June 7, 2012

Like all European counties with an Atlantic coastline, Ireland sought to draw advantage from discovery and expansion in the new world. But Europe’s overseas empires were the creations of powerful sovereigns and navies, neither of which sixteenth- century Ireland possessed. In the seventeenth century the Irish made efforts to establish their own colonies under the auspices of the English, Spanish and Portuguese. Rebuffed in these attempts, in the eighteenth century they concentrated on working within the existing empires of France and Britain. The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars saw Britain emerge as the world’s greatest maritime, industrial and imperial power. The British Empire was bigger than ever before and the Irish involvement was greater. Maritime strength gave Britain control of the Atlantic. In the north, Canada was part of the empire. Passenger legislation, passed in Westminster, encouraged the Irish to go there in British or Irish ships. Ultimately, Ireland’s attitude to the Empire has often been described as ambivalent, denouncing her own colonial situation while helping in the spread of British imperialism. Learn more in this fascinating public talk by Doctor Nini Rodgers of Queen’s University Belfast. June 7 - 7:00 pm