Ireland: Among the Nations
This podcast examines events of 100 years ago with Ireland’s membership of the League of Nations and the International Labour Organisation from 1923 onwards, with contributions from Professor Mary Daly, Francis Devine, Phillip Emmet and Thomas Emmet. In this final episode, it poses the question -Is it time for Emmet’s epitaph? Scripted and presented by Dr Sinéad McCoole.
Prof. Mary Daly
Professor Mary Daly, is President of the Royal Irish Academy. She graduated from UCD with a double-first in History and Economics and a research masters in History, which secured an NUI Travelling Studentship. Her doctoral research was carried out at Nuffield College, Oxford. She has been a member of the UCD Faculty since 1973, and has also held visiting positions at Harvard and Boston College. Her teaching and research have concentrated on nineteenth- and twentieth-century Ireland.
She has written eight books, and edited/co-authored five books and numerous articles. Mary has also played an active role outside UCD, as a member of the National Archives Advisory Council and the Irish Manuscripts Commission. Secretary of the Royal Irish Academy 2000–2004, she was vice-chair of the Academy’s Working Group on Higher Education, whose report was published in July 2005. In 2014 Professor Daly became the First Female President of the RIA in its 230 year history.
Francis Devine
Francis Devine is a retired tutor and author and a former President of the Irish Labour History Society. He is the author of Organising History: A Centenary of SIPTU (Gill & Macmillan, Dublin, 2009) and a Trustee of the Working Class Movement Library, Manchester. Currently an Executive Member of the Musicians’ Union of Ireland, he is completing Cultivating a Trade Union Culture: A History of the Medical Laboratory Scientists’ Association, 1961–2011 and Communicating the Union: A History of the Communications Workers’ Union, 1904–2012.
Phillip Emmet
Phillip Emmet, studied at Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester. Since taking over the Altidore Castle estate in 1990 he has converted the farm to organic in 1994 and planted three native forests in 2005 on the already diversely wooded estate. He is a former member of the certification panel of the Organic Trust. He is deeply passionate about trees, conservation and environmental policy. He and his wife Vicky were deeply involved in the 1998 Emmet gathering of close to four hundred members of the family and then the 2003 bi-centenary commemoration of Robert Emmet’s rebellion. He currently sits on the board of the Historic Houses of Ireland and is focused on trying to get government recognition of biodiversity and the vital role of historic houses in this process.
Thomas Emmet
Thomas Emmet, is a Trinity College Dublin history graduate, the first named member of the Emmet family to go there since Robert Emmet was expelled. He is currently working with festivals, historic houses and with the Social Democrats working towards forthcoming elections. He sits on the board of directors of the Historic Houses of Ireland representing the next generation and also the Next Generation Board for European Historic Houses with a focus on education in the transition of historic houses. He is passionate about preservation, rewilding and social justice, all of which he plans to incorporate into Altidore Castle when he becomes the fourth generation to live there.
A man stands over the excavated grave while a labourer stops his work for the photograph. Image courtesy of the Representative Church Body Library from ‘Digging for Emmet: Ghostly images from Dublin’s past brought back to life through digitization’ by Bryan Whelan.
A large group of people survey the recent excavation works. Image courtesy of the Representative Church Body Library from ‘Digging for Emmet: Ghostly images from Dublin’s past brought back to life through digitization’ by Bryan Whelan.
This image shows the southern wall of St Peter’s, with an interesting view of the east side of Aungier Street and some buildings that once stood there. Image courtesy of the Representative Church Body Library from ‘Digging for Emmet: Ghostly images from Dublin’s past brought back to life through digitization’ by Bryan Whelan.
Left to right James E. R. Emmet, Clemency Emmet, Amanda Emmet and Philip Emmet outside the Emmet House on St Stephen’s Green, 1966. Courtesy of the Emmet Family.
Emmet Antiques shop with Emmet statue in the foreground, 1980. Courtesy of the Emmet family.
