The 1925 Irish Boundary Commission Centenary Conference
Schedule
Fri Nov 07 2025 at 09:00 am to 05:30 pm
UTC+00:00Location
Public Record Office of Northern Ireland | Belfast, NI
About this Event
On 7 November 1925, near the end of the work of Irish Boundary Commission, the Morning Post published a speculative map of what the Commission was going to recommend in its report to the British, Irish, and Northern Irish governments. Ultimately, the Commission’s recommendations in its report would be dismissed by all governments and its findings unpublished until 1969. However, it was the final confirmation of the Irish boundary line, which would end up shaping the political, social, cultural and economic futures of both states on the island of Ireland.
To mark the 100th anniversary of the Morning Post’s published article, as well as the wider centenary of the Irish Boundary Commission, PRONI will hold an Irish Studies conference. The conference will focus on both the 1925 Irish Boundary Commission and the wider topic of the partition of Ireland, its roots and its impact.
Conference Programme
09:00-09:30 – Open of conference and registration
09:30 09:45 – Welcome address
09:45-10:45 – Home Rule crisis & Revolutionary period
Ulster Unionist Leadership in North Londonderry, 1911–1925
Aaron Callan, Independent
The Racial Politics of the Home Rule Bill, Partition, and the Ulster Volunteers in the Irish Advanced Nationalist Press: 1912 to 1918.
Emer O’Brien, University College Dublin
Irish Free State military pensions for the dependants of deceased combatants of the Irish Revolution in Northern Ireland: Evidence, practicalities, stakeholders
Cormac Keenan, Dublin City University
10:45-11:00 – Tea break
11:00-12:00 – Role of Women
The Boundary Commission and northern women
Dr Margaret Ward, Queen’s University Belfast
Worn Stories: Unravelling the boundaries of the alterations of fashion in 20th Century Northern Ireland/Ireland
Sara Cathcart and Rachel Sayers, Public Record Office of Northern Ireland
Recognition for Republican Women in Post-Partition Ulster, 1930-1950
Andrew Himmelberg, Queen’s University Belfast
Impact of Partition
Railways in Ireland and the impact of partition
Jim McBride, Independent
Lessons in a New State: Northern Ireland and the gendered outcomes of building a post-partition secondary schooling system, 1921-1965
Becca Mowbray, Queen’s University Belfast
The Ulster Cycle: the partition saga in northern cycling and wider sport
Dónal McAnallen, National Museum NI
12:00-12:45 – Lunch
12:45-13:45 – Roundtable Discussion of High Politics and the Boundary Commission
Wooden gun: nationalists and the Boundary Commission
Dr Emmet O’Connor (Ulster University)
The Unionist Perspective on the Boundary Commission
Dr Edward Burke (University College Dublin)
Chaired by Dr Margaret O’Callaghan (Queen’s University Belfast)
13:45-14:45 – Book launch
The Unbroken Covenant: Could Ulster Unionists have controlled a nine-county Northern Ireland, 1920-1945?
Dr Samuel Beckton, Independent
Irish Boundary Commission part 1
Drawing the line: designs for the Irish border in 1914 and comparisons with the Irish Boundary Commission Settlement
Prof. Conor Mulvagh, University College Dublin
The Genesis and Workings of The Boundary Commission
Dr. Francis Costello, Independent
The Boundary Commission: the Irish Free State’s approach as seen through its Weekly Bulletin?
Ciarán McKillop-O'Shea, Open University
14:45-15:00 – Tea break
15:00-16:00 – Irish Boundary Commission part 2
No Northern Ireland Representative - What To Do? The Boundary Commission and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council
Ronnie Weatherup, Independent
Conflicting Profiles of the Chair of the Irish Boundary Commission
Adrian Guelke, Queen’s University Belfast
The Free State’s approach to the Boundary Commission, 1923-25: a re-assessment
Patrick Duffy, Trinity College Dublin
16:00-17:00 – Legacy
Negotiating Heritage After Partition: The Ulster Folk Museum and Northern Ireland’s Cultural Vacuum
Carys Tyson-Taylor, National Museum NI
Reassessing the first EU ‘peace package’ for Northern Ireland and the Irish border counties
Ciara Nicholson, Queen’s University Belfast
Remembering, or forgetting the Boundary Commission
Deirdre Mac Bride, Independent
17:00-17:15 – Closure of conference
Where is it happening?
Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, 2 Titanic Boulevard Titanic Quarter, Belfast, United KingdomEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
GBP 0.00
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