Post by earl on Oct 25, 2007 20:04:30 GMT
EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS of the 1641 Irish Catholic uprising in Ulster, which triggered centuries of sectarian divide, will be made publicly available for the first time.
A team of researchers from three universities - Aberdeen, Cambridge and Trinity College in Dublin - will help mark Tuesday's anniversary of the 17th-century rebellion with the launch of a project to transcribe and digitise 3400 testimonies by those who lived through it 366 years ago.
The stockpile of evidence, housed in the library of Trinity College, has never been comprehensively analysed, but could hold the key to providing an accurate account of the bloody events that led to centuries of conflict.
advertisement
Professor Tom Bartlett, chair in Irish history and principal investigator from Aberdeen University, said: "It's generally now accepted that around 10,000 Protestants died during the uprising, of which two or three thousand were Scots settlers.
"The details in these accounts don't come from kings and queens or princes, but ordinary folk caught up in the horrific events of the 1640s. They recorded what they saw, what they heard, what clothes they were wearing, whether they saw themselves as Scottish or British, and much more."
Professor John Morrill from University of Cambridge, who will chair the research team, said: "The 1641 massacres, like King William's victory at the Boyne in 1690, have played a key role in creating and sustaining a collective Protestant and British identity in Ulster."
Historians and commentators have for centuries debated what really happened, with some arguing it was an attempted bloodless rebellion by Catholics which quickly spiralled out of control. Others claim thousands of Scottish and English Protestants were deliberately massacred.
The three-year project has been given funding of £1 million from research councils in Ireland and the UK, as well as funding from Trinity College Library.
The library acquired the documents in 1741, but their poor condition enabled only restricted access and made them difficult to read. The transcripts of testimonies will be available online for academics and the general public, and are also to be published in book form.
A team of researchers from three universities - Aberdeen, Cambridge and Trinity College in Dublin - will help mark Tuesday's anniversary of the 17th-century rebellion with the launch of a project to transcribe and digitise 3400 testimonies by those who lived through it 366 years ago.
The stockpile of evidence, housed in the library of Trinity College, has never been comprehensively analysed, but could hold the key to providing an accurate account of the bloody events that led to centuries of conflict.
advertisement
Professor Tom Bartlett, chair in Irish history and principal investigator from Aberdeen University, said: "It's generally now accepted that around 10,000 Protestants died during the uprising, of which two or three thousand were Scots settlers.
"The details in these accounts don't come from kings and queens or princes, but ordinary folk caught up in the horrific events of the 1640s. They recorded what they saw, what they heard, what clothes they were wearing, whether they saw themselves as Scottish or British, and much more."
Professor John Morrill from University of Cambridge, who will chair the research team, said: "The 1641 massacres, like King William's victory at the Boyne in 1690, have played a key role in creating and sustaining a collective Protestant and British identity in Ulster."
Historians and commentators have for centuries debated what really happened, with some arguing it was an attempted bloodless rebellion by Catholics which quickly spiralled out of control. Others claim thousands of Scottish and English Protestants were deliberately massacred.
The three-year project has been given funding of £1 million from research councils in Ireland and the UK, as well as funding from Trinity College Library.
The library acquired the documents in 1741, but their poor condition enabled only restricted access and made them difficult to read. The transcripts of testimonies will be available online for academics and the general public, and are also to be published in book form.
