News Feed - Bristol Radical History Group

Faces of the Irish Diaspora: Portrait Exhibition

The exhibition illustrates the diverse experiences of identity, heritage, migration and belonging of local Irish people in Bristol. The portraits include objects of significance to their stories, and celebrate the contributions made by Irish immigrants to the life and culture of the city. Faces of the Irish Diaspora features the work of local photographer Frances Tolson, who has taken portraits that capture the essence and spirit of each individual and beautifully recorded the objects that hold […]

‘No Coloureds, No Irish, No Dogs’

The struggle against racial discrimination in Bristol housing

In conversation with Silu Pascoe, members of the 'Windrush Generation' share memories and experiences of how they overcame racial discrimination when finding somewhere to live in Bristol. In particular, Joyce Morris-Wisdom recalls the 'pardner-hand' system that enabled her parents to become home-owners. Guy Bailey OBE outlines the setting up United Housing Association which was the first Black-led housing association in 1980s Bristol.

Red Notes Choir

Catch Bristol’s wonderful Red Notes Choir, who will support the Bristol Radical History Festival by performing at 11:30am. They’ll be singing in the Ground Floor Foyer by the M Shed main entrance. The Red Notes Choir is a Bristol-based socialist choir. They have a repertoire of songs from around the world on historical, union, peace, green and human rights themes. We use the streets of Bristol and further afield to spread our message of fighting for the rights of working people, those who are […]

Short, Sharp, Shock

In the mid-1980s radical photographer Carlos Guarita gained access to two youth detention centres, Glenochil and Kirklevington Grange, part of the 'short, sharp, shock' system introduced in 1979 by the Tory Home Secretary, Willie Whitelaw. Through a fascinating series of images supported by the insights of detainee Colin Adamson this exhibition exposes the living conditions for inmates subject to the harsh, quasi-military discipline. Carlos Guarita and Colin Adamson will guide us through the […]

The one road

From Bristol to Dublin

A walk though time and space with Mark Steeds, covering no less than 1,500 years of Bristols historic connections with Dublin and featuring Saints and Sinners, Roundheads and Royalists, Colonists and Criminals, Transportees and Treachery, Merchants and Murders… From the efforts of Wulfstan in 1090 to ban the trade in Anglo Saxon slaves with the invading Vikings in Dublin, via the Easter Monday massacre of 1209 in Killin Woods, outside of Dublin, when 500 new settlers from Bristol were attacked […]

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, […]

‘Stopping business as usual’

The Dunnes anti-apartheid strike within a wider political environment

The three-year strike which followed the July 1984 refusal of eleven workers at Dunnes' Stores Henry Street branch in Dublin to handle South African goods is perhaps the most celebrated episode of anti-apartheid activism outside Southern Africa, yielding memoirs, academic scholarship, radio and television documentaries and even a play. While still recounting the essential narrative of the strike for those unfamiliar with it, Padraig Durnin's talk will explore what made it exceptional in […]

Mozambique at 50

A LUTA CONTINUA!

BRHG brings together a selection of posters of the Mozambican Revolution from the ‘Our Sophisticated Weapon’ exhibition and other archival material relating to the campaign for independence and the ensuing civil war. Speaker: 11.30am - Dave Spurgeon will guide you through the exhibits. Dave will provide a brief history of Mozambican independence, how it supported and inspired liberation struggles across Southern Africa and the price it paid which impacted its own development. He will identify […]

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, […]

Bristol’s Misérables

The soldiers and sailors of Stapleton prison

Chris Bowkett’s talk focuses on the untold history of Stapleton Prison, the home of captured soldiers and sailors during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. Using stories of the prisoners themselves, this talk reveals the surprising amount of freedom offered to Britain’s “enemies” whilst in captivity, contrasted with their biggest problem: boredom. This talk covers both the inventive and self-destructive ways “the miserables” occupied their time at His Majesty’s pleasure.