Reimagining Ireland (English version)

Katrine Nyland Sørensen

Reimagining Ireland - Irish Studies Podcast is a series that brings research from Centre for Irish Studies at Århus University in Denmark to the rest of the world. The series is available in a Danish and an English version.

Episodes

  1. 09/30/2025

    9 Polyphonic History with Pat Palmer

    What did Ireland sound like before conquest? In this two-part conversation, Professor Pat Palmer guides us into the vibrant world of early modern Ireland, where bardic poets, Gaelic lords, Spanish captains and Elizabethan officials all left their mark. From flourishing schools of poetry to the sudden rupture at Kinsale, these episodes invite us to reimagine the past through many voices and rediscover what was lost in the making of modern Ireland. https://macmorris.maynoothuniversity.ie Pat Palmer took part in the workshop “Sources from the margins: reflections on the empire in Ireland, Scotland and Wales (1530s-1790s)" organized by Marie Curie researcher Feliks Levin (Postdoctoral Fellowship under contract number 101105224) Reimagining Ireland is presented by Katrine Nyland Sørensen and produced for the Classical Influences and Irish Culture project, funded by the European Research Council 818366 and hosted at the Centre for Irish Studies at Aarhus University in Denmark. https://cisa.au.dk

    21 min

  2. 09/30/2025

    8 Mapping Early Ireland with Pat Palmer

    Reimagining Ireland with Professor Pat Palmer uncovers the lost voices of early modern Ireland. Through poetry, chronicles, and accounts in nine different languages, the MacMorris Project reveals a plural world too often overshadowed by English sources. These episodes explore how deep mapping can restore Irish perspectives, challenge colonial narratives, and offer fresh ways of thinking about history, culture, and our place in the world. https://macmorris.maynoothuniversity.ie Pat Palmer took part in the workshop “Sources from the margins: reflections on the empire in Ireland, Scotland and Wales (1530s-1790s)" organized by Marie Curie researcher Feliks Levin (Postdoctoral Fellowship under contract number 101105224) Reimagining Ireland is presented by Katrine Nyland Sørensen and produced for the Classical Influences and Irish Culture project, funded by the European Research Council 818366 and hosted at the Centre for Irish Studies at Aarhus University in Denmark. https://cisa.au.dk

    27 min

  3. 09/23/2025

    07 Voices of Women with Jane Ohlmeyer

    History books are full of men. Women, by contrast, are often absent, or appear only as queens, mistresses, or figures remembered for their notoriety. In this episode of Reimagining Ireland, Professor Jane Ohlmeyer, Trinity College Dublin, introduces Voices of Women in Early Modern Ireland, a groundbreaking digital project that uncovers the everyday lives of women between 1550 and 1700. Closely connected to her book Making Empire, the project sheds light on how ordinary non-elite women navigated both war and peace, despite being largely hidden in the historical record. By recovering their voices, we gain a fuller, more complex understanding of Ireland’s past — and new insights into our present.Explore the project at voicesproject.ie Jane took part in the workshop “Sources from the margins: reflections on the empire in Ireland, Scotland and Wales (1530s-1790s)" organized by Marie Curie researcher Feliks Levin (Postdoctoral Fellowship under contract number 101105224) Reimagining Ireland is presented by Katrine Nyland Sørensen and produced for the Classical Influences and Irish Culture project, funded by the European Research Council 818366 and hosted at the Centre for Irish Studies at Aarhus University in Denmark. https://cisa.au.dk

