Making Connections: Oral History and Community
in Ireland
THE 3rd CONFERENCE OF THE
ORAL HISTORY NETWORK OF IRELAND
12-13 September 2014
Kilkenny
The third conference of the Oral History Network of Ireland will be held at Butler House in Kilkenny on 12 and 13 September 2014.
9.30 – 10.30 am Registration
10.30 – 12.15 pm Training workshop: Ethics in oral history
(Arlene Crampsie & Regina Fitzpatrick)
12:15 – 1.30 pm Lunch (at leisure)
1.30 – 3.00 pm Session 1a and 1b:
Panel 1a: Oral history, community, performance
Chair:TBC
Speakers:
Nora Shovelin, Interlinking communities of activists and singers in Dublin
Mick Fortune,’That’s what I was told anyway…’ an insight into the
work of Michael Fortune
Thérèse McIntyre, Hitting the airwaves: an oral history project’s path to broadcasting
Panel 1b: Documenting hidden stories
Chair: Regina Fitzpatrick
Speakers:
Alan Noonan,Bringing up past hurts: the difficulties of conducting oral sports history in Ireland
Ultan Cowley, Who fears to speak?The Irish in Britain and the Irish at home: hard truths unspoken
Caroline Smiddy, She kept the place: the lives of farming widows in Ireland, 1922-1973
3.00- 3.30 pm Registration & Tea/Coffee break
3.30 -5.15 pm Training workshop: Archiving oral history recordings
(Rob Perks, OHS, UK)
5.30 – 6.30 pm Welcome and opening address
Speaker: Adrian Roche (OHNI Chairperson)
followed by Wine reception
6.30 – 7.30 pm Keynote address: Rob Perks, The development of community
oral history in the UK: reflecting on the issues and challenges
8.00 pm Conference Dinner, Kilkenny Design Centre
Saturday, September 13:
9.00 – 9.15 am Registration
9.15 – 10.45 am Session 2: Moments in oral history
Convenor: Clíona O’Carroll
Panel 1: Dimensions of the interview: Discovery
Speakers:
Marina Ní Dhubháin, Oral history and folklore
Áine NicAodha, Cromwell invades Ormond
Adrian Roche, A way of working life now gone
Melanie Brown, Disclosures and their impact arising from oral history interviews
Lyndsey Anderson and Dr Kelly Fitzgerald, Third level and community
partnerships in collecting folklore and oral histories
10.45 – 11am Tea/Coffee break
11am – 12.30 pm Session 3: Moments in oral history
Convenor: Clíona O’Carroll
Panel 2: You, me and ‘the audience’
Speakers:
Fiona Byrne, Remembering St. Davnet’s mental hospital
Mae Leonard, Highs and lows of interviewing
Edmund Lynch, LBGT recollections
Brendan Smith, From another planet
Eimir O’Brien, Wider relationships and the interview
12.30pm – 1.30 pm Lunch (at leisure) and AGM
Convenors: Adrian Roche and Maura Cronin
1.30 – 3.00 pm Sessions 4a and 4b:
Panel 4a: Oral history and folklore in a digital world
Chair: Arlene Crampsie
Speakers:
Mícheál Ó Domhnaill, The Donegal Gaeltacht Folklore Collection Project
Penny Johnston, Cork Folklore Project: can digital outreach help oral history groups to build communities?
Conor McGale, The Border Lives Project: life growing up, living and working along the border during the conflict
Panel 4b: Theories and approaches to oral history collection
Chair: Eunan O’Halpin
Speakers:
Margaret Steele, Constituting knowledge communities: a phenomenological look at oral history practice
Sarah Covington, “The Scandalous Bolt from the Abyss”: oral histories and the reconstitution of Irish communities in the
wake of Oliver Cromwell
Sam Manning, Recording cinema memory in Belfast
3.00 – 3.30 pm Tea/Coffee break
3.30 – 5.00 pm Sessions 5a and 5b:
Panel 5a: Inclusive communities
Chair: Catriona Crowe
Speakers:
Martin Rafter, The Kilkenny City Oral Histories Project
Zoe Hughes: After the research is over – experiences of storytellers with intellectual disability
Jennifer Yeager, The St. Mary’s (Waterford Institute of Technology) Oral History Project
Panel 5b: Working class communities, trade unions and politics
Chair: Ida Milne
Speakers:
Mary Muldowney, Community of ideas and ideals: left-wing political activists in 20th century Ireland
Liam Cullinane, ‘They couldn’t survive alone’: working-class community in Cork, 1930-80
John Gibbons, ‘We really got the full blast’: remembering 100 years of the importance of trade union activism in Wexford town.
5.15 – 6.15 pm Session 6: The place of oral history in the Irish heritage landscape
Chair: Maura Cronin
Speakers:
Beatrice Kelly, Head of Policy and Research, Heritage Council
Dearbhala Ledwidge, Heritage Officer, Kilkenny Local Authorities
Tomás Mac Conmara, oral historian
Thanks and closing address
Adrian Roche (OHNI Chairperson)
The complete programme can be downloaded here: OHNI Conference 2014 – Programme