Irish Civil War to Irish Free State is an online panel discussion exploring post Anglo-Irish Treaty Ireland, from the split in the Irish Nationalist movement to guerrilla war and the establishment of the country that would eventually be known as the Irish Republic. 

Join leading academics Liz Gillis, Professor Henry Patterson, Dr Síobhra Aiken and chair Dr Adrian Grant as they traverse Ireland's struggle to achieve 'freedom'.

Dr Síobhra Aiken explores how revolutionaries anticipated the outbreak of civil war from before the treaty debates and how these anticipations shaped understanding of the events to come. Her first monograph, Spiritual Wounds: Trauma, Testimony and the Irish Civil War, is forthcoming from Irish Academic Press in early 2022.

Joining Dr Aiken as the second member of this panel is Liz Gillis. Historian and author Liz Gillis is from the Liberties. She is the author of six books about the Irish Revolution including, ‘The Fall of Dublin’, ‘Women of the Irish Revolution’ and ‘The Hales Brothers and the Irish Revolution’ and ‘May 25: The Burning of the Custom House 1921’. Liz has worked as a researcher on numerous publications, television and radio documentaries covering the period.

In 2021, Liz was appointed Historian in Residence for Dublin South County Council for the Decade of Centenaries. She also works as a Researcher for the History Show on RTE Radio and lectures at Champlain College Dublin. Liz was a Historical Consultant for the Hyatt Centric: The Liberties hotel and the new Custom House Visitor Centre. She was a Curatorial Assistant in RTE, specialising in researching the Easter Rising and a tour guide for many years in Kilmainham Gaol.

In 2018 Liz was a recipient of the Lord Mayor’s Award for her contribution to history. She is also the co-organiser of the annual conference on the burning of the Custom House in May 1921.

Professor Henry Patterson is emeritus professor of politics at Ulster University and the author of several books including; Ireland’s Violent Frontier and The Politics of Illusion: A Political History of the IRA. His present research looks at the social and political history of Unionism in North Down from the Home Rule period to the Troubles.

Chair for the evening, Dr Adrian Grant, is branch president of the University and College Union (UCU) branch at Ulster University. During the filming of this event, Dr Grant was on strike in an effort to ensure equality, job security, and dignity in work and retirement are secured for higher education workers across the UK. Adrian is the author of the Derry volume in the Irish Revolution series of books exploring the events of 1912-23 in each county of Ireland. He is also the author of Irish socialist republicanism, 1909-36 and has researched extensively on the interactions of radical left-wing politics and Irish republicanism. More recently his research has centred on urban history, with a focus on the impacts of housing regeneration on people and communities after the Second World War.