Looking back: Armagh conference 2015

On Saturday 25th April, the Church of Ireland Historical Society hosted its first conference of the year at Armagh Public Library.

Dr Immo Warntjes of Queen’s University Belfast began proceedings with a lively and engaging paper that discussed the Easter controversy in the seventh century. Mr Jeffrey Cox, who is pursuing his PhD at University College Dublin, was the second presenter of the day. He delivered his paper on the sixteenth-century bishop of Kildare, Alexander Craik. After lunch, Professor Pádraig Ó Riain of University College Cork gave a rather fitting talk about William Reeves, the nineteenth-century antiquarian and former librarian of Armagh Public Library, whose manuscripts are in the custody of the library. The day finished with a fascinating paper by Dr Ida Milne who talked about Protestants in rural Ireland and their close relationship with the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) in the twentieth century.

Members of the Society will be notified when the papers given by Drs Warntjes and Milne, as well as Professor Ó Riain, are made available on podcast. If anyone wishes to hear these papers but has not joined the Society, please subscribe to our annual membership by visiting our membership page. Anyone is welcome to join.

The Society wishes to express its gratitude to Mr Cox for agreeing to present his research paper at very short notice.