Skip to main content

Documentary film, public history and education in Northern Ireland

Funded by AHRC, 2013-14

Principal Investigator: Dr Fearghal McGarry (History)

http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/SchoolofHistoryandAnthropology/Staff/AcademicStaff/DrFearghalMcGarry/

Consultant: Professor Desmond Bell (Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, NCAD)

Researcher:  Dr Jennie Carlsten (History and Film Studies)

External collaboration with:
Teaching Divided Histories: http://www.nervecentre.org/teachingdividedhistories;
Derry-Londonderry City of Culture 2013: http://www.cityofculture2013.com/;
The Nerve Centre, Derry: http://www.nervecentre.org/;
DoubleBand Productions: http://www.doublebandfilms.com

This AHRC-funded knowledge-transfer project builds on the partnerships that emerged from the 2011-2012 AHRC-funded project, Documentary film and the public communication of historical knowledge in Northern Ireland. Through new and expanded partnerships with educators, cultural organisations, media-producers and broadcasters, this follow-on project explores how documentary film can facilitate historical understanding in a post-conflict context.

The earlier project consisted of an interdisciplinary collaboration between a historian and a documentary film-maker, culminating in the production and exhibition of the feature-length documentary, The Enigma of Frank Ryan (Desmond Bell, 2012). The academic partnership of Dr Fearghal McGarry and Professor Desmond Bell will continue to maximize the knowledge transfer impact of the Frank Ryan film through dissemination at festivals, televisual broadcast and DVD distribution, as well as through the production of complementary interpretative and interactive educational resources.

The current project also facilitates the pre-production of a second feature-length documentary film, Lost Revolution: the Abbey Theatre and 1916, based on the research of Dr McGarry. The film, which will be developed in partnership with DoubleBand Productions, will address issues arising from public commemoration of the centenary of the Easter Rising. It examines the lives of the Abbey’s 1916 rebels to tell a timely story about the tensions between the Abbey theatre and Irish nationalism, the complex relationship between culture and revolution, and the gulf between the radical aspirations of the rebels and the conservative outcome of their struggle.