    25 min

  4. 09/23/2025

    06 Making Empire with Jane Ohlmeyer

    What role did Ireland play in the making of empires? In this episode of Reimagining Ireland, Professor Jane Ohlmeyer, Trinity College Dublin, introduces her acclaimed book Making Empire, based on her James Ford Lectures. She shows how Ireland was not just shaped by empire but also shaped it — serving both as a site of colonisation and a platform for colonisers. Covering two centuries, from the mid-1500s to the mid-1700s, Ohlmeyer explores Ireland’s integral place in the English imperial system, the Irish as agents of empire, and the impact of empire on everyday lives. A conversation that challenges familiar nationalist narratives and places Ireland in a wider global context. Jane took part in the workshop “Sources from the margins: reflections on the empire in Ireland, Scotland and Wales (1530s-1790s)" organized by Marie Curie researcher Feliks Levin (Postdoctoral Fellowship under contract number 101105224) Reimagining Ireland is presented by Katrine Nyland Sørensen and produced for the Classical Influences and Irish Culture project, funded by the European Research Council 818366 and hosted at the Centre for Irish Studies at Aarhus University in Denmark. https://cisa.au.dk

    22 min

  5. 11/11/2019

    05 Greek Tragedies and Irish Politics: Classical Influences & Irish Culture

    Podcast series from the Centre for Irish Studies at the University of Aarhus. Isabelle Torrance is a professor at Aarhus University and director of the project "Classical Influences and Irish Culture". Ireland has a very special relationship with Classics that goes back more than 1000 years. During the bloody conflict in Northern Ireland, a number of authors - including Seamus Heaney - interpreted Greek tragedies in modern theater settings and were thus able to express strong attitudes to the conflict under the cover of classic tales written 2500 years earlier. Also featured in this podcast is Barry McCrea, professor at the University of Notre Dame. www.clic.au.dk

    32 min

  6. 11/11/2019

    04 Magdalene Laundries and the Maze Prison: Digging in the Uncomfortable Past

    Podcast series from the Center for Irish Studies at Aarhus University. Laura McAtackney is Associate Professor of Archeology at Aarhus University. Unlike most other archaeologists, she does not dig in the past - but in the present. What becomes heritage? What can we remember and what do we tend to forget? Laura McAtckney's research has brought her to Irish prisons and institutions such as a Magdalene Laundry in Ireland and the Long Kesh Maze prison in Northern Ireland.

    31 min

  7. 06/20/2019

    03 The Catholic Church and the Magdalene women

    I 2013 the Irish government had to issue a formal apology to the thousands of women who had been abused by the religious orders at the Magdalene Laundries. Why - and how - did the Catholic Church manage to a make fortune without any interference from public authorities, while they systematically abused vulnerable women? Associate Professor Katherine ODonnell of University College Dublin is the principal investigator of the Magdalene Oral History Project and tells about the Magdalene women isn this podcast.

    38 min

  8. 06/20/2019

    02 Northern Ireland on film: Who gets to tell whose story?

    For over 30 years, Arthur MacCaig, documented the Northern Irish conflict. Meanwhile, his son Donal Foreman grew up in Dublin. After MacCaig's death, the idea for the documentary film "The Image You Missed" emerged, interweaving the story of a son's attempt to get to know his late father, with the history of Northern Ireland's conflict. Father and son's recordings show two very different approaches to Irish nationalism, the role of images in a political struggle, and the competing claims of personal and political responsibility. In this way, an exciting cinematic work arises about the role of documentary film director in a political conflict: Which stories do you tell about the conflict - and which stories do you avoid telling? This is what “The Image you Missed” is about.

    21 min

  9. 06/20/2019

    01 How do we commemorate the past? The Easter Rising is still relevant for today's politics

    Lance Pettitt, who is Associate Research Fellow at Birkbeck, University of London, has done intensive research on how the Easter Rising was commemorated by RTÈ in 1966. Why is it interesting to study the way in which a nation commemorates important historical events? In the 'decade of centenaries', Ireland is commemorating events that led to political independence from Britain, but also to civil war and partition of Ireland. You might even say, that there IS a connection between the Easter Rising and Brexit. So what happened more than 100 years ago is still quite relevant for today’s politics.

    28 min
  • 9 Episodes

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Reimagining Ireland - Irish Studies Podcast is a series that brings research from Centre for Irish Studies at Århus University in Denmark to the rest of the world. The series is available in a Danish and an English version.

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