President Michael D. Higgins (Concluding Comments

President Michael D. Higgins

President Michael D. Higgins An tUachtarán Micheál D. Ó hUigínn

May I most sincerely thank Professor Ciarán Benson of University College Dublin, Dr Anne Dolan of Trinity College Dublin, Professor Michael Laffan of University College Dublin, and Professor Joep Leerssen of the University of Amsterdam for the profoundly thought-provoking and intellectually stimulating addresses they gave today, at what was the first seminar of our Centenary Commemorations series, to which we have given the title Machnamh 100. Each presentation was a tour de force, shining a light on often under-researched and perhaps overlooked aspects of Ireland’s War of Independence and providing analysis and insights that were grounded in deep and methodical scholarly research.

I also wish to thank Dr John Bowman for so deftly chairing today’s session, and Professor Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh who has been of great assistance to me and the staff here at Áras an Uachtaráin in his advisory role to the Machnamh 100 series. May I also thank all those who engaged by posing questions and making their own reflections on our offerings. Today was the first of our series of seminars that will mark the centenary commemoration of the War of Independence, The Civil War and the two new administrations on the Island.

In these seminars we will invite residents of this island and beyond to reflect, with integrity, respectfully, and within a framework of a narrative of hospitality, on this foundational and complex period of our history. It is also that Machnamh 100 will in addition to being a forum for reflection, perhaps become an aid to moving forward together on a journey to the future, that it might, too constitute an archival record of the thinking of today while making a reflection on the past in preparation for the future. I am grateful to Minister Catherine Martin and her Department for supporting this initiative, and to RTÉ who are assisting us in bringing it to a wider public. It is also my intention that the proceedings, including each of our papers, will be published. May I draw your attention to the next seminar which we have scheduled for late February 2021. The second seminar will focus on the theme of ‘Empire: Instincts, Interests, Power and Resistance’, and may I say we are so fortunate to have some of the finest scholars in the field of Irish history and historiography as confirmed speakers. I will announce full details of that event later this year, but among the topics to be considered will be an overview of the international order and the landscape of power that prevailed following the First World War; the fall and re-forging of empires, and the particular status and perceived power of the British empire circa 1920. We will reflect on resistance to empire and to nationalism within Ireland, and the position of Ulster and of Ulster Unionism in the debate on identities and power, with the establishment of the independent Irish State and Northern Ireland being the outcomes of this debate.

I hope that you can all join us again in February for what I am sure will be another informative, constructive and memorable seminar.

Thank you all for engaging with us in your different ways, and I do hope you enjoyed today’s reflections.

Mo bhuíochas libh uilig is beir beannacht.