Culture Night at O'Connell House: The O'Connell Lecture and Open House
Please note that this event takes place in Dublin. Times are in GMT.
Join the University of Notre Dame Dublin on Culture Night (Friday, September 18th) as we open Daniel "The Liberator" O'Connell's home for an open house and the annual O'Connell Lecture. Book tickets via Eventbrite, or visit the Culture Night listing here.
4 - 6 pm | Open House
Before the O'Connell Lecture, all ages are welcome to peruse O’Connell’s historic home and the collections and libraries of the University of Notre Dame in Ireland.
Booking a ticketed time slot is preferred but not essential.
6 - 7 pm | The O'Connell Lecture
Dr. Jay Roszman (University College Cork) will explore The Liberator's global humanitarian work in the annual O'Connell Lecture titled "Global Reformer? Daniel O’Connell, humanitarianism and its limits 1829-1845."
We often think of O’Connell in domestic terms – as the politician responsible for Catholic Emancipation and for his unsuccessful struggle to repeal the Act of Union. This talk invites us to reconsider O’Connell’s interests in more global terms, focusing on his humanitarian interventions throughout the British Empire and North America in the 1830s and early 1840s. Doing so, this talk contends, brings to light a more complicated picture of O’Connell and his political ambitions that stretched far beyond Ireland.
Dr. Jay Roszman is a lecturer in 19th-century Irish and British History at University College Cork, where he was appointed in 2018. He has published work on agrarian violence in pre-Famine Ireland, Irish Nationalism and anti-imperialism in Age of Reform, and most recently, on the Queen’s Colleges and their relationship to the British Empire. He is currently working on a book length manuscript that explores how the former Queen’s Colleges trained men for imperial careers. He was a contributor and historical consultant on the RTÉ documentary “Daniel O’Connell: The Emancipator.” In academic year 2027-28, Roszman will be a visiting fellow at the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies at the University of Notre Dame, where he will be organising an international project on "Global O’Connell."
Booking is essential. If the lecture is sold out online, please email dublin@nd.edu or speak to Notre Dame Dublin staff members on Culture Night.
About Culture Night:
Culture Night / Oíche Chultúir is sponsored by the Arts Council of Ireland. It is a national moment, celebrating culture, creativity, and the arts and seeks to actively promote the belief that Ireland's rich and varied culture is alive, treasured and nurtured in people’s lives, today and every day. It is delivered nationwide in cities, towns, villages and rural locations as well as online and through media partners.
On September 19, 2025, doors will open later and special and unique events specifically programmed at participating locations and, thanks to the continued support of the Arts Council and Local Authorities across the island of Ireland, all activities are available to the public free of charge.