An exhibition to raise awareness about one of the most bloody and traumatic moments in Irish history will open this week…
‘Ireland in Turmoil: the 1641 Depositions,’ an exhibition to raise awareness about one of the most bloody and traumatic moments in Irish history, the 1641 Irish Rebellion, will be opened by the President of Ireland, Mary McAleese in Trinity College Dublin’s Long Room, Old Library (Ireland) on October 22nd next.
Former DUP leader, Dr Ian Paisley will also be speaking at the exhibition.
On the occasion of the exhibition, the transcribed and digitised 1641 Depositions, witness testimonies of the violent massacres of the 1641 Irish Rebellion, will be launched online in a new website www.1641.tcd.ie, a free resource which will be publicly available.
The online resource sees the culmination of a three-year collaborative research project between TCD and the Universities of Aberdeen and Cambridge, using the latest research technology.
The 1641 Depositions are witness testimonies by mainly Protestants from all social backgrounds concerning their experiences during the rebellion of the Catholic Irish in 1641.
The testimonies document sometimes in vivid and harrowing terms the alleged crimes committed by the Irish Catholic insurgents, including torture, assault, stripping, imprisonment and murder as well as the loss of goods and military activity.
This body of material runs to 19, 000 pages in which 90,000 people are named and is unparalleled anywhere in early modern Europe, providing a unique source of information for the causes and events surrounding the 1641 rebellion.
For the online digitisation of the 1641 Depositions click on http://www.1641.tcd.ie
Details of exhibition: 5.45pm, October 22nd, 2010 Long Room, Old Library, Trinity College Dublin
