Ireland Reimagined

Grasping Historial Perceptions for the Decade of Centenaries

Abstract

Ireland's decade of centenaries (2012-2022) commemorates historial milestones that led to the country's independence from Great Britain and the creation of the Republic of Ireland. However, since the advent of the Irish nation, its history has always been a contested space - where opposing political social, and cultural groups negotiate between historical narratives - to lay claim to a 'true' Irish history. This paper presents the competing historiographies involved in the Irish government's decade of centenaries and identifies the socio-political agenda behind state commemorations. A historical analysis of the commemorations that took place in the 2010s proves that socio-political considerations factored in the way Ireland's founding was portrayed by the Government, the public, and civil society. Overall, this paper concluded that the Irish Government's chief aims were to strike a conciliatory tone with northern Ireland, 'crowd-out' opposing historical narratives, and project Ireland's economic progress through the irish proclamation. Neverthless, academic historians and the public intervened in this negotiation to create reimagined histories of Ireland.