'Highly disrespectful' - Cork TD criticises decision to host lecture on the Elizabethan conquest of Ireland

A Cork TD has criticised a decision by the Office of Public Works to host a lecture by an Irish-American academic on the Elizabethan conquest of Ireland and is seeking clarification from the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform about the booking.

James Charles Roy, an Irish-American academic whose most recent book is entitled The Elizabethan Conquest of Ireland, is due to give a lecture this Sunday at Doneraile Court on the 16th century British conquest of Ireland.

Doneraile Court is owned by the Office of Public Works (OPW) and a press release issued on behalf of the OPW says “the Elizabethan conquest of Ireland has rarely received the attention it deserves, long overshadowed by more ‘glamorous’ events that challenged the Queen, most especially those involving Catholic Spain and France, superpowers with vastly more resources than Protestant England”.

It continues: “Ireland was viewed as a peripheral theatre, a haven for Catholic heretics and a potential ‘back door’ for foreign invasions … This is the story of revolt, suppression, atrocities and genocide, and ends with an ailing, dispirited queen facing internal convulsions and an empty treasury.

“Her death saw the end of the Tudor dynasty, marked not by victory over the great enemy Spain, but by ungovernable Ireland – the first colonial ‘failed state’.” In his lecture on Sunday, the press release says, Mr Roy will speak on the Elizabethan conquest of Ireland.

Thomas Gould, Sinn Féin TD for Cork North Central, told The Echo he was seeking clarification from the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Paschal Donohoe, on the role the OPW has taken in booking Mr Roy.

“I note that the event that appears to be hosted by the OPW in Doneraile will feature a talk from a historian who holds particularly questionable and controversial views on the history of this island,” Mr Gould said.

“I would disagree with many of his views. 

"I think they would be highly disrespectful and would reflect a colonial view of Ireland.

“I think it portrays the Irish people badly, and reflects an anti-Irish stereotype perpetuated by the British, portraying that all the Irish did was fight and drink, that we were uneducated, while we know all that is the opposite from the truth,” he said.

“While debate such as this should be facilitated, it must be debate. We should see balanced debate that allows for full understanding of the lived experience of occupation on this island.” 

Mr Gould said he had asked Minister Donohoe for clear details on the cost of this event, the number of tickets to be sold and whether speakers fees are to be paid.

“Events such as this, while important, must be transparent and clear in their cost and the role the OPW have played. Was the event pitched to the OPW or did they seek out the proposed speaker?

“I am also calling for a review of the event with a view to ensuring balance and accuracy in the reporting of our history. Biased, or one-sided, education is not education,” Mr Gould said.

RESPONSE

Contacted by The Echo, Mr Roy said he would suggest that Mr Gould read his book, The Elizabethan Conquest of Ireland, “a little more attentively”.

Mr Roy said that in the introduction to his book, he had clearly stated that it was told from the perspective of the British adventurers who made up the Elizabethan administration here, and he had instanced a luncheon party given by a minor official in the Dublin Castle administration outside the city gates in the late 1500s.

“He had eight or nine guests, all of whom were Englishmen, except for one Irishman. [The rest] were all English, they were all Protestants, they were part of the Dublin Castle administration, they were all anti-Catholic, they were all anti-Irish, and they were all adventurers, seeking their own fortunes here in Ireland, at the expense of, of course, the Irish themselves,” Mr Roy said.

He said that he had been very clear that the documents he had researched were the work of those men, and were clearly anti-Irish, containing “the usual slurs on Irish people and Irish culture”.

“What you read in the book is what these people felt about Ireland. 

"Now, it’s not what I feel about Ireland, I’m a historian, I’m just telling the story from these colonial oppressors who were seeking to colonise the island of Ireland,” Mr Roy said.

“I’m not perpetuating anti-Irish stereotypes, and my talk will not be perpetuating anti-Irish stereotypes, but if Mr Gould wants to show up at the lecture, I would be happy to talk to him.” 

The Elizabethan Conquest of Ireland: an illustrated talk by James Charles Roy, takes place at 4pm on Sunday 16 July at Doneraile Court. Admission is €6, including booking fee.