1
THE 1916 EASTER RISING IN A GLOBAL
PERSPECTIVE. THE «REVOLUTION THAT
SUCCEEDED»?
CHURCHILL COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE
3-5 MARCH 2016.
Between the spring of 1916 and the end of 1923 a number of rebellions and revolutions
transformed the social, constitutional and geo-political layout of much of Europe and the Middle
East. This transformative cycle was spearheaded by the Easter Rising in Dublin, at the westernmost end of Europe, and saw its most celebrated and influential culmination in the 1917 October
Revolution in the Russian Empire, whose message was to inspire uprisings all over the world
throughout the rest of the century. Yet, by the 1990s the Soviet legacy was in tatters and the
Marxist message discredited, while Ireland had become one of the most stable and prosperous
democracies in the world.
The conference will further explore this apparent paradox in two ways: it will contextualise the
Easter Rising between the revolutions of the nineteenth century and those which broke out at the
end of the First World War, and it will use this broader perspective to reassess its significance
and meaning in terms of Irish culture, politics and constitutional tradition.
2
3 March
12.30-13.00 Arrival and registration
13.00 Welcome and Introduction: Eugenio Biagini (Cambridge)
13.30 - Roy Foster (Oxford), 'The last romantic revolution?'
14:30-16:30 Session 1 - Global crisis or failure of security?
Chair: Eugenio Biagini (Cambridge)
Gareth Stedman Jones (Cambridge and London), 'Republicanism and Socialism: the
Nineteenth Century Background'
Dan Larsen (Cambridge), 'British Intelligence and the Easter Rising'
DISCUSSION
Coffee break
17:30-18.30 Roskill Lecture: The Rt. Hon. Sir John Major KG CH,
‘Overcoming Enmity: the evolution of Anglo-Irish Relations’
Reception
19:30 Dinner
Speeches:
Nicholas Roskill
H.E. the Irish Ambassador, Daniel Mulhall
4 March
9:00-11:00 - The Allies and the question of self-determination
Peter Clarke (Cambridge), ‘Woodrow Wilson's Fifteenth Point?
Roland Quinault (London), ‘The Asquith Government and the Easter Rising’
Manuela Ceretta (Torino), ‘The Easter Rising in France: between French connections and
French rejections’
DISCUSSION
11.00-11.15 Coffee break
11:15-13:30 Democratic nationalists
Shruti Kapila (Cambridge), ‘1916 Ireland, global insurrection and the Internationalisation
of Indian nationalism’
Sam Yin Zhiguang (Exeter), ‘“Rebellion of the Weak and Small”: Chinese Reception of
the Irish Nationalist Movement and the Discursive Genealogy of “Zijue”, 1900- 1927’
Andrew Arsan (Cambridge), ‘Echoes of the Easter Rising in Middle Eastern Political
Discourse, 1916-1920’
DISCUSSION
3
13.30-14.30 Buffet lunch
14.30 -16.30 – Session: Revolutionary traditions
Chair: Gareth Stedman Jones (Cambridge)
Enrico Terrinoni (Perugia), ‘Re-reading the Italian responses to the Easter Rising.’
Angel Smith (Leeds), ‘The Impact of the Easter Rising on the Catalan and Basque
Nationalist Movements.’
Harald Wydra (Cambridge), ‘Revolutions, Memory, and Cycles of Victimhood: Ireland,
Poland and beyond, 1916-1989.’
DISCUSSION
16.30-16.45 Coffee break
Session 16:45-18.45. – Constitutional traditions.
Liam Kennedy (Belfast), ‘The Ulster Covenant and the Proclamation of the Irish
Republic: Moments of Comparison and Contrast.’
Bill Kissane (London), ‘The 1916 Proclamation and the Irish Constitutional Tradition.’
Guðmundur Hálfdanarson (Reykjavik), ‘Iceland's route to self-determination: a peaceful
paradigm?’
18.45 - Drinks
19.30- Dinner
20.30 Robert Gerwarth (Dublin), '1916-1923: Europe's Age of Revolution".
5 March
9:00-11.00 - Changed utterly?
Niamh Gallagher (Cambridge), 'The Easter Rising and the Great War'
David Rock (University of California, Santa Barbara), ‘"The Easter Rising in Buenos
Aires: the Irish of the Rio de la Plata."’
Alvin Jackson (Edinburgh), Redmond, Carson, Europe and Empire
DISCUSSION
Chair:
11.00-11.15 Coffee break
11:15-13:00 Mary Daly (Dublin), ‘Commemorating the Rising’
13.00 Buffet lunch and end of conference