Services and Programmes

Programme features

The Programme is designed to allow for and encourage public participation, both in terms of providing free and accessible talks and discussions, but also interactive / participative events such as:

Events centred on books and writings. While our focus will be primarily literary, i.e. using the literature in English and Irish from the period as a starting point, we will also focus on political and social events.‌

A series of workshops, faciliated sessions focused on specific aspects of what is meant by a republic; open to community activists, members of e.g. residents associations, community groups, etc.

‘What if . . .’ scenarios: looking at what might have been.‌

The online publication of reading lists, background information, talks, records of workshops, blogs & discussion forum, videos, podcasts, online exhibitions, etc.

A programme of re-publication, where appropriate in annotated editions, of key books and articles from the period, as well as the publication of hitherto unpublish‌ed works – diaries, personal accounts, etc.‌

All through the programme the question of what a republic is, should be, and might be, will be to the fore. Among other things it will look at what inspired the authors of key texts of cultural nationalism in the period leading up to 1916, e.g. Pearse’s The murder machine, Daniel Corkery’s fiction and plays, Terence MacSwiney’s seminal text, Principles of freedom. It will look at what was envisaged by the framers of the Proclamation of the Republic, and what was promised in the Democratic Programme of the First Dáil of 1919. The writings of Cork writers after 1916, especially O’Connor and O’Faolain, will also feature, reflecting on the roads not taken, and whether or not they are relevant today.