Hey all,
We’re into the final few days of the Dublin Festival of History, and there are still some really good events happening before it wraps up.
This weekend’s selection has accidentally become a full history edition, but there’s enough variety here that I’m rolling with it.
We’ve got medieval knights in Tallaght, Vikings in the Phoenix Park, the families of the 1916 leaders, Cumann na mBan and even Niall Quinn talking about the life of a footballer turned revolutionary turned politician.
Quite the mix.
What’s On This Week
Meet a Knight: Family History Workshop
Dundrum Through the Years
Cumann na mBan & the Revolutionary Wars
Ten Years On: The 1916 Families in the 1926 Census
Niall Quinn: The Extraordinary Life of Oscar Traynor
The Victory of a Peaceful Revolution: The Story of Solidarność
Vikings of Islandbridge: Dublin’s Hidden Viking Past
Meet a Knight: Family History Workshop
Location: Tallaght Library, Parthalán Place, Dublin 24
Date & Time: Saturday 10th October | 10am & 11:15am
One for the kids this week.
Tallaght Library is giving families the chance to meet a medieval knight and get a proper look at the armour and weapons they would have used.
There are two hour-long workshops during the morning and they’re aimed at children aged 7+.
Far more interesting than trying to explain medieval Ireland from a textbook.
Dundrum Through the Years
Location: Dundrum Library, Upper Churchtown Road, Dublin 14
Date & Time: Until Saturday 10th October | During library opening hours
If you’re around Dundrum this week, pop into the library.
This exhibition digs into the history of Dundrum and the surrounding areas using material from the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown Local History collection alongside contributions from local people.
It’s also the final week to catch it.
Cumann na mBan & the Revolutionary Wars 1919–23
Location: Griffith College, South Circular Road, Dublin 8
Date & Time: Friday 9th October | 8pm–9:30pm
Historian Professor Mary McAuliffe looks at the women of Cumann na mBan and their role during Ireland’s revolutionary period from 1919 to 1923.
McAuliffe specialises in Irish women’s history and the revolutionary period, so this should go a fair bit deeper than the version of the story most of us learned in school.
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Ten Years On: The 1916 Families in the 1926 Census
Location: Kilmainham Gaol Museum, Inchicore Road, Dublin 8
Date & Time: Saturday 10th October | 2:30pm–3:30pm
The release of the 1926 Census has opened up some brilliant stories.
Brian Crowley, Curator of Collections at Kilmainham Gaol, uses the census to ask a simple question:
What happened to the families and friends of the executed 1916 leaders after the Rising?
Ten years after the events of Easter 1916, where were they and what had become of their lives?
A really interesting way of looking at 1916 from a completely different angle.
Niall Quinn: The Extraordinary Life of Oscar Traynor
Location: National Handball Centre, Sackville Avenue, Ballybough
Date & Time: Saturday 10th October | Doors 7pm, Talk 8pm
Football and Irish history in the same event. I’m sold.
Former Ireland striker Niall Quinn presents a talk based on his MA research into the extraordinary life of Oscar Traynor.
And extraordinary is probably fair.
Traynor played goalkeeper for Belfast Celtic, fought in the 1916 Rising, became an IRA commander during the War of Independence, served as a government minister and later spent years as President of the FAI.
Quinn will look at how football, revolution and politics all crossed over during Traynor’s life.
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Vikings of Islandbridge: Dublin’s Hidden Viking Past
Location: Phoenix Park Visitor Centre, Dublin 8
Date & Time: Sunday 11th October | 3pm–4pm
Here’s something I didn’t know.
Islandbridge is home to the largest Viking burial site discovered outside Scandinavia to date.
This free talk explores what those discoveries tell us about Viking life in Ireland and how Dublin developed into an important centre for settlement, trade and cultural exchange.
A nice Sunday afternoon option, and you can always get a Phoenix Park walk in while you’re there.
The Victory of a Peaceful Revolution: The Story of Solidarność
Location: Royal Irish Academy of Music, Westland Row, Dublin 2
Date & Time: Sunday 11th October | 5pm–6pm
We’ll finish outside Ireland for this one.
In August 1980, workers at the Gdańsk Shipyard in Poland went on strike.
What followed became the Solidarność movement, which grew to nearly 10 million members and played a major role in the political changes that eventually swept across Eastern Europe.
Magdalena Charkin-Jaszcza from the European Solidarity Centre in Gdańsk will tell the story of the movement and look at what its legacy means for Europe today.
There’s even a Dublin connection. The movement helped inspire U2’s New Year’s Day.
That’s your lot for this week.
And that’s nearly it for this year’s Dublin Festival of History too.
I’ve featured quite a few events from it over the past couple of weeks, but that’s mainly because there has been so much happening across the city for free.
So if history isn’t normally your thing, maybe give one a go before the festival finishes.
Personally, the Niall Quinn talk has me.
Football, 1916, the War of Independence and the FAI all in one man’s life is a fairly mad story.
Catch you next week
