The Engelsberg Applied History Annual Lecture is back after a year hiatus. This year, we will be joined by Professor Patrick Geoghegan of Trinity College Dublin to speak on the career of Martin Mansergh. Known simply as ‘The Man’ by the IRA during the clandestine talks of the late-1980s and early-1990s, Martin Mansergh played a crucial role in helping to bring about the peace process and was directly involved in the negotiations that led to the Good Friday Agreement. The son of the distinguished Cambridge historian, Nicholas Mansergh, from whom he gained important insights into Irish history, British-Irish relations, and the Irish republican tradition, Martin completed a Ph.D. on the French Revolution at Oxford, before returning home to Ireland where he worked for three different Taoisigh (prime ministers) and later served a government minister. His application of history and the historical method proved invaluable across three decades of public service, and his advice and expertise was called upon during various political crises, as well as during government formation, and when it came to developing new approaches to Northern Ireland.

 

This presentation explores how Mansergh was able to use his understanding of history and the historical experience to change the future of the island of Ireland. Immersed in the world of history and historical thinking, Mansergh ability to think across time enabled him to approach previously unresolved questions with empathy and insight and also an important element of common sense. The public service career of Mansergh was defined by the application of history, and it provides a case study that enables us to investigate its capabilities and potential in the areas of peace-making, statesmanship, governance and diplomacy.

 

Lord Paul Bew will act as respondent. This event will be chaired by Dr Maeve Ryan, Co-Director of the Centre for Grand Strategy, who will lead the Q and A session. A drinks reception will follow.

 

You can sign up for the event here.

 

About the speakers

Professor Geoghegan is a professor in modern history at Trinity College Dublin and an expert on the British-Irish relationship in the late-eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as well as on the competing themes of constitutional nationalism and republicanism. His work explores the tensions that led to the creation of a new political relationship in 1800, the attempts to overturn this settlement by force, as well as the campaigns to transform the relationship through constitutional means. He also works on legal and constitutional changes in Ireland and served as the President of the Irish Legal History Society (2018-2021).

Deeply committed to sharing his love of history with the widest possible audience, Professor Geoghegan presents the award-winning Talking History on Newstalk radio. The weekly radio programme is regular one of the most downloaded podcasts, and since 2006 has been praised for covering all aspects of history, from ancient times to the present day. Professor Geoghegan served as a special adviser to the Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, between June 2017 and June 2020. He is the Chair of the Advisory Board of the Royal Irish Academy’s Dictionary of Irish Biography project (www.dib.ie).

 

Lord Paul Bew is a professor of Politics at the Queens University Belfast. Formerly a historical adviser to the Bloody Sunday Tribunals, he is a crossbench peer who served on the London Local Authority Bill Select Committee in 2007 and act as secretary to the All Party Group on Archives and history. In 2011, Lord Bew served on the select committee of both houses on the defamation bill, which included key issues of academic freedom. House of Lords/House of Commons Joint Committee on the Draft Defamation Bill (HL Paper203, HC 930-1 published on 19 October 2011). Published on 19 October 2011 by authority of the House of Commons.

Member of the council of the Constitution Unit council. Chaired the independent review Key Stage 2 (SATs’) provision in England which reported in July 2011 and was accepted by the UK government.

Lord Bew is an honorary Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge and a Member of Royal Irish Academy (MRIA).

Lord Bew has published Enigma: A new Life of Charles Stewart Parnell (Gill and Macmillan 2011) and continue to contribute to the media. This book was named by the Sunday Times as a biography of the year. Member of the British Irish Parliamentary Assembly.

 

Dr Maeve Ryan is a Senior Lecturer in History and Grand Strategy at the Department of War Studies, King’s College London, where she co-directs the Centre for Grand Strategy. At the heart of this centre is an ‘applied history’ approach, which aims to bring more historical and strategic expertise to statecraft, diplomacy and foreign policy. Maeve directs the centre’s major research projects and impact activities, including the Ax:son Johnson Institute for Statecraft and Diplomacy, the Forum on Future British Strategy, the World Order Study Group, The Engelsberg Programme for Applied History, Grand Strategy and Geopolitics (in partnership with the University of Cambridge; supported by the Ax:son Johnson Foundation); the £1.05m Leverhulme Doctoral Scholarship Programme, ‘Interrogating Visions of a Post-Western World'; the Maymester Sumer School, and the Philip Leverhulme Prize-funded project on the origins and future of the idea of ‘world order’. Along with Prof. Alessio Patalano, she also co-directs the centre’s new Indo-Pacific Programme.