Trinity Long Room Hub’s ‘Behind the Headlines’ series turns 10

Posted on: 12 May 2025

With over 157 expert speakers across 10 years and 43 public discussions, the ‘Behind the Headlines’ series has provided a space for informed discussion against the complex backdrop of our times.

The series started in 2015 in response to the attack on the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris in 2015, when the Trinity Long Room Hub brought together experts from the Arts and Humanities to interrogate the historical and cultural implications of what had happened. Since then, Behind the Headlines has addressed many crisis moments across the decade, attracting thousands of attendees - both online and in person – along the way.

Supported by the John Pollard Foundation, the discussion forum has created a unique space for researchers and members of the public, journalists, entrepreneurs, government representatives and NGOs, to consider the facts, myths, prejudices and perceptions that lie behind the news.   

The series represents a step change in how researchers share their research with the public –creating a platform to engage in a ‘rapid response’ and encouraging respectful and informed debate. 

Now, to mark the 10th anniversary of the Behind the Headlines series, the Trinity Long Room Hub is bringing together two special panels for an afternoon symposium on the 12 May which will be followed by the institute’s Annual Humanities Horizons Lecture.

Joining the panels will be distinguished speakers Catriona Crowe, Susan McKay, Ciaran O’Neill, Carole Holohan, Balázs Apor (Behind the Archives: Who holds the truth?) and Bruce Shapiro, Rory Carroll, Daniel Geary, Deirdre McCarthy, and Razan Ibraheem (Behind the story: can ‘the news’ survive the times?).

The symposium will be followed by the Trinity Long Room Hub Annual Humanities Horizons Lecture for 2025 which will be delivered by Bruce Shapiro, on "The Spectacle of Fearsome Acts": Violence, Journalism and the Democratic Future.

Director of the Trinity Long Room Hub, Professor Eve Patten commented:

“In an increasingly polarised public sphere, the ‘Behind the Headlines’ format offers a space for informed and respectful discussion, covering everything from the futures of Ireland to the concept of the American dream.  It brings the perspectives of the Arts and Humanities to the fore, and draws extensively on the expertise of historians, linguists, artists, dramatists, ethicists and literary scholars to address both national and international crises.”

“The series continues - along with our extensive public programming - to draw people in to the University and to maintain a dialogue between researchers and wider society.”

Read more about the the Behind The Headlines series in the last 10 years here.

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