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Book now via the University of Brighton online store https://is.gd/GrandHotelTickets Please draw to atention of interested students.
Performance only: £5 (Wed 15th evening)
Whole Symposium including Performance: £50 / £20 (unwaged/student) (Wed 15th & Thurs 16th)
Symposium either Part 1 or Part 2, and Performance: £30 / £15 (unwaged/student)
THE BRIGHTON ‘GRAND HOTEL’ BOMBING: HISTORY, MEMORY & POLITICAL THEATRE.
A Commemoration
of the 30th anniversary, 12th October 1984–2014.
A TWO-PART SYMPOSIUM AND DRAMA PERFORMANCE
To be held on Wednesday 15th/Thursday 16th October 2014,
College of Arts and Humanities, Grand Parade, University of Brighton
On 12th October 1984 a bomb planted by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) exploded in Brighton’s Grand Hotel, where Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, members of her Government, delegates attending the Conservative Party’s annual conference, and their families, were staying. Five people were killed and over thirty were injured, some seriously. The Brighton bombing was one of the most significant among nearly 500 incidents in the PIRA’s campaign of political violence in England over twenty-five years from 1973–97. It generated impassioned as well as critical reflection and debate, nationally across Britain and locally in Brighton and Hove, about how and why the armed conflict in and over Northern Ireland had come to this town in England, the political and ethical meanings of the attack, and its human consequences for those harmed by it.
To mark the 30th anniversary of the Grand Hotel bombing, the University of Brighton is hosting a Commemoration that will revisit these questions and re-evaluate the significance of the event today, in the light of the Irish peace process that has brought the PIRA’s armed struggle to a close. The centrepiece is a work-in-progress reading of a new play by local dramatists Julie Everton and Josie Melia, which explores the causes and consequences of the event, highlighting the personal journey towards empathy of Pat Magee and Jo Berry within the ongoing wider peace process. The piece will be framed by a two-part symposium to discuss, firstly, the history, memory and legacy of the Irish Troubles in Britain; and secondly, Everton and Melia’s play, and the role of political theatre in exploring living histories of war and conflict in Britain and Ireland today. Speakers will include theatre practitioners, peace campaigners, political activists and leading academic scholars.
The Commemoration is jointly organised by Wildspark Theatre Company and
the Understanding Conflict: Forms and Legacies of Violence research cluster at
the University of Brighton:
Wednesday 15th October
2.00 – 6.00 pm: Symposium Part 1: The ‘Grand Hotel’ bombing and the Provisional IRA’s campaign in Britain during the ‘Troubles’: histories, memories, legacies
Keynote lecture: Dr Gary McGladdery (Queen’s
University Belfast),
‘The Brighton Bombing: Reflections on the historical significance, impact and consequences of the Provisional IRA’s attack on the British Government’Panel: The ‘Grand Hotel’ bomb and the Irish Troubles in Britain – histories, memories, legacies
Nadine Finch (Barrister and Honorary Research Fellow, University of
Bristol, formerly Chair of the Labour Committee on Ireland), ‘The impact of the Brighton bombing on the politically active Irish
community and Labour Movement in Britain’
Stephen Hopkins (School of Politics and International Relations, University of Leicester), ‘Remembering and forgetting the Northern Ireland Troubles in Great Britain: History, memories and legacies’
Dr Lesley Lelourec (Centre for Irish Studies, Université Rennes 2), ‘Coming to terms with a tragedy: The community response to the Warrington bombing’
7.30 Performance (Sallis Benney Theatre)
The Bombing
of the Grand Hotel, a play by Julie Everton and Josie Melia.
This is a new draft of a work in progress, to be fully staged in April and May 2015 in Brighton and London. The actors will read from scripts, focusing on specific sections to show how the play’s dramatic questions are explored in terms of style, structure, characters and plot.
Thursday 16th October
9.45 am –1.30 pm Symposium Part 2: The Bombing of the Grand Hotel and political theatre in Britain and Ireland in 2014
Panel 1: The Bombing of the Grand Hotel – a discussion of Julie Everton and Josie Melia’s play
Sarah Jane Dickenson (School of Drama, Music and Screen, University of
Hull)
Julie Everton (School of Humanities, University of Brighton, playwright)
Josie Melia (playwright)
Jo Berry (Building Bridges for Peace)
Panel 2: Forms of engagement: Political
theatre in Britain and Ireland in 2014
Dave Wybrow (Artistic Director, Cockpit Theatre, London), ‘What do we mean by political theatre?’
Paula McFetridge (Artistic Director, Kabosh Theatre Company, Belfast), ‘The positive role theatre can
play in helping us deal with the past in the north of Ireland’
Neil Fleming (principal writer) and Jem Wall (Artistic Director; both of Hydrocracker Theatre Company, Brighton), ‘Hydrocracker: Making political theatre in England today’
For further details and to book a ticket for the the symposium and the play, or for the play alone, visit http://arts.brighton.ac.uk/research/conflict/events/the-brighton-grand-hotel-bombing