Friday 3 July 2020 5:48pm
Professors Sonja Tiernan (left) and Barbara Brookes
It's worth replaying the lastest broadcasts in the Otago-led “History Worth Repeating” radio series.
The OAR 105.4FM series is hosted by History Programme Professor Emerita Barbara Brookes and Dr Sonja Tiernan, Eamon Cleary Professor of Irish Studies at the University of Otago.
Since its first broadcast earlier this year, the Professors and guests have canvassed a wide range of topics – from individual stories to national histories.
“After lockdown we returned with a great selection of topics for the remainder of the year, and were pleased to offer such a wide-ranging series,” Professor Tiernan says.
"It has been wonderful to engage also with personal stories such as that of Peter Burke who uncovered a fascinating history about his own father who emigrated here from Ireland. Through research, Peter unearthed a previous untold history of hundreds of Irish men who were conscientious objectors in New Zealand during World War Two."
On 7 June Bettina Bradbury explored the fascinating true colonial inheritance saga of Caroline Kearney. When Kearney’s husband died his will stipulated that she, and her six children, would only receive their inheritance if they moved from Australia to Ireland.
Also in June Dame Fiona Kidman discussed the true account of Albert Black, the second-last man executed in New Zealand. Black, who was from Belfast, Ireland, became known by the media as the Jukebox Killer.
Later in the same month Associate Professor Mark Seymour explored the love-triangle, and Italian culture in the late-1800s, which is central to his new book Emotional Arenas: life, love and death in 1870s Italy. The book is based on the shocking murder trial that transfixed all of Italy.
This month Toitū Otago Settlers Museum curator and an adjunct member of the Centre of Irish and Scottish Studies Seán Brosnahan discussed the Settlers Museum’s exciting next project, ‘Journey to New Edinburgh.’
The series is sponsored by the Eamon Cleary Trust through the Centre for Irish and Scottish Studies, University of Otago.