Blarney & District Historical Society
Programme of Public Lectures and Field Trips for 2018-2019 Season
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Wednesday 22nd August 2018
Tales of ‘Yore’ and More
Speakers: The Gab Storytelling
Please Note: This lecture will be presented in the Church of the Resurrection, Blarney at 8.00 p.m. Wednesday 22nd August 2018
All are Welcome.
Part of National Heritage Week, 19th to 26th August 2018
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Thursday 6th September 2018
2017/2018 Annual General Meeting
All Members and Intending Members Welcome
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Wednesday 19th September 2018
Field Trip to Cathedral of St. Mary And St. Anne
(North Cathedral)
Leader: Ms. Anne Twomey
Shandon Area History Group
With kind permission of Canon John O’Donovan
Meet at North Cathedral 7.15 p.m.
The Catholic Cathedral of St. Mary & St. Anne, known locally as the North Cathedral, is located at the top of Shandon Street, in one of the most historic areas of Cork. The Cathedral, dedicated in 1808, is located on the site of a former church built in the 1730s. The Cathedral is the principal church of the Diocese of Cork & Ross and has some of the oldest baptism and marriage records of any parish in Ireland with Baptisms dating from 1731 and Marriages from 1748. There are many notable and historic artefacts located in the building including a sunken baptistery area containing an early marble font.
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Thursday 4th October 2018
Her Story
Centenary of the Suffragette Movement
Granting of the Vote to Women
Speaker: Mr. Sean Horgan
Blarney and District Historical Society
This evening’s illustrated lecture provides a good overview of the range of involvements of women in the period from 1912 onwards, highlighting their involvement in the Lockout, the 1916 Rising, working in factories during WWI (Ulster especially), formation of Cumann na mBan, women’s involvement in Sinn Féin, and women in education.
The campaign by Irish women for the right to and the granting of the vote is especially important, and links to the centenary of the ‘Suffragette’ movement. Guest Speaker Sean Horgan examines ‘Her Story’ through local history and unravels the everyday lives of women throughout this fascinating period of Irish history.
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Thursday 1st November 2018
Blarney 1918
Anti-conscription – Armistice – Election
Speaker: Mr. John Mulcahy
Blarney and District Historical Society
In April 1918 the British government attempted to impose conscription in Ireland by imposing a law which was passed but never put into effect. Vigorously opposed by Unions, Nationalist parties and Clergy. No Irish person was ever drafted into the British Army. The Armistice of 11 November 1918 was the armistice that brought an end to fighting on land, sea and air in World War I between the Allies and Germany. What was the effect on Blarney and the many families who lost loved ones in the war?
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, though she did not take her seat and, along with the 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. Guest Speaker John Mulcahy analyses the effect these three momentous events had on the Blarney and District of 1918.
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Thursday 6th December 2018
Flora Sandes
Nurse Assistant – Serbian Army Sgt.-Major WW1
Whitechurch and Irish Connections
Speaker: Ms. Marie McCarthy
Blarney and District Historical Society
Flora Sandes was born a British woman in Yorkshire but always referred to herself as Irish, being the youngest daughter of a native Kerry family. Her father was a former rector of Whitechurch, Co. Cork before moving to Sunday’s Well and from there to England.
An excellent horse-woman and expert shooter she saw service as a nursing assistant during the First Balkan War, was wounded, enlisted as a soldier, promoted and awarded Serbia’s highest decoration and at the end of the war she was commissioned as an officer, making her simultaneously the Serbian army’s first female and first foreign officer. She was the only British woman officially to serve as a soldier in WWI. Guest speaker Marie McCarthy brings the story of this amazing woman to life with an illustrated lecture.
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Thursday 10th January 2019
Crime and Punishment in Victorian Cork
Speaker: Mr. Ronnie Herlihy
Historian and Author
Mr. Ronnie Herlihy is a well known and respected member of the Cork South Parish Historical Society and author of a number of books, including ‘A Walk Through the South Parish – Where Cork Began’ and ‘Tales from Victorian Cork’. He takes us back to a bygone time with this evening’ s illustrated presentation which is based on a selection of the various crimes, court cases and the punishments that took place during the early Victorian era of 1837 to 1859. Criminality in Cork City of the time matched anything being perpetrated by current criminals.
