Inaugural weekend in memory Terence MacSwiney proves a major success
KILMURRY witnessed a very special event last weekend – the inaugural Terence MacSwiney Commemoration Weekend.
The event got underway with an absorbing account on the life and legacy of Terence MacSwiney by Cathal Brugha MacSwiney. Terence MacSwiney, while Lord Mayor of Cork City, died on October 25, 1920 after 74 days on hunger strike, and it was most fitting that over a hundred people gathered to commemorate his life and his contribution to Ireland.
Indeed, Terence MacSwiney is a name that is known in many parts of the world and many of his publications have been translated into foreign languages and it was even proposed by the Mayor of Catalonia that a street be named after him.
The Terence MacSwiney Commemorative Weekend will be held in 2019 and again for his centenary in 2020 and hopefully for many years to come thereafter.
The event was organised by the Kilmurry Historical and Archaeological Association and was supported by Cork County Council through the Creative Ireland Programme. The coming weeks will see many further events in Kilmurry including the launch of a fascinating book titled ‘ The Old Village School’. From humble stone buildings to a state-of-the-art modern school, the book presents a captivating and informative history of Kilmurry school from 1849 to 1955 touching on many past pupils and teachers. The publication will be launched on the evening of Friday October 26th by Michael Galvin, in the Kilmurry Independence Museum and everyone is welcome to come along.
A week later again in Kilmurry Independence Museum, on Saturday, November 3, the Kilmurry Parish Schools Exhibition will be launched. The launch is at 2pm and the exhibition will showcase some fascinating details and accounts of Kilmurry’s schools (including Lackareigh) featuring a number of old school photographs, old stories, artefacts, roll books and a number of pupils’ letters from the 1930s. The exhibition will available to view thereafter on Sundays from 2-5pm for the month of November.
As we shortly enter into the month of November (the beginning of the New Year in old Irish Mythology), Halloween is just around the corner and a very exciting time for many people young and old as we enact the customs synonymous with the occasion. For those who may not yet have visited Michael Collins House in Emmet Square, Clonakilty, the October school/Halloween mid-term will be a good time to do so, particularly with the Halloween themed Horrid History Tours proposed. Running from Wednesday 23rd to Saturday 3rd November, there will be ‘ Twilight Tours’ at 3pm and 5 pm each day. These tours will delve into the gruesome, the scary and horrid folk stories and histories associated with the revolutionary period in Irish History. For more information, visit www.michaelcollinshouse.ie.
November will also see commemorative events and talks for the centenary of the end of World War One – Armistice Day, which occurred on November 11, 1918 – a war that saw over 4,500 people from the County of Cork lose their lives. It was also a time in Ireland that was to result in a significantly changed political environment due to the elections in December 1918.
Historian John Mulcahy is a wealth of knowledge on the period and he will share his insights with what is expected to be a large crowd at Scoil Mhuire Gan Smál Secondary School, Blarney, on the evening (8pm) of Thursday, November 1. Organised by the Blarney and District Historical Society, the talk, which is titled ‘Blarney 1918 –AntiConscription-Election’, should prove most fascinating as the following excerpt reads: ‘In April 1918 the British government attempted to impose conscription in Ireland by imposing a law which was passed but never put into effect. No Irish person was ever drafted into the British Army. The Armistice of 11 November 1918 brought an end to fighting on land, sea and air in World War I between the Allies and Germany. The General Election of 1918 resulted in a landslide victory for the Sinn Féin party, and was the first election in which women over the age of 30, and all men over the age of 21, could vote. Constance Markievicz was the first woman elected to the British House of Commons, and, along with other Sinn Féin TDs, formed the first Dáil Éireann. She was also the first woman in the world to hold a cabinet position as Minister for Labour of the Irish Republic, 1919–1922. John Mulcahy will analyse the effect that these three momentous events had on Blarney and its surrounds.’
All are welcome to the come along on the evening and for more information visit www. blarneyhistory.ie.
There will be a great range of different heritage events taking place throughout November, including the Creative Ireland County Cork Conference, proposed for the Abbey Hotel in Baile Mhúirne on November 9-10. There will be much more on this conference next week and in the meantime for more details visit www.corkcoco.ie/upcoming-events.