festival diary 2021

Sunday evening 14th march 2021 7pm

Black, Brown and Green Voices (Rev. Herbert Daughtry, & African American Diaspora Network)

In the aftermath of the 1980-81 Hunger Strikes in the North of Ireland, a group of African American Civil Rights activists travelled there with filmmaker St. Clair Bourne. The result was the film The Black and the Green, 1983. Rev. Herbert Daughtry (The House of the Lord Churches) was one of the activists who made that trip to Ireland. Now aged ninety and a person of immense standing in the civil rights sphere in New York for many decades, for one night only as part of the St Patrick’s Festival Coatbridge, Rev. Daughtry shares his reflections on his Belfast trip and speaks to the current state of conversations on race in the US and beyond with New York University's Dr. Miriam Nyhan Grey.  NYU's Black, Brown and Green Voices represents a documentation strategy and public humanities initiative that gives voice to the diversity of the Irish diaspora by recording life histories with Americans of Irish and African ancestry. This event is co-sponsored by NYPL Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, NYU DC Dialogues and the African American Irish Diaspora Network.  The Irish Heritage Committee Coatbridge is very appreciative of Reverend Daughtry for permitting us to hear some of his story and Dr Miriam Nyhan Grey of New York University for her support of this year’s St Patrick’s Festival in Coatbridge.

Monday evening 15th March 2021 7pm

Brother Walfrid - The Bhoy from Sligo (PhD Student Michael Connolly)

The name of Brother Walfrid is most commonly associated with the foundation of Celtic Football Club in Glasgow in the late 19th century.  Very little, however, is known of the Marist Brother's roots on the west coast of Ireland. Brother Walfrid was born in 1840 and as a child growing up in rural Sligo he endured the harrowing impact of An Gorta Mor (the Great Hunger). Walfrid's early family life and likely formative experiences prior to his departure for Glasgow will be considered in this presentation.  We will then consider how these linked to major decisions taken later in a life of enduring cultural significance for the Irish Catholic diaspora in Scotland.

Divided Ireland – 1921-1981-2021 (Dr Joseph M Bradley)

Thursday evening 18th March 2021 7pm

As a colonizer-colonised relationship, for centuries ethno-religious relations within Ireland and between Ireland and Great Britain have been significantly characterised by socio-political and religious conflict and strife.  This has frequently been expressed militarily on the part of various Governments, organisations and groups representing dominating and dominated communities.  In relation to this conflict, Ireland experienced the creation of two new political jurisdictions on either side of a British created border across the island in 1921.This border did not inspire peace within and between these islands.  On this, a year of anniversaries, this lecture will reflect on the events around 1921, it will also make reference to one of the many legacies of the island’s partition, the 1981 Hunger Strike. This lecture will conclude with reference to the ongoing situations within and between these islands.