Dr Ciara Breathnach on the Final Report of Ireland’s Mother & Baby Homes Commission of Investigation Despite the fact that the poor law was dismantled in the 1920s, nineteenth-century workhouses are still prominent features in the Irish landscape. Ominous and foreboding, many became county and district hospitals and served as […]
Histories of the Present
Remembering the New Cross Massacre
In the early morning on Sunday 18 January 1981, a fire broke out at 439 New Cross Road in the London Borough of Lewisham. The fire was almost certainly the result of a deliberate racist attack. Thirteen young Black Britons lost their lives as a result.
Rap Speaks, but Who Listens? The Musical ‘Other’ in France
What does rap tell us of social change and conflict in the French Republic? Paroma Ghose explores how its themes reveal a socio-political conversation with the state.
‘An Equality of Injustice’: The Sex Buyers’ Bill and Lessons from History
The “Sex Buyers’ Bill” now pending in Parliament aims to protect women from exploitation by criminalizing men who buy sex, yet it is vehemently opposed by UK sex workers. Julia Laite explores the tangled history and woeful consequences of attempts to outlaw the trade in sex.
Referendums Yet to Come
In the latest from our ‘Radical History after Brexit’ series, Aoife O’Donoghue & Colin Murray explore Northern Ireland’s Brexit dilemma, and consider referendums yet to come.
‘Building Welfare States’: Report on an Online Conference
Amidst the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic it seems that virtual conferences are here to stay. In the first half of this post, PhD student Ed DeVane reflects on the experience of ‘doing’ an online event. The second half of this blog serves as a report on the proceedings of the ‘Building Welfare States’ conference, hosted (online) by Warwick University, 23rd – 25th September 2020.
Of, or For Mary Wollstonecraft?
Is Maggi Hambling’s ‘A Sculpture for Mary Wollstonecraft’ attuned to the intellectual accomplishments of the woman it was created for, or to the particular struggles of women in the present? Vic Clarke investigates.