‘Ireland and India’, lecture delivered by Jane Ohlmeyer
With a focus on Ireland and India, this lecture examines five themes. First, Ireland was England’s oldest colony and formed an integral part of the English imperial system, just as India did, albeit from a later period. Second, Ireland served as a laboratory for empire in the Atlantic world and in India. Third, as well as being colonised, the Irish operated as soldiers and servants of empire in India. Fourth, as well as being servants of the empire Irish people were subversives within it and helped to unmake empire in the Indian subcontinent. Finally, the legacies of empire today will be explored briefly.
Jane Ohlmeyer is Erasmus Smith’s Professor of Modern History at Trinity College Dublin. She is the author of Making Empire: Ireland, Imperialism, and the Early Modern World (2023), based on her 2021 James Ford Lectures, Oxford University, and editor of The Cambridge History of Ireland, vol. 2.
This online lecture is presented by The British India Historical Trust. For more information and to book tickets, please visit: https://www.britishinindia.org.uk/2024-25-zoom-lectures