Wednesday, March 31
2 PM EST / 7PM IST 
bit.ly/burnsscholar live on YouTube

In 1933 Jimmy Gralton became the first, and last, Irishman deported from Ireland. Condemned by local priests as a communist whose Leitrim dancehall had become a den of prostitution, Gralton’s fate illustrates the deep anxieties provoked in 1930s Ireland by communism, jazz, and sexual immorality. Why did these emblems of inter-war modernity prompt such alarm in a remote corner of Ireland’s most rural county? This talk considers what such moral panics, and how we now remember them, tell us about Ireland.

Fearghal McGarry, Professor of Modern Irish history at Queen’s University Belfast is the spring 2021 Burns Visiting Scholar in Irish Studies at Boston College. A member of the Royal Irish Academy, he has written or edited eleven books on Irish history. His recent research has centered on the Irish revolution and the cultural and political revival from which it emerged. In collaboration with colleagues at the University of Edinburgh and Boston College, Professor McGarry leads a major AHRC project, A Global History of Irish Revolution 1916-1923. The project will culminate with an international conference held at Boston College in September 2021