Events Archive - Page 2 of 57 - Bristol Radical History Group

‘From Prejudice and Punk to Pride’: Music, art and the culture of resistance.

A personal account of the experience of growing up gay in 1970’s Ireland ,and how gay activists and punk rock musicians (including artists like Phil Chevron along with British bands and songwriters) inspired a new generation defending and fighting for ‘a love that did not have a name'. Presented by Eoin Freeney, Punk Rocker member of Chant! Chant! Chant!, Former Gay activist, and cofounder in 1991 of ‘ Muted Cupid" Irelands first gay community theatre group.

The Counterculture and the LGBT Press – Bristol and Beyond

Reviewing the relationship between the Counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s and the LGBT movement, this talk concentrates on the origins of LGBT periodicals as part of the alternative press of the period. It will cover such topics as the underground culture of gay men when male homosexuality was illegal, the repercussions of the decriminalisation of male homosexuality in 1967 and the campaign of legal discrimination to which both the early LGBT press and the alternative press were subjected in […]

We must begin with the land

How the social ecology of the 1970s counterculture helps us to think about food production

The Institute for Social Ecology (ISE) was a significant flowering of political ecology from the 1960s and 1970’s counterculture. It was co-founded in 1974 by its most prominent thinker, Murray Bookchin, and Dan Chodorkoff. Bookchin wrote extensively about food and agriculture from the early 1950s. In 1962, his first book on pesticides appeared, shortly before Rachel Carson’s more famous Silent Spring on the same topic. As an autoworker brought up in The Bronx district of New York, he was an […]

London Recruits

After a 10 year wait BRHG are very pleased to announce a special one-off showing of London Recruits as part of this years festival. The film will be followed by a discussion by some of those who took part in actions against the apartheid regime in South Africa in the 1960s and 70s. By the late 1960s, the Apartheid regime in South Africa had reached brutal new heights. Nelson Mandela and other freedom fighters had been imprisoned, killed or forced into exile. The African National Congress (ANC) […]

Bedminster Coalmines

The Greater Bedminster area was once covered by coal mines stretching from East Street to Long Ashton. This walk will take you around the sites of nine of the mines, each of which have their own stories, many ending in tragedy for the mineworkers. Although there is little left above ground now, this will soon change with plans to memorialise the memories of the thousands of almost forgotten working class Bristolians who worked, and often died, in the deep pits below the surface of Bedminster, […]

Criminalising protest

How did a Bristol grandmother end up with a 20 month prison sentence for taking part in a peaceful protest? How did the law change after the acquittal of the Colston 4 to prevent future protestors talking about the issues that motivated their actions in court? Why did the police think they could arrest a man in Oxford for criticising the King? Is it true that, in the words of Liberty lawyer Katy Watts, "broad anti-protest laws are shutting down people’s freedom of expression"? In this session, […]

From Killarney to Jarama

The political struggles that shaped Robert Hilliard

Local author Lin Clark introduces the subject of her new book Swift Blaze of Fire - the Life of Robert Hilliard: Olympian, Cleric, Brigadista her grandfather. Robert Hilliard was born in 1904; his family were loyalist Killarney factory owners who hoped he’d find a niche in Ireland’s British-run establishment. Yet 32 years later, as a member of the International Brigades, he was overjoyed to see Barcelona under workers' control. Fatally wounded at the Battle of Jarama, he died in February 1937. […]

Plotlands of Shepperton

A reading by Stefan Szczelkun

Stefan Szczelkun will read from his book Plotlands of Shepperton - a unique artist’s book on a massively under-researched area of the history of housing, soon to be re-released in large format. Szczelkun's commentary on Britain's plotlands reveals the houses to be haunted by their radical history. Do they contain a key to the ‘housing problem’ that the establishment dare not countenance? Following his reading, Stefan will discuss this and more in conversation with BRHG's Paul Smith.

Short Sharp Shock

Youth detention centres in the 1980s

In 1979 the new Tory government led by by Margaret Thatcher and Home Secretary, Willie Whitelaw, abolished borstals for young offenders and introduced a new system of 'youth detention centres' employing harsh, quasi-military discipline. They proudly claimed in their party manifesto that they were going to "experiment with a tougher regime as a short, sharp shock for young criminals". Using a series of fascinating images taken inside two such institutions in the mid 1980s, Glenochil and […]

Genocide or Famine? The Great Hunger of the 1840s

The Great Hunger of the late 1840s devastated Ireland and had a profound impact on the wider world. Around 10% of the population perished from hunger and disease, while a further 10% fled into exile to escape the famine at home. The Irish population in Britain doubled between 1841 and 1861. By 1900, two in every five Irish people were living overseas. Unsurprisingly, this remains one of the most contested chapters in Irish history. In this presentation Fin Dwyer tackles the history of this most […]