Machnamh 100

The term “Machnamh” is an ancient Irish concept encompassing reflection, contemplation, meditation and thought.

Between December 2020 and November 2022, President Michael D. Higgins hosted a series of six seminars at Áras an Uachtaráin inviting reflections on the War of Independence, the Treaty Negotiations, the Civil War and Partition. At the invitation of President Higgins, Dr John Bowman, Historian and Broadcaster, chaired each of the six seminars.

The full set of six seminars is now available to the public to read or view free of charge.

WATCH: All six Machnamh 100 seminars are available to view in full on the RTÉ Player, or if you prefer to watch the contribution of a particular speaker, by clicking on the relevant link lower on this page.
READ: The six seminars are also available to read in book format. Click here to read Volume 1, which brings together the first three seminars, or click here to read Volume 2, which collects the final three seminars. The books are also available in public libraries and in universities across the country, as well as via Scoilnet and the library app Borrowbox. If you prefer to read the contribution of just one particular speaker, you can also click on the relevant link lower on this page.
LISTEN: Each of the seminars can be found on the Áras an Uachtaráin Soundcloud. To listen to a recording of any of the speakers from across the six seminars, click on the relevant link lower on this page.

Machnamh 100 is an initiative of President Higgins that builds on his extensive work during Ireland’s Decade of Commemorations that has examined and explored seminal events such as the Lockout of 1913, the First World War, The Easter Rising, the Flu Pandemic, the election of 1918 and the first Dáil. Machnamh 100 is being supported by the Government and by RTÉ.

A detailed breakdown of each of the six seminars is below, allowing access to each individual contribution.

Part 1: The War of Independence

First seminar – 4 December 2020 - "Challenges of Public Commemoration"

The first seminar contemplated commemoration itself and the contexts of the national and global events of a century ago. The historical spine in this session was the manner and context in which the constitutional and political ‘terms of settlement’ emerged in Ireland and how nationalists and unionists responded - at the time and since - to the new structures. The implications of these responses for what ‘commemoration’ might mean today were also included in these reflections.

Principal Address:

President Michael D. Higgins Of Centenaries and the Hospitality Necessary in Reflecting on Memory, History and Forgiveness Watch, Read or Listen

Responses:

Professor Ciarán Benson (University College Dublin): 'The Past' as a Concept & Ethical Remembrance: Brief Reflections Watch, Read or Listen
Professor Anne Dolan (Trinity College Dublin): Worrying away at the Irish Revolution Watch, Read or Listen
Professor Emeritus Michael Laffan (University College Dublin): Reminding and Remembering Watch, Read or Listen
Professor Joep Leerssen (University of Amsterdam): Doing justice to the past: Relating pastness, presence, complexity Watch, Read or Listen

Second seminar - 25 February 2021 – "Empire: Instincts, Interests, Power and Resistance."

The second seminar included consideration of European Empires following the First World War, the British Empire in particular and imperial attitudes and responses to occurrences in Ireland. It also included reflections on examples of resistance to Empire in Ireland and resistance to nationalism.

Principal Address:

Professor John Horne (Trinity College Dublin) Ireland at the Crossroad, 1920-1921: Nation, Empire, Partition Watch, Read or Listen

Responses:

Dr Niamh Gallagher (St. Catharine's College, Cambridge): Breaking down binaries: Empire, the First World War and Partition Watch, Read or Listen
Professor Eunan O'Halpin (Trinity College Dublin): The Irish 'nation' and the challenge of ethical commemoration Watch, Read or Listen
Professor Alvin Jackson (University of Edinburgh): Empire, war and partition Watch, Read or Listen
Dr Marie Coleman (Queen’s University Belfast): Recognising the "other" in the Irish revolution Watch, Read or Listen
President Michael D. Higgins: Versions of the 'Other' - As Tool in the Culture of Impersialism, and Rationalisation for Sources of Violence Watch, Read or Listen

Third seminar - 27 May 2021 - "Recovering Imagined Futures"

The third seminar focused on issues of social class, land and the role of women, subjects that are all tangibly and profoundly interlinked in the context of early 20th-century Ireland, and how particular gradations of violence emerged and became deeply interwoven across these subjects with consequences that would shape the Ireland of today.

