No rest for the wicked…

It’s been a busy few months writing articles, giving talks, creating exhibitions, judging architecture, recording podcasts and documentaries. Below, I’ve inserted links to some of those for anyone interested.

First up is a podcast ‘Dead White Men’ produced by Patricia Baker of Curious Broadcast. In the documentary Patricia takes a walk past the many famous and infamous statues and monuments in Dublin and considers who and how we commemorate. I’m one of the academics and arts practitioners she spoke to about the monuments that we have chosen to destroy, those we have kept and those perhaps we should not. This is a walk through the monuments controversy past and present.

Next up is an exhibition I curated for Nano Nagle Place in Cork. ‘Branching Out: Presentation Convents, 1775-1828’ looks at the history behind the first 22 Presentation Convents, all of which were founded before Catholic Emancipation. The exhibition is on site until next May, but there is also an exhibition website which has lots of extra material including film footage, photographs, talks and interviews with some of the sisters still living in these convents. Click on the image below to visit the branchingout.ie website.

The Royal Irish Academy hosted ‘Ireland and the Covid-19 Pandemic’ which focused on culture, socieity and the speficieties of the pandemic experience. Speakers examined topics such as public health concerns, remembrance pracices, , media, journalism among other topics. I spoke about the impact of the pandemic on the culture and heritage sector. You can watch and listen to the panel I was on below. The other speakers were the novelist and academic Prof Sarah Moss, the CEO of the Heritage Council, Virginia Teehan and Prof Jane Suitor of DCU

For those with access to the BBC History Magazine and its podcasts I spoke with Paul Bloomfield about the history of Dublin from medieval to modern times.

I was also a judge for the Irish Architecture Association Awards.

The Jury Panel was:

Critic
Farshid Moussavi of Farshid Moussavi Architects

Irish Architects:
Ali Grehan Dublin city Architect of Dublin City Council
Steve Larkin of Steve Larkin Architects

International Architect:
Niall Maxwell of Rural Office Architecture

Distinguished Non-Architect:
Dr. Gillian O’Brien – Historian and Author

It was a fascinating day of discussion, debate and deliberation about a wide range of projects. The standard of the submissions was extremely high and the range and breadth of work was very impressive. You can see all the award winners by clicking on the image below:

The jury discussing the AAI awards