‘All that remained' – The Four Courts Blaze of 1922.

A panel discussion as part of the Out of the Ashes lecture series, with Catríona Crowe MRIA, Former Senior Archivist, National Archives of Ireland; Zoe Reid, Senior Conservator, National Archives of Ireland; and Lar Joye, Port Heritage Director at Dublin Port and Chair of the Irish National Committee of the Blue Shield.

This three-year lecture series explores the theme of cultural loss and recovery across the centuries, from the destruction of the Library of Alexandria in antiquity to contemporary acts of cultural loss and destruction. A panel of world-leading experts reflects on how societies deal with cultural trauma through reconstruction and commemoration, and on how the international community should respond to cultural loss. The series is global in scope, pan-historical and multi-disciplinary in approach, and features international scholars and practitioners of the highest calibre.

Year II of the series (2019–20), “Destroying,” considers a form of cultural atrocity now subject to international war crimes prosecution: the deliberate targeting of cultural heritage as a means to control social memory and to erase identities. This special panel event on The Four Courts Blaze of 1922 organised in association with the Irish National Committee of the Blue Shield. The basis for the Blue Shield is the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property and its additional first and second protocols, ratified by Ireland in 2018.

The Out of the Ashes lecture series is generously supported by Sean and Sarah Reynolds.