Dr Síobhra Aiken (QUB): 'Uncovering an alternative archive of testimony from the Irish Civil War (1922–23)'

Dr Síobhra Aiken is a Lecturer in Irish in the Department of Modern Languages at Queen's University Belfast.

Her paper will present material from her forthcoming monograph Spiritual Wounds: Trauma, Testimony and the Irish Civil War (Irish Academic Press, 2022), based on her doctoral dissertation at NUIG which was awarded the Adele Dalsimer Prize by the American Conference for Irish Studies in 2021.

Síobhra's paper will address how the overemphasis on silence in both public discourse and academic study of the Irish Civil War has occluded a wealth of veteran testimony, particularly from the 1920s and 1930s. She will address how these testimonies reflect contemporary understandings of psychological trauma and how these overlooked writings complicate many firmly held convictions within Irish historiography.

This event will be held both in person in the Irish Studies Seminar Room and online via MS Teams. 

Please register via Eventbrite