The Society’s excursion to East Cork and West Waterford is under one month away and there are a few places available. This is an opportunity not to be missed, to visit with the County Kildare Archaeological Society, the magnificent landscape of this part of Ireland and experience its rich history, heritage and culture.  The Society has selected the family-owned, independent four-star Garryvoe Hotel as its base for the nights of 14^th and 15^th June.  This award winning Hotel which overlooks the magnificent Ballycotton Bay featured recently on RTE television programme presented by the environmental broadcaster Duncan Stewart.  The schedule will allow for the use of the Hotel’s Health Club facilities and the adjoining beach.  Final arrangements for the itinerary are now being made and those wishing to take part, who may have overlooked booking, should telephone Elizabeth Connelly as soon as possible on 045 437321.  Those who have booked already will be contacted by Elizabeth shortly.

Provisional itinerary:

Day 1 -Thursday 14^th June

9.00    The coach will depart Toughers Car Park, Newhall at 09:00 hours sharp on 14^th June with a brief requested stop at Urlingford.

A brief tour of Mitchelstown including King’s Square, Kingston College and other Town features.

A short stop for tea/coffee and scones at the Corbet Court, Kilworth.

View the famous Labbacallee Wedge-Tomb – the largest of its kind in Ireland near Glanworth and Fermoy.

13.30   Check in at the Garryvoe Hotel followed by a soup and sandwich lunch.

14.30   Depart for Ardmore believed to have been Christianised by St. Declan around 350 A.D. before the arrival of St. Patrick.  View the magnificent 100ft high round tower     (12 century), the ruined cathedral, oratory, Ogham stones and stone carvings displaying pious images.

Visit the historic town of Youghal and view such sites as the Clock Gate Tower, Myrtle Grove (home Sir Walter Raleigh) and much more.

18.00   Return to Hotel for Dinner at 20.00

Day 2 – Friday 15^th June

10.00   Depart for Lismore. Visit the Heritage Centre, Lismore Castle & Gardens, Castle Art Centre, Lismore Cathedral and Lunch in Lismore House Hotel.

18.00   Return to Hotel for Dinner at 20.00

Day 3 – Saturday 16^th June

Check out.

10.00   Depart for Cobh, the last port of call for the ill-fated Titanic, visit the Cobh Heritage Centre, Titanic 100 year anniversary related features and view the Cathedral with its neo-Gothic architecture designed by the architects Pugin and Ashlin which took 47 years to build starting in 1868 together with its Carillon of 42 bells.

13.30   Lunch in Gilbert’s Restaurant.

After lunch:  Join coach for the return to Toughers

18.30   Brief requested stop at Urlingford.

19.30   Arrive at Toughers Car Park, Newhall

On Sunday, 13th May 2012, the Kildare Archaeological Society visited Athy where they were guided by Frank Taaffe

3281-ckas-visit-athy

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Photos by Déaglán de Paor

http://chancery.tcd.ie/

The records of the Irish chancery were destroyed on 30 June 1922 in an explosion and fire in the Public Record Office of Ireland, located at the Four Courts, Dublin. Among the most important classes of record destroyed were the medieval Irish chancery rolls.

CIRCLE is the culmination of nearly four decades of work reconstructing these lost records. It brings together all known letters enrolled on the Irish chancery rolls during the Middle Ages (1244–1509) drawing on originals, facsimiles, transcripts and calendars located in archival repositories in The Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, England and the USA.

The site contains over 20,000 Irish chancery letters translated from Latin into English, together with an unparalleled collection of digital images of surviving medieval chancery letters and rare printed volumes.

The Agricultural History Society of Ireland and the Department of Sociology, National University of Ireland Maynooth jointly present

CONFERENCE

CLACHAN AND RUNDALE: Post-Medieval Farming and Settlement

9^th June 2012 National University of Ireland Maynooth, South Campus, Renehan Hall.

Programme

9.00am                         Registration

9.15am  Official Opening – Prof. Jim Walsh, Deputy-President

Session 1: The Context.

9.30am ‘Clachan and Rundale in a comparative perspective’.

Emeritus Professor Robert Dodgshon,

Aberystwyth University.

10.30am   ‘Sustainability of Post-Medieval Farming’

Jim Collins,

11.15am                       Coffee/tea

11.30am   Agricultural History Society of Ireland – AGM.

1.15pm     Lunch in Pugin Hall

Session 2: Recent Developments:

2.30pm   ‘Seasonality and Pig production in                           Ireland;  1800-1940’.

Mervyn Watson

3.15pm  ‘The dynamics of rundale and enclosure in pre-famine Ireland: evidence from Ulster estates’.

