War of Independence figure’s grand daughter to give lecture
Dr Siobhra Aiken, a lecturer at Queen's University Belfast, and the grand daughter of War of Independence figure Frank Aiken will give an Offaly History lecture this month.
The lecture entitled, 'Was there a silence about the Irish Civil War?', will be presented online through Zoom and a big screen showing at Bury Quay at 8pm on Monday, April 17.
Announcing the news, Offaly Historical Society said: “We are pleased to have this speaker as her book Spiritual Woundschallenges the widespread belief that the contentious events of the Irish Civil War (1922–23) were covered in a total blanket of silence.
The book uncovers an archive of published testimonies by pro- and anti-treaty men and women, written in both English and Irish. Most of the testimonies discussed were produced in the 1920s and 1930s, and nearly all have been overlooked in historical study to date.”
"Revolutionaries went to great lengths to testify to the ‘spiritual wounds’ of civil war. They adopted fictionalised disguises, located their writings in other places or periods of time, and found shelter behind pen names.
This wealth of published testimony reveals that the silence of the Irish Civil War was not necessarily a result of revolutionaries’ inability to speak, but reflects the unwillingness of people to listen to the stories of civil war veterans," the society's introduction to the lecture states.
Dr Aiken holds a BA in European Studies from Trinity College, an MA in Irish Studies from the National University of Ireland, Galway and a PhD from the Galway university also.
A former Fulbright Scholar, her publications include The Men Will Talk to Me: Ernie O’Malley’s Interviews with the Northern Divisions and An Chuid Eile Díom Féin: Aistí le Máirtín Ó Direáin. Spiritual Wounds is based on her doctoral research at NUI Galway, which was awarded the American Conference for Irish Studies Adele Dalsimer Prize for Distinguished Dissertation 2021. She is a regular contributor to centenary debates on television and radio.