Imprisonment and the Irish

Date: Friday 4th - Saturday 5th September 2009
Location: Mater Dei Institute of Education

In recent times there has been a noticeable increase in the numbers of scholars working on various aspects of the history of imprisonment in Ireland. The conference 'Imprisonment and the Irish' which will be held at Mater Dei Institute of Education on 4-5 September 2009 will facilitate a wide range of scholars, based in Ireland and abroad, to present their new research. Among the subjects that speakers will examine are transportation, the emergence of the modern prison system, political imprisonment, prisoners of war, and the prison experiences of women and the young. Two distinguished plenary speakers Professor David Arnold (University of Warwick) and Professor Padraic Kenney (Indiana University) will place the Irish prison experience in a comparative context. Other speakers include Gabriel Doherty (UCC), Dr Michael Biggs (Oxford), Dr Heather Jones (London School of Economics), Dr Carla King (St Patrick's College, Drumcondra), Dr Neal Garnham (University of Ulster) and Dr Katherine Foxhall (University of Manchester).

Conference Timetable

Friday 4th September 2009 Saturday 5th September 2009
*** Morning
  9.30am - 10.00am | Conference registration  
10.00am - 11.30am | Session I

Eamonn Ó Ciardha
(University of Ulster)
Jacobite Jailbreaks and Jailbirds.

Frank Rynne
(Trinity College, Dublin)
Coercion and Compromise: Habeas Corpus suspension during the Land War, 1881-1882.

Barry Kennerk
(St Patrick's College, Drumcondra)
Consul under siege – reaction of the American government in Ireland to the imprisonment of its citizens (1866-1868).

9.30am - 11.00am | Session V

Gabriel Doherty
(University College Cork)
The General Prisons Board for Ireland, 1877-1928.

Carla King
(St Patrick's College, Drumcondra)
'A huge punishing machine: Michael Davitt and prison reform'.

Gearóid O'Flaherty
(Mater Dei Institute of Education)
The Philosophical and Personal Experiences of Imprisonment in the writings of Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw.

11.30am - 12.00pm | Coffee 11.00am - 11.15am | Coffee
*** Afternoon
12.00pm - 1.00pm | Session II

Neal Garnham
(University of Ulster)
Transportation as an alternative to imprisonment: the fates of the Forty Rags and the puppy buggerer.

Katherine Foxhall
(University of Manchester)
The transportation of Irish convicts to Australia, 1814-1852: colonial, medical and penal histories.

11.15am - 12.45pm | Session VI

William Murphy
(Mater Dei Institute of Education)
'To hunger strike or not to hunger strike': a divisive tactic.

John Borgonovo
(University College Cork)
'The Cork prison strike, 1920.

Michael Biggs
(University of Oxford)
'Hunger strikes and state legitimacy: comparing the British and Irish government, 1917-23.

1.00pm - 2.00pm | Lunch 12.45pm - 2.00pm | Lunch
2.00pm - 3.30pm | Session III

Heather Jones
(London School of Economics and Politics)
'The English were a lot of narrow-gutted bastards': The Irish experience of captivity in Germany during the first world war.

Justin Dolan Stover
(Trinity College, Dublin)
A Revolution Within: participation, dissent, and loyalty within Irish prisons, 1919-1924.

Anna Bryson
(Queen Mary College, University of London)
A question of honour: Irish political prisoners and their attitude to the 'Ordinary Decent Criminal'.

2.00pm - 2.45pm | Plenary Speaker II

Professor Padraic Kenney
(Indiana University)
The Contested Cell: Irish Political Incarceration in a World Context.

3.30pm - 4.00pm | Coffee 2.45pm - 3.00pm | Coffee
4.00pm - 5.00pm | Session IV

Geraldine Curtin
(NUI Galway)
Embryo felons?: the imprisonment of children in nineteenth-century Ireland.

Conor Reidy
(University of Limerick)
In search of a 'borstal cure': the medical and physical improvement of the juvenile-adult male offender in the borstal system in Ireland, 1906-21.

3.00pm - 4.00pm | Session VII

Elaine Farrell
(Queen's University, Belfast)
'A dead letter': infanticide, the law, and the pleading petitions.

Christina Quinlan
(Dublin City University)
Women's Experiences of Imprisonment in Ireland.

5.15pm - 6.00pm | Plenary Speaker I

Professor David Arnold
(University of Warwick)
India, Ireland and the Colonial Prison.

 
6.00pm - 7.00pm | Reception  
7.15pm | Dinner