon Tom Barry ordered the execution of British auxiliaries after they had surrendered at the 1920 Kilmichael ambush. Hart claimed as evidence an interview with the last surviving member of Barry’s Flying Column who, it turned out, had died six days before the interview took place. In a disturbing sign of splits in the revisionist camp, TCD academic Eve Morrison, a staunch defender of Hart, pleaded with her critics in a letter to the Star to “refrain from associating my work with either Kevin Myers or Eoghan Harris, or assume in any way that my historical or political views are in accord with theirs”.
The festival promises to be contentious but civilised affair with admission price for the weekend at €180, including dinner on the Saturday night and with “wine with each course”. This should serve to deter attendance by any naff Sinn Féin types from the locality. The organisers received a paltry grant of €1,000 from Fáilte Ireland, the tourist arm of the government created by the “sectarian ethnic cleansers” of the Troubles. Kingston is the driving force behind the enterprise and his interest in Anglo- Irish affairs extends to membership of the executive of the British-Irish Association (BIA) – known to cynics as Toffs Against Terrorism. It was at a BIA conference in Cambridge four years ago that then Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore extended an invitation to the British royal family to attend the commemoration of the Easter Rising. Festival chairman John Spears is founder and chief executive of Classic FM and organisers say, “John and his family have long-standing ties to West Cork".
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Post by cato on Jul 14, 2017 18:35:34 GMT
I had a read of the west cork history festival and must say it has an excellent choice of speakers and topics which in spite of what has been claimed is about much more than revisionists attacking the traditionalist reading of the Irish revolution.
I have heard speakers like Lar Joye of the national museum of Ireland ,Dr David Fitzpatrick and Dr Eunan o Halpin and they are top class experts . The canadian ambassador Kevin Vickers will speak . He is a rather larger than life character who was awarded for gallantry in Canada during a terrorist attack . You might remember he manhandled a protester at a 1916 ceremony in Dublin last year when Gardai were overly slow to react. The english writer and creator of the famous House of Cards trilogy michael Dobbs will speak at the end. His fictional creation Francis Uqhart is one of great fictional baddies of modern political fiction.
Any locality would be proud to host a gathering like this. And as to the 180 cost? It's exceptionally good value for a holiday event compared to concerts , festivals or a weekend abroad. Hopefully this will bring visitors to a most beautiful part of our country and result in lots of good debate and discussion. Is this not the best way to remember and honour all west Corkonians?
In addition if this is not your cup of tea for ideological reasons, protesting about revisionists is only going to give it free publicity.
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Post by kj on Jul 14, 2017 22:21:06 GMT
Given that Harris and Myers have both persistently accused the IRA of sectarian targeting of Protestants in the War of Independence with no evidence whatsoever, and given that they have labelled Tom Barry as a 'psychopath', 'serial killer' and so on, no I do not think it is a fitting tribute. In fact, I think it is quite a disgrace to the descendants of those men to have to listen to such slander in their own county. I sincerely hope there will be audience members present who stand up to them.
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Post by cato on Jul 15, 2017 11:14:07 GMT
I am sure there will be plenty of comments and questions from the floor which add to the drama of these occasions. I have heard Roy Foster speak on various occasions. He is one of those fine writers who is also a good public speaker. He usually gets criticised for something at his talks normally unrelated to the lecture he has given. The results can be the most entertaining part of the proceedings.Similarly Kevin Myers attracts a collection of critics to his talks . The strictly verbal cross fire is often the highpoint of the talk.
Why should the feelings of any relatives of a public historical figure matter at all? Every public figure has their fans and detractors -even our Lord Jesus Christ.This strange reverence and status we give to people who are the in -laws or offspring of the famous revolutionaries mildly annoys me as it seems like they are given a special position merely due to birth. Still I don't lose any sleep over their special seats at state events.
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