'After Independence', the 2015 Arbuthnott Lecture

Event description

The 2015 Arbuthnott Lecture will be delivered by Fintan O’Toole of The Irish Times, the distinguished author, critic and public intellectual. 

This year’s theme is ‘After Independence: The Strange Power of Continuity’, and it will explore how continuity shaped the evolution of modern Ireland after independence in 1922, drawing out lessons for the contemporary political situation on these islands.

In the context of continuing discussions about Scottish independence and the reframing of the relationships between Ireland and the UK, this is a subject that is both timely and relevant.

About the speaker

One authority has observed that ‘Nowhere else in the West does a single figure occupy the same position in national life as the political writer Fintan O’Toole in Ireland’.

The prize-winning author of over 15 books, he has recently completed an appointment as Leonard L. Milberg Lecturer in Irish Letters at Princeton University, combining this post with his role as columnist and literary editor of The Irish Times.

About the Arbuthnott Lecture

This lecture is an annual event funded by a trust established by the friends and family of Justin Arbuthnott, an Edinburgh University History student who was drowned along with three friends one night in July 1989 when their boat capsized off the coast near County Donegal in Ireland.

The Justin Arbuthnott Trust, held by the University, provides a postgraduate scholarship each year and this lecture, both of which are designed to promote the better understanding of Ireland and various complex relationships which link Ireland and Britain.

Book online

Bookings for this event have now closed. If you wish to attend, please contact the event organiser, Elaine Philip.

Related information

Justin Arbuthnott British Irish Fund

Fintan O’Toole  at Faber and Faber

Fintan O'Toole discusses referenda in 'The National'