This lecture will provide an insight into the history of intermarriage and heterosexual relationships in 20th century Ireland, giving participants a glimpse into the lives of people during an exceptionally tumultuous period in Irish and British history.
Taking a whole-island approach and considering a variety of sources, including oral history, popular fiction, poetry, archival materials, and more, Ruth and Alison maintain relationships across political and/or religious divides. Explore the vast complexity of things.
Although such marriages were relatively common, research on the subject is limited. They cover different moments in the 20th century and how this phenomenon was imagined and experienced for an individual and her family, when such relationships were historically controversial undertakings. Verify.
Dr. Duffy is a historian of medical and oral history. Her expertise lies in modern British and Irish history. Issues, Medicine, Irish Society and Culture.
She has a particular focus on using oral history as a way to uncover hidden and sensitive histories.
Dr Duffy is currently a Research Fellow in the Department of Arts, English and Linguistics at Queen’s University Belfast. Prior to this, Ruth worked as an Oral History and Public Engagement Officer for the NHS Voices of Covid-19 project at the University of Manchester.
Ruth is collaborating with the University of Birmingham’s Forged by Fire: Burns Injury and Identity in Britain project. Ramon contributed his expertise on the hotel bombing and the graphics published by the project were used in his novel. She also contributed to the Epidemic Belfast podcast and wrote an article for its website about her experiences of medical staff working during the Northern Ireland crisis.
Under contract with Liverpool University Press, Ruth’s first detailed written study (monograph) of the experience of Northern Ireland’s health service during the turmoil will be published in autumn 2024.
This monograph is based on her doctoral dissertation, which won the 2022 Adele Dulcimer Award for Outstanding Dissertation from the American-Irish Research Council.
Alison Garden is a Senior Lecturer and UKRI Future Leaders Fellow at Queen’s University Belfast. She is an inaugural member of Young Academy Ireland. She is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Fellow at the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for World Peace, Security, and Justice.
Dr. Garden is a literary critic and cultural historian who is fascinated by how national stories intersect with the intimate, everyday realities of people’s lives, and the stories we tell about them.