A CAPE CLEAR HISTORY MEDLEY
A CAPE CLEAR HISTORY MEDLEY
Lecture by
Diarmuid Ó Drisceoil
8pm on Thursday September 29th 2022
in
Clonakilty GAA Club, Ahamilla
This illustrated lecture will focus on the rich history, archaeology and cultural heritage of Ireland’s southernmost inhabited island, the Gaeltacht island of Cléire, or Cape Clear. It will touch on a varied medley of items including its placenames, archaeological monuments, fishing, emigration, telegraphy, and much more.
Diarmuid Ó Drisceoil, whose father came from Cape Clear, has been going to the island all his life and is steeped in its history. He studied archaeology, carrying out research on bronze age cooking places. Later moving into local history, he has written (or co-written with his brother Donal) many books on Cork history, including Serving a City: The Story of Cork's English Market; The Murphy's Story: The History of Lady's Well Brewery, Cork and The Ring of Blackrock: A Walking Guide & History. He is currently completing a TV documentary series on the Munster Blackwater for TG4, due to air late autumn.
Diary Date
With the Micheal Collins Centenary events recently concluded, Dúchas Clonakilty Heritage will hold another public talk on two other prominent West Corkmen from the tragic year of 1922 on 18th November at the local GAA Pavilion.
At the outset of the Decade of Centenaries, the local history and heritage group decided its mission was "To ensure that the complex period of our history particularly from 2021 to 2023 is remembered appropriately, respectfully and with sensitivity".
Following on the very well received lecture on Michael Collins recently by Gabriel Doherty of UCC, the sad and tragic deaths of Seán Hales and Dick Barrett will be remembered on 18th November - just three weeks before their centenary anniversaries.
Much has been written about how close both men were in life and how sad they were linked in death with pro-treaty Seán Hales, TD assassinated as he left the Dáil on 7th December 2022 and his former friend and comrade, Dick Barrett, an anti-treaty Republican incarcerated since the surrender of the Four Courts, was taken out and executed as a reprisal the following morning along with three fellow Republican prisoners.
On Friday evening 18th November, Sean Hales and Dick Barrett will be remembered in a special commemorative event, hosted and organised by Dúchas Clonakilty Heritage, at the Clonakilty GAA Complex.
Given the upcoming centenaries and the fact that both men were "locals", as well as the interest in this tragic period of Irish history, it’s an event likely to attract a large crowd.
Dúchas Clonakilty Heritage is announcing the date at this early stage so people can "save the date".
Historic coastal village of Timoleague: Duchas Film documentary
For Heritage Week 2022, Dúchas Clonakilty Heritage has once again decided to do a film documentary. As part of our celebrations, we will be visiting the historic coastal village of Timoleague which is situated at the mouth of the Airgideen river estuary on the cusp of Courtmacsherry Bay. It is a picturesque place steeped in historical fact, along with myth and legend, and to take us back over the centuries our guides are Diarmuid Kingston and Michael O’Mahony.
We hope that the viewer will enjoy our visit to this historical coastal village and its hinterland with its spectacular scenery and rich folklore. It is indeed a place of historical importance with its ancient abbeys and wonderful artistically endowed churches. It is only by a visit that their beauty and uniqueness can be fully appreciated.
Click here to watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6s9pgGBst8
Lecture: British perceptions of MichaelCollins
As part of the weeklong events to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the death of Michael Collins, Dúchas Clonakilty Heritage are hosting a lecture, presented by Gabriel Doherty, on Tuesday August 16th at 8.30pm at Clonakilty GAA Club. The cost of the lecture is €5. As this is our first in-house lecture since February 2020 and we are expecting a big attendance, we would appeal to all to be aware that Covid has not gone away, to wear face masks where possible and not to attend if you have any Covid or flu symptoms.
A LEGENDARY FIGURE: BRITISH PERCEPTIONS OF MICHAEL COLLINS
Lecture by
Gabriel Doherty, School of History, UCC
Tuesday August 16 2022
at
8.30pm
in
Clonakilty GAA Club, Ahamilla
This talk will focus on British official and public perceptions of Michael Collins, between his initial emergence in the aftermath of the Easter Rising as one of a number of secretive individuals actively engaged in seditious activity and committed to ending British rule in Ireland, through to the reaction to his death, and spectacular funeral in August 1922, during the Irish Civil War. Drawing on a range of materials, including (amongst other sources) secret police documents, official Government minutes and memoranda, newspaper reports, and the private papers of public figures, it will seek to demonstrate what the British state, and British people, knew, thought they knew, were led to believe, or wanted to believe, about this towering figure in modern Irish history during his relatively brief time in the public eye.
Gabriel Doherty lectures in the School of History, University College Cork. His research interests cover all aspects of twentieth-century Irish history. He actively promotes the study and knowledge of the Irish revolutionary period.
He is part of the Expert Advisory Group on Commemorations which was established by the Taoiseach to support the State's approach to the remembrance of significant historical events during the Decade of Centenaries. He played an instrumental role in the organisation of events in West Cork to commemorate the centenary of Cork Fenian Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa in 2015.
He has edited many successful history titles including 1916: The Long Revolution, Michael Collins and the Making of the Irish State and The Home Rule Crisis 1912-1914 .
Third Dúchas Clonakilty historical journal now on sale
Dúchas Clonakilty Heritage's third volume of the popular “Clonakilty Historical and Archaeological Journal” is now available at local outlets costing €10. It contains 12 excellent articles examining different aspects of local history and built heritage, focusing on the seventeenth to twentieth centuries, as well as many interesting photos - some of which have not been published before.
Clonakilty Town Council A History
We are delighted to announce that the Dúchas Clonakilty Heritage published book, ‘Clonakilty Town Council a History 1613 – 2014’, is now available.
This project was organised by a sub-group of Dúchas Clonakilty Heritage who engaged the services of Dr Matthew Potter, an authority on local government in Ireland, who was joined by Dúchas members Tomás Tuipéar and Michael O’Mahony, to write this comprehensive history. In the words of our Cathaoirleach Tim Feen, ‘this is a veritable history of Clonakilty’.
The limited edition of 200 illustrated books, containing previously unpublished documents and research specific to Clonakilty, are available at :
COUGHLAN’S, Rossa Street, KERR’S, Ashe Street and PADDY MEADE’S, Pearse Street, at € 25.