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Decade of Centenaries History Week, 19th-23rd October

15 October 2020

Clare County Library will host a Decade of Centenaries History Week from 19th to 23rd October. The year 1920 was a momentous one in the county and the History Week programme will endeavour to examine the events and people of the period.

This year, due to Covid-19 restrictions, the programme will be online. It includes lectures from notable local historians such as Dr Joe Power, who will speak on Aspects of the War of Independence in Clare, and Joe Ó Muircheartaigh, who will give a talk on Tom Markham, a Clareman who was a close confidant of Michael Collins and was present in Croke Park on Bloody Sunday. Pat Shannon will give a talk on Peadar Clancy: Rebel, Leader and Campaigner. Peadar was Vice-Commandant of the Dublin Brigade. He was arrested on the eve of Bloody Sunday and killed in custody.

Rita McCarthy will deliver a podcast on Social Life in Clare during the War of Independence.  Rita will use contemporary newspaper sources to illustrate what everyday life was like for people during the conflict.

Mike Hanrahan will continue his collaboration with Clare County Library on Clare: Songs of Independence with three online performances of the songs and poetry of the period. 

Viewers will have a chance to see an excerpt of a new play by Dermott Petty entitled Two Days in September and based around the events in Clare on 22nd-23rd September, 1920. John Rattigan, Curator of Clare Museum, will contribute online accounts on some of the Artefacts of the War of Independence which are held in Clare Museum.

Ger Browne has contributed his ongoing research on the ‘Clare Revolution, 1916-1923’, which is available on www.clarelibrary.ie. This extensive online work provides biographical listings of Clare people involved in the conflict, including Cumann na mBan, RIC and members of the IRA brigades. 

History Week will provide an opportunity to exclusively access a National Photographic Archive exhibition, From Turmoil to Truce: Photographs of the War of Independence. This will be a guided Zoom tour with Maeve Casserly, National Library of Ireland historian, and Bríd O’Sullivan. Prior registration is required at decadeofcentenaries@clarecoco.ie

Clare County Library will launch an online exhibition on The Banner in Turmoil: County Clare and the War of Independence. The physical version of this exhibition will tour library branches when Covid-19 restrictions allow.  

All online content will be available through www.clarelibrary.ie and library social media.  Further information is available from decadeofcentenaries@clarecoco.ie

This initiative is supported by Clare County Council and the Decade of Centenaries Programme 2012-2023 under the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.

Page last reviewed: 15/10/20

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