Wherever there was an empire, Jane Ohlmeyer says, you would find an Irish person in it. The Trinity College Dublin historian joins Irish Stew to explain how the Irish were both the victims of empire and its willing agents.
When Unionist leader Ian Paisley traveled from Belfast to Dublin and addressed the packed Long Room of the Trinity College Library, historian Jane Ohlmeyer was on edge. Paisley had telegraphed that he would close his remarks with Sir Edward Carson’s rallying cry “God save Ulster.” But then the former firebrand paused and added, significantly, “and the other provinces as well.”
It wasn’t quite “God save Ireland,” but to Jane and everyone in that room, it was a step in the right direction.
That event marked the online release of the 1641 Depositions, as Jane recounts on the latest episode of the Irish Stew podcast. Used for centuries to fuel sectarian hatred, this controversial collection of testimonies on alleged atrocities was released in the spirit of furthering the peace process.
“In the wrong hands, history can be a very dangerous political weapon,” Jane acknowledged, “but in the right hands, actually, history can do good.”
Jane is the Erasmus Smith Professor of Modern History at Trinity College Dublin and the author of "Making Empire: Ireland, Imperialism, and the Early Modern World", a fresh, original interpretation of Ireland's engagement with the English and other European empires.
“Wherever there’s an empire, you’ll find an Irish person,” she says, and her stories prove it, from Irish traders who worked at the mouth of the Amazon to Irish soldiers in Tangier who spoke a language the English couldn’t follow.
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But Jane points out that while Ireland suffered under English imperialism, “Irish people become actively engaged in that imperial system, some of them with great gusto, but the majority simply because they don’t have economic opportunities at home.”
And many Irish looked beyond the British Empire for opportunity.
“The Irish are trans-imperial,” she explains. “They hop from empire to empire,” prospering in the service of Spain, France, Denmark, and Russia. She tells of how Irish rubber barons brutalized Peru’s indigenous people, but notes it was Roger Casement, another Irishman, who exposed their abuses.
A true citizen of Global Ireland, she was born in Zambia and arrived in Belfast as the Troubles began. Watching both sides of the sectarian divide wield history for their purposes, she found herself drawn to the study of the 17th century, when England began its imperial project in Ireland.
She reflects on how far Irishness has come since her student days in Scotland, when she was called a “bogtrotter,” saying, “Here we are, 25 years later, to be Irish is one of the sexiest things you can be.”
She talks about the TV series "From That Small Island", screened by RTÉ and PBS, and her VOICES project, recovering the lives of ordinary Irish women. She also gives credit to actor Stephen Rea for pointing her towards the Brian Friel play that inspired the opening chapter of "Making History".
Listen to Jane Ohlmeyer speaking to the Irish Stew podcast here:
For more information, visit IrishStewPodcast.com. You can listen to "The Irish Stew Podcast" wherever you get your podcasts.
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