Tipperary People and Places Lecture Series
Tipperary Libraries is pleased to announce that the Tipperary People and Places Lecture Series will return to Tipperary Studies, The Source, Cathedral Street, Thurles for the eighth series with another exciting programme.
The lectures take place on the third Tuesday of each month from October 2014 to March 2015, commencing at 7.30pm.
Another new panel of speakers with a fascinating range of subjects.
Admission Free Tea served All are welcome
October 21st
Nancy Leahy Irish Drama/Defining Irish Identity
A look at the process of national self-definition in the context of our Gaelic tradition, Colonial Theatre and National Theatre. Did Tipperary have a contribution to make?
Nancy Leahy MA – Retired from St. Anne’s Secondary School Tipperary Town. She has had a lifelong involvement with amateur drama and musical theatre.
November 18th
James Durney Tipperary Casualties in the Korean War
When the North Korean Peoples’ Army invaded the Republic of South Korea on 25 June 1950 it began a war that was to last three years, leave millions dead and bring the world to the brink of a third world war and nuclear destruction. Within weeks hundreds of Irishmen would be fighting and dying on the far side of the world.
Irish missionaries had also been in Korea since the 1930s with the Columban Fathers. Of the 117 Irish fatalities, five were from Co. Tipperary, while several more became captives of the Communists, including Bishop Tom Quinlan, of Borrisoleigh.
James Durney is an author/historian who works in the Local Studies and Genealogy Department, based in Newbridge Library. He is the author of twelve books on local and Irish history. James also works as a tour guide for the Kildare Heritage Company. James has worked on several TV projects for RTE and TG4 He is Chairman of the Co. Kildare Federation of Local History Groups; Chairman of Naas Local History Group; and a Committee member of the Co. Kildare Archaeological Society.
Dec 16th
Tadhg O’Keeffe Castles in Mid Tipperary
Tadhg is Associate Professor in the School of Archaeology in UCD. He has written several books and contributed to numerous other journals and books. Amongst his titles are Fethard: Irish historic town atlas and Fethard, Co. Tipperary: a guide to the medieval town. In this lecture, he returns to one of his main research areas, Irish medieval architecture and defines the various castles and types of castle in Co. Tipperary. The stone castle dominates our perception of the middle ages. It reflects both the power of medieval aristocracy and the insecurities of life in an age of militarism and territorial strife.
Jan 20th
Liam Kennedy Borrisoleigh: The Rural Community in a Larger Irish Setting
The broad theme is social change in rural Ireland as seen through the prism of a rural community in North Tipperary. In the 1950s and the 1960s a number of studies appeared which proclaimed the death of rural Ireland. Most of these came out of the West of Ireland and somehow did not seem to fit the rural world Liam had experienced growing up in Tipperary. Thus began an interest in marriage patterns, dowries, farm inheritance, land hunger, religious change, women in rural society, and much else. Liam hopes to explore these and related themes, and would be delighted to hear of the life experiences of others as well. Liam Kennedy, Professor of Economic & Social History, Queen’s University Belfast, was born in Borrisoleigh, Co. Tipperary, in 1946, well before the era of rural electrification, the Friesian cow, RTE and the European Union. His interests include social change in Irish rural society, the Great Irish Famine and the Troubles in Northern Ireland. He is currently completing a book of historical essays imaginatively titled The Irish, due out in 2015.
February 17th
Reverend Robert MacCarthy The Trinity College Estates in Tipperary
The Trinity College Estates were scattered over 16 of the 32 counties. In 1876 the Co. Tipperary portion of this estate extended to almost nine hundred acres with a valuation of close to £1,000 . Reverend MacCarthy examines the management of the ‘institutional’ estate and the complex middleman system which was a common feature on the college estate during the nineteenth century.
Reverend MacCarthy, a native of Tipperary was ordained in 1979 and ministered in many parishes including Carlow and St. Canice’s Kilkenny prior to his appointment as Dean of St Patrick’s in 1999. He retired from this position in 2012. His publications include The Estates of Trinity College Dublin and Ancient and Modern: A short History of the Church of Ireland and also a biography of John Henry Bernard.
March 24th ( Note Date, due to St. Patrick’s Day))
Denis G. (Des) Marnane ‘Restoring the Disabled to Usefulness’: The story of Tipperary Command Depot, 1916-1918.
During the First World War, Tipperary Military Barracks had two very different roles. In 1914-15, the 49th Brigade was trained there for service on the Western Front. Then, from 1916, Tipperary was a place where efforts were made to undo the damage of war, when for several years; Tipperary Military Barracks was a centre for the recuperation and rehabilitation of wounded soldiers.
Des returns to the Tipperary People and Places Series for his eighth lecture. His name is instantly recognisable in the world of Local History and Studies in Tipperary, being an annual contributor to the Tipperary Historical Journal and author of numerous publications, the most recent being The first hundred: talks on Tipperary’s history, as broadcast on Tipperary’s Mid West Radio (2011-2013).