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Archiver > Scotch-Irish > 2009-12 > 1260040656


From: Robert Forrest <>
Subject: Re: [S-I] The 1641 Depositions
Date: Sat, 5 Dec 2009 19:17:36 +0000
References: <d61.5f4497a2.38466877@aol.com>,<578ED2BF9B0B4C24957AF5A26F59D93D@DG1C3Z11>,<1EDBDBA020F8406B90ADF3814D3539B0@Study>
In-Reply-To: <1EDBDBA020F8406B90ADF3814D3539B0@Study>






The depositions will be online soon - both a transcript [fully searchable] linked

to the original manuscript.





http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2009/1106/1224258176704.html



R. Forrest

































> From:
> To:
> Date: Sat, 5 Dec 2009 19:07:12 +0000
> Subject: Re: [S-I] The 1641 Depositions
>
> According to the October 09 edition of "Trinity Today", the Alumni magazine,
> which I believe can be got on the College Website, "In Trinity, we are
> embarked on a very special ground-breaking project to unleash the power of
> the 18th century Long Room Library with all its hidden treasures, by the use
> of technology and digitisation. The Book of Kells is but the tip of the
> iceberg. Our plan is to define Trinity and its partner universities, and
> Ireland, as an international hub of scholarship in advancing the
> understanding of the human condition, drawing on these unique capabilities.
> One specific project is extremely interesting. In 1641, the outbreak of a
> rebellion by the Catholic Irish is alleged to have begun with a general
> massacre of Protestant settlers. This allegation has been the cause of much
> bitter historical controversy ever since. The 1641 Depositions are the
> witness testimonies of the Protestant settlers (men and women of all
> classes) gathered by Government appointed commissioners after the Rising.
> All 19,000 pages have been in the Trinity Library since 1741. Our goal, with
> funding from the IRCHSS, is to digitise these unique testimonies and make
> them available to scholars all over the world for analysis. IBM is intensely
> involved with the project.
>
> You might ask why IBM would be interested in such an event in the distant
> past? The reason is that the documents are difficult - being handwritten,
> with little grammatical structure, and in which the same word is often spelt
> differently on the same page. The most advanced digitising technology is not
> able to interpret such complex information - only the human brain can. IBM
> would like to understand the mental process involved and simulate it with
> entirely new innovative technology. Here is a situation that you might not
> predict - the Humanities and human curiosity having the ability to transform
> technology. My point is that breakthroughs can come from the most unlikely
> quarters. The Humanities meeting the technologies can spark the most
> extraordinary developments and the University is an ideal meeting place for
> both."
>
> Even if you get some of the 19,000 pages, you will have considerable
> difficulties with some as the script is difficult.
> Edward
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From:
> > [mailto:] On Behalf Of John Polk
> > Sent: Saturday, December 05, 2009 3:41 PM
> > To:
> > Subject: Re: [S-I] The 1641 Depositions
> >
> > Richard -
> >
> > Do you know if there are any transcriptions of the
> > depositions available?
> > I contacted TCD about them several years ago but they only
> > had microfilm copies which were quite expensive.
> > It would be nice if these documents have become more readily
> > accessible to the general public.
> >
> > Thanks -
> >
> > John Polk
> > Havre de Grace MD
> > USA
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: <>
> > To: <>
> > Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2009 07:39
> > Subject: [S-I] The 1641 Depositions
> >
> >
> > > This is an announcement of a conference at Trinity College
> > Dublin in April
> > > to center on the depositions taken after the 1641 massacres
> > in Ulster as a
> > > little-used source for research.
> > >
> > > Subject: CFP: The 1641 depositions: Politics, Society and
> > the Wars of the
> > > Three Kingdoms conference April 2010
> > > From: Eamon Peter Darcy <>
> > > Date: November 30, 2009 11:44:47 AM EST
> > >
> > > The 1641 depositions
> > >
> > > Politics, Society and the Wars of the Three Kingdoms
> > >
> > > The 1641 depositions, a collection of nearly 4,000 witness
> > statements,
> > > reveal a wealth of information about the various cultural,
> > political and
> > > social nuances of seventeenth-century Ireland and the wider
> > world. Taken
> > > during
> > > the troublesome events of the 1640s and 1650s, they became the chief
> > > evidence for the hotly contested massacres of Irish
> > Protestants by native
> > > Irish
> > > Catholics during the 1641 rebellion in Ireland. From the
> > early modern
> > > period
> > > until the mid-twentieth century, their 'ritual status'
> > meant that few
> > > historians, or indeed publishers, wanted to write about or print the
> > > depositions unless they referred exclusively to these
> > atrocities. In more
> > > recent
> > > times, however, historians have developed new innovative
> > approaches to
> > > re-assess the evidence contained within. This has
> > illustrated their value
> > > as a
> > > historical source for understanding early-modern Ireland.
> > >
> > > We therefore invite proposals from postgraduate,
> > postdoctoral and early
> > > career researchers working on the 1641 depositions and/or
> > the events of
> > > the
> > > seventeenth century under the following themes:
> > >
> > > - Identity, Memory and print culture.
> > >
> > > - Material Culture and Society.
> > >
> > > - Military Landscape, Codes of Conduct, War and Society.
> > >
> > > - Religion and confessional conflict
> > >
> > > Please send a proposal of 300 words with a short CV to
> > > by 31 January 2010. The conference
> > will take place
> > > 9-10 April 2010.
> > >
> > > -------------------------------
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> > > quotes in the subject and the body of the message
> >
> >
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>
>
> -------------------------------
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