DETAILS
Wednesday 28th May 2025 at 6:00pm (AET), 9:00am (IST)
Fergal McDonald, PhD candidate, Victoria University, Melbourne
Contact with the Past, Connections in the Present: Springhill Community House and the Ballymurphy Massacre Campaign
ABSTRACT
The Ballymurphy Massacre is the name given to the killing of eleven civilians by the British Army on 9-11 August 1971 in Belfast, during the early years of the Troubles conflict. Fergal’s PhD thesis is centred on a memory of the deaths from 1971 to the present with a particular focus on post-1998 efforts to actively remember the deaths as a single event. In October 2023 he sent an email to Ciaran Cahill the coordinator of Springhill Community House, in connection with the Ballymurphy Massacre Campaign. He specifically wanted speak to the families of the dead who had recently steered a campaign to have their loved ones declared innocent by the Belfast Coroner’s Court. This initial contact not only led to interviews with some of the families, but also to interviews with a network of established activists gathered around Springhill Community House, and the work of the late Fr Des Wilson. This presentation examines the relationship of the contemporary family led campaign to Springhill Community House’s decades old legacy as a participatory, community-based organisation in Ballymurphy.
SPEAKER
Fergal McDonald is undertaking a PhD in history at Victoria University. Fergal specialises in the study of social and collective memory, oral history and sociology. His honours thesis was on the history of the Northern Irish “Troubles”.
LOCATION (Online only)
This free public seminar will be held online via Zoom. The Zoom room will be open 10 minutes before the scheduled start to give everyone time to connect. Please keep your microphone on mute for the duration of the talk. There will be time for questions at the end of the seminar. Please RSVP to Dianne.hall@vu.edu.au if you would like the zoom link.
RECORDING
A recording may be posted here after the seminar.