Principal Address:

Dr Maragaret O'Callaghan (Queens University Belfast): Recovering imagined futures in nationalist Ireland, in the summer of 1921 Watch, Read or Listen

Responses:

Ms Caitríona Crowe (Archivist): Recovering Archival Futures Watch, Read or Listen
Dr John Cunningham (NUI Galway): Recovering Imagined Futures: A Spirit of Revolution? Watch, Read or Listen
Dr Catríona Clear (NUI Galway): Everyday Working Life in the Revolutionary Era: Two Case Studies Watch, Read or Listen
Professor Linda Connolly (NUI Maynooth): Ethical Commemoration, Women, Violence and the Irish Revolution, 1919-23 Watch, Read or Listen
President Michael D. Higgins: Of Land, Social Class, Gender and the Sources of Violence: Recovering Reimagined Futures Watch, Read or Listen

Part Two: The Civil War and the formation of two new administrations on the island

Fourth Seminar - 25 November 2021 - "Settlements, Schisms and Civil Strife"

The fourth seminar involved a consideration of the road to the Treaty and its long-term implications. It also examined Ireland in the summer of 1921 and what the Truce meant, what prospects it opened, as well as the international aspect of the halt in hostilities.

Principal Address:

Professor Diarmaid Ferriter (University College Dublin): Settlements, Schisms and Civil Strife Watch, Read or Listen

Responses:

Professor Fearghal McGarry (Queens University Belfast): Ireland's Global Revolution Watch, Read or Listen
Professor Mary E. Daly (University College Dublin): Coming to Grips with Reality: The Treaty, Civil War, and the Irish Free State Watch, Read or Listen
Dr Daithí Ó Corráin (Dublin City University): Map images and hard-headed pragmatism: the Roman Catholic Church and the two Irish states Watch, Read or Listen
Professor Margaret Kelleher (University College Dublin): Settlements, Schisms and Civil Strife: Literature and Conflict Watch, Read or Listen
President Michael D. Higgins: The 1920's - Of the Experience 'from Below' Watch, Read or Listen

Fifth Seminar - 26 May 2022 - “Constitutional, Institutional and Ideological Foundations: Complexity and Contestation”

The fifth seminar concentrated on the period following the Civil War and the sources of authority and legitimacy in the new administrations formed North and South. It included a particular consideration of the issue of ‘institutionalising’ exclusion: the groups marginalized in different ways by the state, the notions of ‘respectability’, ‘status’ and of having ‘a stake in the country’, the importance of land possession and what groups were deemed not to have such a stake, and the issues of class, state and identity.

Principal Address:

Professor Brendan O'Leary (University of Pennsylvania): Machnamh on Constitutional Trajectories Since 1922 Watch, Read or Listen

Responses:

Professor Henry Patterson (Ulster University): Class experience, state and identity, a Northern perspective Watch, Read or Listen
Professor Lindsey Earner-Byrne (University College Cork): Institutionalising Exclusion in Modern Ireland Watch, Read or Listen
Dr Theresa Reidy (University College Cork): Representative government: the electoral systems Watch, Read or Listen
President Michael D. Higgins: Interpreting the Period 1922 to 1926 in Irish History: Influences and Consequences Watch, Read or Listen

The Final Seminar - November 2022 - "Memory, History and Imagination"

The sixth and final seminar considered the intersections between history, trauma and the cultural memory which has developed of the period.

Principal Address:

Professor Declan Kiberd (University of Notre Dame): Ideas, Memory, Imagination Watch, Read or Listen

Responses:

Lelia Doolan (Cultural theorist and film producer): Memory and Imagination mediated for a 'mass' audience Watch, Read or Listen
Professor Angela Bourke (University College Dublin): Memory, myth and history: What is transmitted and what is suppressed Watch, Read or Listen
Fergal Keane (BBC journalist and author): The consequence of witness Watch, Read or Listen
President Michael D. Higgins: 1922 - The Most Significant Year? Watch, Read or Listen