Killarney’s Autumn Talks are back

KILLARNEY Plaza will have plenty to offer on Thursday nights over the coming months, with Killarney National Park’s annual Autumn Series of Talks set to get underway at the town centre hotel next week.

The series have been running annually since 1983, and Conservation Ranger Padruig O’Sullivan explained that the events are now very much part of Killarney’s fabric:

“They have a loyal local following, in fact a good lot of people attend all six talks every year”, he said.

“They’ve been running since 1983, and when people hear they’re coming up again they say ‘Oh, is it that time of year already?’, so that’ll give you an idea of how well known they are in Killarney.”

RTÉ journalist Seán Mac an tSíthigh will be the first speaker to take to the microphone next Thursday (October 6), and the Corca Dhuibhne man, an author on various aspects of Kerry mythology, will be talking at length about ‘The Night Sky in Irish Folklore’.

He will be followed on October 13 by “What Did Biodiversity Ever Do For Us?”, a talk by Liam Lysaght of the National Biodiversity Centre, before ecologist Niamh Roche appears on October 20 with “Irish bats – what do they do and how are they doing it?”.

The talks will play host to UCC Zoology professor John Quinn on October 27 as he chats about the behaviour of wild birds, and Landscape Conservation Architect Elizabeth Morgan will speak about the restoration of Killarney House’s grounds and garden in the series’ penultimate talk on November 3.

Aubrey Fennell, a hunter of champion trees, closes the sixweek series on November 10 with his talk “The Remarkable Trees of County Kerry.”

Admission to all of the talks is free of charge, and Padruig encourages everyone to call in:

“They’re nice, relaxing talks, and the expertise at hand is top notch. They’re always superbly attended, and it’d be well worth your while to drop in.”