Saturday’s lecture schedule

11am - Mary and Annie MacSwiney, Terence’s sisters, founded girl’s secondary school Scoil Íte in Cork city (it was replaced in 1954 by Scoil Mhuire) in 1916 after Mary lost her teaching job when she was arrested following the Easter Rising.

Their work will be detailed by Anne Twomey of the Shandon Area History Group, a leading advocate of revolutionary women’s stories in Cork, and adult education co-ordinator at North Presentation Secondary School in the city.

11.50am - Kate O’Callaghan had left her post in Limerick as a key educator of primary school teachers at Mary Immaculate College by 1916. It was a role in which she had succeeded her sister Máire O’Donovan, and in which she was replaced by another sister Eilís Murphy Like Mary MacSwiney, Kate O’Callaghan was one of the most vocal opponents of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in the January 1922 Dáil debates. Dr Sinead McCoole – historian, curator and author of No Ordinary Women and Easter Widows – will speak about the Murphy sisters and their roles in Limerick life and politics.

12.50pm - Lunch and exhibitions visits.

2pm - Terence MacSwiney was a travelling teacher for the precursor of Cork Education and Training Board (CETB) before becoming a fulltime organiser for the Irish Volunteers in 1915.

But, he was also an important propagandist for the Republican movement before and during the Irish revolution. These aspects of his life and work will be discussed by KHAA member Niall Murray, whose PhD research at University College Cork’s School of History is focused on the revolutionary years in MacSwiney’s Mid- Cork constituency.

2.40pm - The role of education in the campaign for Irish independence - particularly the Gaelic League’s Irish language and culture teaching - has long been the subject of historical debate.

The impact of this cultural nationalism, and those involved, will be scrutinised by Dr Neil Buttimer, senior lecturer at University College Cork’s Department of Modern Irish.