Commemorations and ‘shared history’: a different role for historians?

States have long had an interest in how key events in their past are commemorated, and historians have equally long been complicit in promoting dominant political mythologies. Since the development of professional, academic history, however, its practitioners have tended to view commemorations more as opportunities for attempting new interpretations and for critiquing the official version. … Read more

Achievers celebrated— 30 years of the Ulster History Circle

In the early 1980s, James Hawthorne recognised that there was no collective way to celebrate the achievements of people who had made a significant contribution to Ulster’s heritage. His inspiration founded a scheme to commemorate such individuals by erecting a plaque linking them to a location in their lives. For a body concerned with dates … Read more