Programme of Talks
2026/2027
Open History Society 2026/2027
Programme
Prepare for a lineup of inspiring talks featuring distinguished speakers from diverse backgrounds. Each session promises to explore fascinating topics that deepen our understanding of history.
Friday, September 25, 2025. 7:30 PM
Dr. Karine Varley:
The Allied Bombing of France in WWII
ANNUAL PAUL ADDISON MEMORIAL LECTURE
Over 57,000 civilians were killed in the Allied bombing of France. Yet the campaign differed from that against Germany in important respects: civilians were not deliberately targeted, France was a friendly occupied nation, and the Free French consented to it. How far did humanitarian and political considerations serve as restraints on Allied, especially British, policies? How did it compare with the 1943 bombing of Tunisia, which killed 49,000 civilians?
Friday, October 30, 2025. 7:30 PM
Howard Amos: Russia Starts Here
Howard Amos will talk about his book, Russia Starts Here, which offers a critical perspective of modern Russia through the prism of the Pskov Region in the far west of the country. It was once a thriving nexus of trade and cultural exchange and had a medieval culture of democratic politics. It has its own distinctive traditions of architecture and icon-painting, yet the region has been shaped by the remnants of successive empires. Today it is one of the poorest and most rapidly depopulating places in Russia. It is a major recruiting ground for the Kremlin seeking men to fight in Ukraine and includes the heavily guarded frontier where Russia meets NATO and the EU.
Friday, November 27, 2025. 7:30 PM
Professor Enda Delaney:
The Cognitive Revolution in Modern Ireland, 1850-1920
Post-Famine Ireland experienced rapid economic, social, political and cultural change, but what about cognitive change? Cognition is the process of acquiring knowledge, information and understanding, and is fundamentally about sense-making. Ireland’s cognitive revolution had no start or end point, and was so quiet that most historians did not notice it. Using examples like the Irish language shift, changes in popular consumption, the decline of oral culture and the loss of vernacular modes of thought, Enda Delaney asks if the ‘cognitive revolution’ should be added to the revolutions that shaped modern Ireland?
December 2026
Members' Christmas Get-together
More information TBA
Friday, January 28, 2027. 7:30 PM
Dr Andrew Sanders:
Emergency Powers – UK Colonial Conflict Strategy in the Late 20thCentury
Dr. Andrew Sanders investigates the ways that the UK sought to tackle internal conflict across various colonial theatres during the post-WWII period. Utilising declassified state papers from regions as diverse as Nyasaland, Malaya, Kenya, Aden and Northern Ireland, this talk seeks to draw analogies between a range of international conflicts and assess British security policy during the “small wars” era.
Friday, February 26, 2027. 7:30 PM
Dr. Stephen Veerapen:
Witches and Witch Hunters - The Dark Legacy of James VI and I
Steven Veerapen traces witches, witchcraft and witch-hunters from the mass-trials under James VI & I in the late 16th century to the end of witch-hunting in the early 18th century. Placing Scotland – and Britain – in the context of developing ideas about good and evil, he explores what motivated widespread belief in demonic witchcraft, what caused mass panics about alleged witches, and what caused the relegation of both witch and witch-hunter to the realm of fantasy and the fringes of society.
Friday, March 26, 2027. 7:30 PM
Dr Hugh Hagan:
Women’s Lives in the Shipbuilding Community of Port Glasgow
“It’s ma job tae work and it’s yours tae make it go roon.”
This talk explores the community from the perspective of its women. It uses oral testimonies to shed light on the role of shipyard wives in managing family budgets, sustaining networks of family members and neighbours to help make ends meet on a daily basis, and to ensure their community survived the routine challenges of life in this shipbuilding community. Drawing on original interviews, it reflects on the role of oral history in introducing voices neglected by the formal record.
Friday, April 30, 2027. 7:30 PM
Ian Garden:
The Making and Impact of the Film ‘Casablanca’
Ian Garden is an expert and author on war-propaganda films. He will discuss the classic 1942 film, Casablanca, its key actors and actresses, its creation, its promotion, and its intended purpose and influence a year after the USA entered the Second World War. The talk will include clips from the film.
Date and Time
Next Meeting
Planning for the 27/28 season of talks already underway! Watch this space.
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Speakers
.......have included eminent academics, published authors, documentary producers, historical novelists, postgraduate researchers and Open History Society members. The subject matter may be anything from the Falklands War to medieval women, from Hugh MacDiarmid to Eamon De Valera, from Nazi feature films to Sicilian cultural history, from Bannockburn to Verdun.