DETAILS
Thursday 5th March 2026 at 12:15am (AEDT), 2:15am (NZDT)
Dr Samuel Beckton
No Surrender from Down Under: The Australian Anti-Irish Home Rule Movement, 1911–14
ABSTRACT
As the third Irish Home Rule crisis grew more threatening from 1911 onwards, Ulster Unionists began searching for allies across the British Empire, including in Australia. This research highlights the role and influence of the Australian anti-Home Rule movement from 1911 to 1914, investigating why the Loyal Orange Institution in Australia published resolutions sympathetic to the Unionist cause. The research also investigates who the supporters were, who donated thousands of pounds in aid, or who enlisted in an Australian Ulster volunteer contingent. Most importantly, it considers how widespread and organised these Ulster sympathisers were, particularly by 1914 when they produced an anti-Home Rule petition, which reached up to 250,000 signatures.
SPEAKER
Dr Samuel Beckton is a historian of Modern Irish History. He has an MPhil in International Peace Studies from Trinity College Dublin, an MPhil in Politics from Queen’s University Belfast, and a Department of Education PhD scholarship in History from Ulster University. On 30 September 2022, he spoke in the Seanad Éireann after submitting his research as evidence to the Public Consultation on the Constitutional Future of the Island of Ireland Committee. More recently he has been a stakeholder manager organising a series of exhibitions on the history of the Protestant Association in Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan, being funded by the ARINS Project, and the coordinator for the 1925 Irish Boundary Commission Centenary Conference at PRONI.
LOCATION (Online via Microsoft Teams)
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