Era of revolution being revisited

The Civil Rights message crossed the Atlantic

A time of fears over immigration and the denunciation of an American war are to be discussed in Belfast next week, but as a history lesson rather than as current affairs.

Queen's University is launching a series of events to mark the 40th anniversary of 1968 - a year of change around the globe.

Public lectures, conferences, films and an exhibition are marking the four decades since the cultural and political revolution of the late 60s.

Political activist Eamonn McCann will join Queen's lecturer Dr Brian Kelly for a talk on Martin Luther King and the American civil rights movement, and the links between the civil rights movements in Northern Ireland and the USA.

It will be followed by the opening of an exhibition of 1968 posters, pamphlets and memorabilia in Queen's Welcome Centre, which offers a glimpse of the events that took place in Belfast and elsewhere in the late 1960s.

Dr Todd Weir from Queen's School of History said 1968 was a turning point in the history of Northern Ireland and many other countries around the world.

Although 40 years have passed, the impact of these events on politics, culture and the arts can still be seen and felt around the world Todd Weir

"The rise of the civil rights movement here, in which many Queen's students played a leading role, the student protests in Paris, the growth of feminist and gay rights movements, and the global protest against the Vietnam War were expressions of a new political culture that was emerging across the globe," he said.

"Although 40 years have passed, the impact of these events on politics, culture and the arts can still be seen and felt around the world."

Eamonn McCann said that events in the United States had a massive bearing on the changes in Northern Ireland.

"The huge US influence on the Northern Ireland civil rights movement was symbolised by the transatlantic chorus of 'We Shall Overcome'," he said.

"The slogan 'You are now entering Free Derry' was taken from Berkeley, California.

"In debates within the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association, the contradiction in the US between moderates who looked to the Kennedys, and militants who looked to the 'brothers off the block' often operated as a surrogate for divisions within NICRA ranks.

"These differences continue to underlie politics, especially nationalist politics, in Ireland today."