Martin W. Dowling

4.00pm    ‘The Enclosure of Rundale on Lord Arran’s    Estate, Donegal’

Eamonn Slater

4.45pm       ‘Did “Enclosure” start in the Later Middle Ages’

Tadhg O’Keeffe

‘Concluding Comments’

William Nolan

Joint conference by the Agricultural History Society of Ireland and the Department of Sociology, National University of Ireland Maynooth, celebrating 75 years.

There will be a prayer service at the old Priory of Connall (aka, but wrongly, Greatconnell Abbey) this coming Sunday, 6th May, at 3.00pm. Fr McDermott, Parish Priest of Newbridge, is conducting the service, and we hope to have tea and biscuits following.  Although this is not officially a Newbridge Local History Group outing, we hope to provide a short talk on the history of the Priory to those present.

Royal Irish Academy: Archaeology Research Funding and Radiocarbon Dates Offer 2012

A reminder that the closing date for applications for Research Funding and Radiocarbon Dates is Wednesday 25 April 2012.

For further information and to apply online please see the following link: http://www.ria.ie/our-work/committees/committees-for-the-humanities-and-social-sciences/archaeology/grants-and-awards.aspx

Tuesday 17th April – Saturday 21st April 8 pm

Tickets: €15               Concessions: €12

One year after the dramatic, but failed, Dublin Rising of 1916, the residents of the tiny Irish village of Kilfeckert take up arms once more against the British Army.  The rebels occupy key buildings in the village and prepare to go to war to defend the new Republic they have declared.  As they wait and ultimately go to war, leading figures from the literary revival have begun to dramatise their exploits for the stage, under the watchful eye of the parish priest.  And watching all of this unfold is an embedded TV crew, filming a news documentary on the dramatic events.

‘Easter 1917’ is a wild and hilarious ride through an alternative view of Irish history.  A laugh out loud comedy featuring run ins with cans of beans, attempted communications with the Kaiser’s Germany, makeshift weapons, rebel in fighting, knowing in jokes and all the drama, suspense and comedy of a David versus Goliath clash with a few surprising plot twists.

It is Irish history in all its glory and failure – political, military, religious, artistic, sporting – as you’ve never quite seen it before.

A large cast of new and familiar Moat Club actors bring to life the rebels and writers, poets and priests, hurlers and cricketers, soldiers and reporters that inhabit the crazy, comic world of Kilfeckert at Easter 1917.

On Thursday 19th April from 7pm to 7.30pm prior to that night’s performance of Easter 1917 there will be a panel discussion focusing on the 1916 rebellion. The event will be chaired by Mario Corrigan,Kildare Library & Arts Services and will feature notable historians, Paddy Behan, Stan Hickey, James Durney and Liam Kenny as well as the playwright and director of Easter 1917, Gerard O’Shea. The panel discussion is free but it is hoped it would entice people along to the performance on Thursday evening.

In recent times Gerard O’Shea has directed ‘The Playboy of the Western World’, ‘The Seagull’ and ‘This Lime Tree Bower’ at the Moat Club.  As a writer, his short play ‘Revolver’ appeared at the Moat in 2007, and ‘Skullduggery’ has been toured on three occasions by devise+conquer theatre company in 2010/11, including a two week run at Bewleys Café Theatre.

“Waking the Titanic”

“Muintir Mhaigh Eo Ar An Titanic”

TG4: Good Friday, 6th April at 8pm, and Saturday 14th April at 9.30pm

This docudrama from Gillian Marsh (daughter of a CKAS member!) tells of the experiences of fourteen young passengers from Addergoole, Co Mayo, who travelled on the Titanic;  only three survived.  Gillian offers a very different approach to the Titanic story, and further information on it can be found on her website www.gmarshtv.ie .  In the past, many of us will have already seen some of Gillian’s other productions, including the very popular “Vets on Call” series.

“Waking the Titanic” will be of particular interest to CKAS members who visited the Titanic Dock and Pump-House in Belfast during our trip in September 2009, and to those who are joining the excursion to East Cork and West Waterford in June 2012 (just a small handful of places still available!) when we will visit the Titanic Experience in Cobh.

Elizabeth Connelly

Honorary Secretary

‘Rediscovering Medieval Ireland’

Robin Frame

A public lecture to mark the launch of a major new internet resource:

CIRCLE: A Calendar of Irish Chancery Letters, c.1244–1509

www.tcd.ie/chancery

Thursday, 10 May 2012 at 6 pm

Thomas Davis Lecture Theatre (Room 2043, Arts Building)

Trinity College Dublin

Admission Free – All Welcome

No advance registration or booking required

For further information contact Dr Peter Crooks irish.chancery@gmail.com or phone 01-896 1791

Organized by the Medieval History Research Centre, Trinity College Dublin

The next Friends of Medieval Dublin symposium will take place in Trinity College Dublin on the 19th May 2012.