Professor Tomás Irish - Cultural Destruction, Restitution and Repair in Europe during and after WWI

Professor Tomás Irish, Professor of History, University of Swansea The First World War (1914-1918) was marked by widespread cultural destruction, such as the destruction of libraries, churches and cathedrals, as well as the looting of a range of cultural property. This talk will consider what happened in the war’s wake: it explores how instances of looting and cultural destruction in Continental Europe were dealt with in the post-First World War treaties. Tomás will analyse the discussions at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, exploring how the post-war peacemakers made decisions about what reparations should be made for cultural damage, as well as how looted objects might be repatriated. He will conclude with a discussion of how these treaties were put into practice; explore some of the claims for reparation submitted by civilians and institutions in France and highlight the challenges of returning looted cultural property in the early 1920s. Tomás Irish is an expert in the history of twentieth-century Europe with specialisms in the cultural history of First World War and interwar Europe. The author of three books and numerous articles and book chapters, his research has illuminated the ways in which universities, intellectuals, and knowledge itself have influenced issues of war and peace in the past as well as the ways that past societies have valued knowledge in times of crisis. His most recent monograph, Feeding the Mind: Humanitarianism and the Reconstruction of European Intellectual Life, 1919-1933, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2024. Tomás is currently working on two new projects. His first project is a new book (provisionally called 'The Politics of Utopia') which focuses on a network of international peace activists in the first half of the twentieth century, all of whom made a major contribution to the creation of UNESCO at the end of the Second World War. The second new project explores post-First World War reparations and focuses on the restitution of looted or destroyed cultural objects. Originally from Ireland, Tomás took his BA and PhD degrees at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, and held a postdoctoral research fellowship there between 2012 and 2015. He took up the position of Lecturer in Modern History at Swansea University in September 2015, was promoted to Professor in 2025. He is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society.