Dundalk Museum to host guest lecturer Dr. Edward Burke

The County Museum, Dundalk will host a lecture entitled ‘Ulster’s Lost Counties: Loyalism and Paramilitarism since 1920’ on Monday October 7th next at 8pm.

Louth County Council have announced the event takes place during 30th anniversary celebrations at the County Museum. 

The talk will be presented by Dr Edward Burke, Assistant Professor in the History of War at University College Dublin. 

The lecture will look at the history of Ulster loyalists who found themselves on the ‘wrong side’ of the border, in what became the Irish state. Dr. Burke examines questions around an ‘abandoned people’  in examining the experiences of loyalists in ‘lost’ Ulster – Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan – during the Anglo-Irish War and Civil War (1919-1923) which reinforced a militant loyalist tendency, one passed on to successive generations.

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“A successive wave of militant unionist or loyalist leaders in Northern Ireland spent their early years in the Irish Free State, and the impact of the loyalist ‘South’ on Belfast’s politics can still be felt in the present day,” said Dr. Burke.

Museum Curator, Brian Walsh, said: “This lecture is a huge reminder of the importance of knowing and appreciating the importance of what happened in the past as we try to understand the present and plan the future. The concept of legacy is key to understanding so much of what we take for granted.”  

He added: “As we in the Museum celebrate our 30th anniversary, it is so important that we recognize the importance of legacy not only in the physical collection of items and artefacts but also the way in which our own belief systems inform and shape our view of the world. This lecture captures the importance of this in its entirety.”  

Admission to the lecture is free but prior booking is recommended. Tea and coffee refreshments will be served after the talk. More information is available from the County Museum at 042 93 92 999.