This joint conference, organised by the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland and the Antrim and Down Branch of the Western Front Association, will take place on Thursday 5 November 2015, 10.30 to 4.00 at PRONI.

Sport and the sporting ethos played in important role in the First World War both as a recruiting tool and as a means of maintaining moral in the fighting forces. It was also a cause of controversy as the continuation of spectator sport on the home front was seen as a distraction from the war effort. The conference will look at various aspects of sport and the War in Ireland. 

Speakers will include: Dr Tim Bowman (University of Kent) on recruiting sportsmen’s units in Ireland;

Dr Conor Curran (Dublin City University) on sport in Donegal during the Great War;

Dr Dónal McAnallen on the GAA and the First World War;

Tara Lynne O’Neil on women’s football and the Great War;

Tom Thorpe (King’s College London) on the military value of sport;

Stephen Walker on Irish sportsmen and the Great War.

Admission is FREE but booking is recommended. Please contact PRONI to secure your place.
Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, 2 Titanic Boulevard, Belfast, BT3 9HQ

E: proni@dcalni.gov.uk T: (+44) 028 9053 4800