DRI is delighted to announce that the recording of our celebratory launch ‘Amplifying Change: A history of the Atlantic Philanthropies on the island of Ireland’ is now available on our website.
The Digital Repository of Ireland has been working with the archives of the Atlantic Philanthropies, held by Cornell University Library, to develop digital exhibitions that showcase the work accomplished by Atlantic grant recipients on the island of Ireland over the last 30 years.
To mark the official launch of the archival project, we had planned a celebratory launch for 12 March 2020 which, unfortunately, had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The launch was reimagined as an online roundtable discussion which took place on 10 September 2020 and featured a rich line-up of key figures in the advancement of human rights, peace, and social justice from across the island of Ireland, followed by an interactive Q&A session. The event was chaired by award-winning journalist, writer, and broadcaster Susan McKay and featured the following expert speakers:
- Colin Harvey | Professor Human Rights Law, Queen’s University Belfast, Fellow of the Senator George J Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice.
- Salome Mbugua | Researcher and human rights advocate. Founder of national network of migrant women living in Ireland, AkiDwA.
- Martin O’Brien | Human rights campaigner and writer; former Executive Director of the Committee for the Administration of Justice; former Senior Vice President of Programmes, Atlantic Philanthropies.
- Lynn Ruane | Independent Senator, writer and campaigner on issues of justice and equality.
We are very grateful for the contributions of the speakers to the success of the event. Please enjoy the challenging and inspiring roundtable discussion in the video below.
You can browse the digital exhibitions for this archival project at the following dedicated platform: https://dri.ie/atlanticphilanthropies The exhibitions you find here are organised loosely around three aggregate themes of Atlantic granting in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland: Human Rights, Education, and Communities. The thematic exhibitions combine select objects from Atlantic’s archive with newly collected oral histories which contextualise the grant documentation. We hope you enjoy this invaluable resource.