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Thursday 7th February 2019
Match-making Customs of Ireland
Speaker: Mr. John Arnold
Folklorist
Matchmaking tradition goes back a long way into the ages of the Irish people. People actually believed that these matches were made in heaven even though some of them could also be like hell on earth. Every locality had its own professional matchmaker who brought together somebody’s daughter and her prospective husband. Talks began to decide the fortune to be paid to the prospective bride and the number of cattle which might go to a farming bride-groom. These two ‘young’ people may never have seen each other before, and it made no difference whether they liked or disliked each other on meeting. Today, the matchmaker and his profession has almost disappeared with the exception of one or two areas in the country. Our Guest Speaker, John Arnold, is an acclaimed folklorist who will take us through the almost forgotten customs of match-making.
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Thursday 7th March 2019
Death On The Pier
The Cobh Pier Head Shooting 1924
The Search for the Moon Car
Speaker: Mr. John Jefferies
Historian and Author
On 21st March 1924 a group of men wearing Irish army uniforms pulled up at the main pier in Cobh, Co. Cork. Seated in a yellow Rolls Royce Silver Ghost, they watched around 50 British soldiers disembark from a ferry from Spike Island. Suddenly the men in the Rolls Royce produced machine guns and fired on the British soldiers. One soldier was killed while eighteen others and six civilians were injured. Driving away at speed, the Rolls Royce stopped briefly to fire on a British warship in the harbour. An hour later armed British soldiers returned to Cobh and more shots were fired. There followed one of the biggest manhunts in modern Irish history, making front-page news throughout the world. The Rolls Royce and its occupants seemed to have vanished into thin air. The car was not seen again for 57 years. This evening, Guest Speaker, John Jefferies unravels fact from myth surrounding the Pier Head shooting and the amazing story behind the mysterious Rolls Royce known as the Moon Car.
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Thursday 4th April 2018
Thatched Houses of County Cork
Speaker: Ms. Mary Sleeman
Heritage Unit Cork County Council
Archaeologist and Author
Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge, rushes, or heather, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. It is a very old roofing method still in use in many parts of the world. This evening, our Guest Speaker, Mary Sleeman, takes us on an illustrated tour of the many different types of thatch house still to be seen in County Cork explaining the history of thatching. Due to a shortage of thatchers, these thatch roofs have become a unique and, unfortunately, vanishing form of roof construction.
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Thursday 2nd May 2019
Henry Ford – The Cork Connection
Speaker: Mr. Denis McSweeney
Sales and Marketing Director Rtd.
In 1917 Henry Ford selected Cork as the location for the first purpose-built Ford factory outside North America. Known as Henry Ford and Son Ltd., it finally closed the Marina Plant in 1984. In the 67 years of its production it saw many momentous changes to the social aspect of Ireland both nationally and locally. This year, 2019, marks the centenary of the production of the first Fordson tractor from the Marina Plant in July 1919. Our Guest Speaker for this evening Mr. Denis McSweeney, who himself was a Sales and Marketing Director with the company, brings us the story of the ‘Cork Connection’ of the Ford dynasty.
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Mid-May 2019
Field Trip
Details to be Announced
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June 2018
Field Trip
Details to be Announced
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July/August
Summer Vacation
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August 2019
National Heritage Week Event
Details to be Announced
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Thursday 5th September 2019
2018/2019 Annual General Meeting
All Members and Intending Members Welcome
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All lectures are in Scoil Mhuire Gan Smál (Blarney Secondary School) at 8.00 p.m. unless otherwise stated. All events are correct at time of publication but some items may have to be cancelled or changed due to unavoidable circumstances from time to time. Some Field Trips may carry certain restrictions.
Everybody Welcome.
Enquiries: Mr. Brian Gabriel Email: bg1@eircom.net Mob: 087-2153216