Revolutionary Roadshow arrives in Thurles 13th February!
The School of History, University College Cork and Tipperary County Council are pleased to announce that that a ‘Revolutionary Decade Roadshow’ will be held in The Source Arts Centre, Thurles, county Tipperary, on Saturday 13th February from 11am-4pm.
The event – which is free, open to all and for which no pre-registration is required– follows on from the success of previous roadshows, which were held in Cork city and county, Muckross House Killarney, and the most recent events in Tralee and Dungarvan. These roadshows attracted international attention as a result of the discovery during them of the last known photographs of Michael Collins, taken just minutes before his death in west Cork on 22 August 1922.
Gabriel Doherty, UCC School of History beside the Republican Grave Plot in UCC
The event is aimed at anyone who has an interest – whether personal or familial – in the history of the ‘revolutionary decade’ in modern Irish history, 1912-1923. Anyone who has any documents (eg official correspondence, private letters, diaries, pictures, etc.), stories, artefacts from that period – or indeed are simply interested the events that took place during it – are invited to meet to meet and discuss same with professional archivists and expert historians, in a friendly, informal setting.
Also present on the day will be a number of local & national historical groups with a particular specialism in this period, including the Dublin Brigade Irish Volunteers History Group and the Women’s History Association of Ireland, among others. Members of the public can browse their exhibits, purchase commemorative items, register as members, and so on. Others stalls will offer for sale books relating to the period. Members of historical re-enactment groups, dressed in period attire, will also be present, as members of the IRA, Crown forces etc., and will deliver short talks ‘in character’ about their aims, their equipment, and so on. There will be a number of short talks relating to the period, and musical interludes, consisting of period songs. Finally, there will be a special participatory session devoted to younger members of the audience.
The event organisers say: ‘The event is being organised in response to public demand following the earlier roadshows. We are very keen to emphasise that the event is not just for the Tipperary public, but it is bythat public, for it is they – their memories, their artefacts, their documents, their interests – who are the stars of the show. It is no accident that many of the key individuals from that period, such as Dan Breen and Seán Treacy, hailed from Tipperary. So we wish to invite all the residents of the county to come and talk with us, and with each other, about the role of the people of Tipperary during those momentous years in the life of the county, and the country.’
