Society & Culture
This Friday, Trinity College Dublin professor Jane Ohlmeyer will deliver the Ford Lectures at the University of Oxford in England. Just ten women have delivered the prestigious lectures since they were founded in 1896 and prof Ohlmeyer will be the first woman from a university in Ireland to be invited to do so. Born in what was then Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) to a Northern Irish mother and a South African father, Ohlmeyer grew up in Belfast at the height of the Troubles. On today's podcast she talks to Kathy Sheridan about the last impact witnessing that violence has had on her. She also speaks in detail about her career, her fascination with the British Empire and Ireland's place in it, the experience of being a woman bashing on the glass ceiling in higher education and how she is feeling about the Ford Lectures. Rumour has it prof Ohlmeyer will be in the running for the soon-to-be vacant provost job at TCD. But as she explains in this podcast, she can't really go into that at the moment. Watch this space.... If you'd like to see prof Ohlmeyer deliver The Ford Lectures, they begin on Friday 22 January at 5pm online. Tune in by following the link on the Oxford website - https://www.history.ox.ac.uk/james-ford-lectures-british-history