Second annual Terence MacSwiney Weekend
‘EDUCATION & REVOLUTION’ IS THE THEME OF THE 2019 CONFERENCE
THE immense contribution to education made by prominent members of the Irish revolutionary generation, including Terence MacSwiney and his siblings, will be celebrated during a weekend of events in Cork this month.
Organised by the Kilmurry Historical and Archaeological Association, MacSwiney Weekend will take place at the Independence Museum in Kilmurray over the weekend of October 18-20.
First held last year, the conference was established to raise awareness of the life and legacy of Terence MacSwiney TD, who died on hunger strike in London’s Brixton Prison on October 25, 1920.
Over the course of the weekend, entitled ‘Education & Revolution’, there will be a series of lectures focusing on MacSwiney, his sisters Annie and Mary and the Murphy sisters – Kate O’Callaghan, Márie O’Donovan an Eilís Murphy, all of whom were key educators and revolutionaries of their time. All were either born in Kilmurry parish or were the children of parish natives.
Kilmurry parish has unique links to MacSwiney, the former Lord Mayor of Cork and first TD for midCork, as it was the birthplace of his father John.
Terence spent much of his adult life in the surrounding Macroom district, between leisure and educational time in the Gaeltacht and Irish college at Ballingeary and establishing Irish Volunteer companies in Kilmurry and surrounding parishes between1915 and 1916.
His sister Mary was a Cork City TD from 19211927. Lissarda born Kate O’Callaghan (née Murphy) represented Limerick City in the Dáil from 1921 to 1923, following the murder of her husband, former Limerick Lord Mayor Michael O’Callaghan and her sister Márie O’Donovan was acting Mayor of Limerick from May 1921 to January 1922.
KHAA member Niall Murray said that in addition to highlighting the revolutionary credentials of the Mac Swiney’s and Murphy’s, conference speakers will detail how they were also “influential educators”.
The conference will commence with a formal address on the Friday evening by Dr Cathal MacSwiney Brugha, Professor Emeritus of Decision Analytics, UCD, who is the grandson of Terence MacSwiney (and of Cathal Brugha, president of the first Dáil in 1919) and grand-nephew of Mary and Annie MacSwiney.
Over the course of Saturday the Independence Museum Kilmurry will host s series of lectures by expert speakers, with visitors also able to view the extensive collection of exhibits in the museum.
An Irish language Sunday mass will be celebrated at 10am in St Mary’s Church and will feature a Peadar Ó Riada hymn specially commissioned for last year conference.
This will be followed by a walking tour of Macroom, during which Niall Murray will bring participants to sites in the town associated with the revolutionary government of Dáil Éireann in Terence MacSwiney’s MidCork constituency.
Tickets for the 2019 Terence MacSwiney Weekend, which will cover all of the events and entrance to the museum, €20 from www. eventbrite.ie.
For more details visit the museum’s Facebook page or visit the Independence Museum Kilmurry website at www.kilmurrymuseum.ie.