Month: August 2022

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 54:58 — 50.3MB)

Season 2021 – Talk 18 – Countess Markievicz and Lady Astor

In the talk  Countess Markievicz and Lady Astor Jo Watson tells us about these two women. They came from wealthy backgrounds, married into the nobility, became Members of Parliament but in other respects were very different.

Click a thumbnail below to view the image gallery that accompanies the talk.

Constance Markievicz:

Constance Gore-Booth was born in Buckingham Gate in London in 1868. Her father is an Anglo-Irish landowner who, during the famine of 1879/80, provides free food for his tenants in County Sligo. This inspires Constance and her younger sister Eva.

In 1892 she enrols at the Slade School of Art where she becomes politically active. She joins the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies. Later she moves to Paris and joins the Académie Julian where she meets her future husband. Casimir Markievicz is an artist from a wealthy Polish family living in present day Ukraine.

Ireland:

They settle in Dublin in 1903 and move in artistic and literary circles. She is one of a group who found the United Arts Club in 1905.

In 1908 Constance becomes involved in Irish nationalist politics and joins Sinn Féin and Inghinidhe na hÉireann (the Daughters of Ireland). The same year sees her getting involved in the Manchester North West by-election where she organises opposition to the election of Winston Churchill.

In 1913 Casimir moves back to Ukraine and never again lives in Ireland. They correspond and he is with her when she dies in 1927.

Jo tells us about her role in the Easter Rising, her spells in prison, her election to Parliament and being a Cabinet Minister in the Dáil.

Nancy Astor:

She was an American born British politician and the first woman to take her seat in the House of Commons. Nancy married her first husband in America, they separated and then divorced and she moved to England.

She marries Waldorf Astor who became Member of Parliament. When he becomes a Peer he has to resign his seat and she is selected to stand in his place. She wins his seat in 1919 and serves as Member for Plymouth Sutton until 1945.

Listen to the podcast and hear Jo tell the full story of the two fascinating women.

Please note:

This podcast is a recording of a talk given in the Farnham Maltings during Covid restrictions. These required open windows and doors and so there is some noise on the recording from other activities that took place at the same time.

About this podcast:

This podcast is an edited recording of a talk first given to the Farnham u3a World History Group.

The Farnham u3a site is here.

You can also listen using Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Castbox , Deezer, Podchaser, Spotify, Stitcher and Vurbl and others.

AKM Music licenses Media Magazine for use as the theme music.

© The MrT Podcast Studio and Farnham u3a World History Group 2018 – 2022

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 59:24 — 54.4MB)

Season 2021 – Talk 17 – The Changing lives of women

In  The Changing lives of women Margaret Denyer tells us how the role of women has evolved in British society over the last few centuries.

Click a thumbnail below to view the image gallery that accompanies the talk.

Status:

For many centuries the role of women depended on their status. Those who were part of wealthy families led a life of comfort but were usually denied a role outside their family. Those without wealth worked – on the land, in factories, in service etc.

Education:

For a very long time education was reserved for males. The daughters of wealthy families would be taught reading, writing and needlework along with the skills needed to run a house whereas boys could enjoy boarding school, university and then a profession.

Property:

Until the Married Women’s Property Act in 1882 it was very difficult for a married woman to control property. The Act meant that a wife could hold her wages and investments separate from those of the husband.

Equality:

It is only in recent years that women have received equality in the UK, and much of this is due to legislation. The same is not true in many other countries.

Listen to the podcast and hear Margaret tell the full story.

Please note:

This podcast is a recording of a talk given in the Farnham Maltings during Covid restrictions. These required open windows and doors and so there is some noise on the recording from other activities.

About this podcast:

This podcast is an edited recording of a talk first given to the Farnham u3a World History Group.

The Farnham u3a site is here.

You can also listen using Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Castbox , Deezer, Podchaser, Spotify, Stitcher and Vurbl and others.

AKM Music licenses Media Magazine for use as the theme music.

© The MrT Podcast Studio and Farnham u3a World History Group 2018 – 2022

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 58:30 — 53.6MB)

Season 2021 – Talk 16 – The Highland Clearances

In  The Highland Clearances Sue Willson uses literature as the basis for her talk. The sources range from the visit to the Western Isles by Dr Johnson and James Boswell in 1775 to modern literature.

Click a thumbnail below to view the image gallery that accompanies the talk.

Why literature?

Modern novelists have to carry out a great deal of research before they write a book and so, although the people may be fictional, key events will be fact.

The Clearances:

The Highland Clearances refers to the eviction of many tenant farmers in the Scottish Highlands and islands in the period between 1750 to 1860. They took place in two main phases:

The first resulted from the wish to improve agriculture because landlords needed to increase their income because of their debts. This involved the enclosure of the fields and the creation of larger scale farms thus generating much higher rents.

Displaced tenants were expected to be employed in industries such as fishing, quarrying or the kelp industry.

The second phase involved the emigration of people from the crofting communities created in the first phase because of famine and the collapse of the industries that they relied on. ‘Assisted passages’ were common giving the tenants who were selected for this little choice but to emigrate.

The authors:

• George Mackay Brown (17 October 1921 – 13 April 1996) was a Scottish poet, author and dramatist and is one of the great Scottish poets of the 20th century. Find out more here.
• Madeleine Bunting (born March 1964) was an associate editor and columnist at The Guardian and is a regular broadcaster for the BBC.  Love Of Country: A Hebridean Journey, published in 2016, explores the relationship between England and Scotland through a series of journeys through the Hebrides. Find out more here.
• Alistair MacLeod (July 20, 1936 – April 20, 2014) was a Canadian novelist, short story writer and academic. His 1999 novel, No Great Mischief, tells the story of the MacDonald clan from 1779, when they left Scotland, to more recent times. Find out more here.
• Adam Nicolson, 5th Baron Carnock, (born 12 September 1957) is an English author who has written about history, landscape, great literature and the sea. His book Sea Room is about uninhabited islands in the Hebrides. Find out more here.
• In A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland (1775) Samuel Johnson describes his 83 day journey to Scotland in the late summer and autumn of 1773. He was accompanied by James Boswell. Find out more here.
• Graeme Macrae Burnet (born 1967) is a Scottish writer, born in Kilmarnock. There are family ties to the northwest Highlands on his mother’s side of the family. Find out more here.
• Andrew Miller (born 29 April 1960) is an English novelist born in Bristol. Find out more about his book Now We Shall Be Entirely Free here.
• Alice Munro (born 10 July 1931) is a Canadian writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013. Find out more here.

Listen to the podcast and hear Sue tell the full story.

Please note:

This podcast is a recording of a talk given in the Farnham Maltings during Covid restrictions. These required open windows and doors and so there is some noise on the recording from other activities.

About this podcast:

This podcast is an edited recording of a talk first given to the Farnham u3a World History Group.

The Farnham u3a site is here.

You can also listen using Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Castbox , Deezer, Podchaser, Spotify, Stitcher and Vurbl and others.

AKM Music licenses Media Magazine for use as the theme music.

© The MrT Podcast Studio and Farnham u3a World History Group 2018 – 2022