History Ireland

Dublin Festival of Books presents one of a series of presentations on this year's One City One Book—John Banville’s Christine Falls. While most of the action takes place in the gloomy streets of 1950s Dublin, it intersects with a parallel storyline set in Boston. What does that tell us about the post-war Irish-American experience? What were Irish-American perceptions of the ‘old country’—and vice versa? Join Tommy Graham (History Ireland) in discussion with Dan Mulhall (former Irish Ambassador to the US), Bernadette Whelan (University of Limerick) and Michael Kennedy (Documents on Irish Foreign Policy).

One City One Book is an annual Dublin City Council festival, led by Dublin City Libraries and Dublin UNESCO City of Literature, and supported by the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport.

Ballyshannon may or may not be the ‘oldest town in Ireland’ but it has certainly been the site of human settlement and activity for thousands of years and has been mapped since the late sixteenth century.

Now it is the subject of the latest (No. 32) in the Royal Irish Academy’s Irish Historic Towns Atlas series. Join History Ireland editor Tommy Graham in discussion with its editor, Angela Byrne, and Pauric Travers.

Recorded live on Saturday 30 August ’25 @ the Electric Picnic

Admired and reviled in equal measure, Éamon de Valera was Ireland’s longest-serving taoiseach and a two-term president.

Join History Ireland editor Tommy Graham for a lively round-table discussion to assess his legacy 50 years after his death, with Deirdre Foley (TCD & Women’s History Association of Ireland), Michael Kennedy (Documents on Irish Foreign Policy), David McCullagh (RTÉ & Dev’s biographer) and Martin Mansergh (former Fianna Fáil politician & government adviser).

Recorded live on Friday 29 August ’25 @ the Electric Picnic

History Ireland editor Tommy Graham in conversation with Dan Mulhall, Irish ambassador in Washington during President Trump’s first administration. 

What was Trump like? How can his success be explained? Is his legacy now permanently entrenched in the US political system? What are the implications for the wider world—and Ireland?

(Recorded live on Wednesday 30 July ’25 @ Glasnevin Cemetery visitor centre)

Daniel O’Connell was described by his biographer Oliver MacDonagh as ‘perhaps the greatest innovator in modern democratic politics, as well as the originator of almost all the basic strategies of modern Anglo-Irish constitutional relations’. To reassess his legacy 250 years after his birth, join History Ireland editor Tommy Graham in discussion with Patrick Geoghegan, Jennifer T. Keating, Christine Kinealy and Davide Mazzi.

This Hedge School is supported by Trinity College, Dublin, as part of its two-day O’Connell 250 symposium, Liberty, Democracy and the Struggle for Human Rights.