2017/07/14 by Thomas Cauvin, Ciaran O’Neill, Ciaran O'Neill · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Irish and British Studies #Oral History, Memory, Narrative Analysis #Philippine History and Culture
paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/1468-2281.12192
openalex publication_date 2017/07/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23
Since the nineteen-seventies public history has emerged as an increasingly coherent discipline in North America, Australia, New Zealand, the U.K. and, latterly, in a wider European context. In all of these places it has had a connected but distinctly different gestation, and the nature of how history is applied, constructed, proffered or sold for public consumption is unique to each society. In Ireland, and within the history profession connected to it, its meaning is yet to be fully explored. Recent talks, symposia and conferences have established the term in the public imagination. As it is presently conceived public history in Ireland either relates specifically to commemorative events and the effect historians might have on official discourse relating to them, or to a series of controversial and contested historiographical debates. This article, by contrast, seeks a wider, more inclusive definition that includes the ‘public’ as an actor in it.