Free lecture to reveal Carlow county's hidden history
Historian and Carlow native Kevin Whelan will be giving the talk
A LANDMARK illustrated lecture on Co Carlow’s history from the medieval gaelic era to the modern day will take place in the Seven Oaks hotel on Thursday with free admission and is open to all.
The talk, organised by Carlow Historical and Archaeological Society (CHAS), will be delivered by renowned historian Dr Kevin Whelan, who promises to shed new light on a county he describes as “most historic, beautiful and scandalously little-known.” Among the lecture’s more striking claims is that the most undisturbed gaelic landscape in Ireland is not to be found in Connemara, Dingle or Donegal but in the Borris area of south Carlow. Dr Whelan will also argue that the Kavanaghs, long regarded as a Wexford dynasty, were, in fact, more thoroughly rooted in Co Carlow and that the last high king of Leinster, Domhnall Spáinneach Ó Caomhánach of Clonmullen in Barragh parish, was a Carlow man.
The lecture will take audiences through a wide sweep of the county’s geography and heritage, with areas including the Blackstairs mountains, Clonegal, Kildavin, Myshall, Leighlinbridge, St Mullins, Ballon, Carlow town, Rathvilly and Tullow all featured across 50 slides. A particular highlight will be the first public showing of early maps of the county recently discovered in America.
Dr Whelan is no stranger to the county. A native of Johnstown, near Clonegal, he attended Clonegal National School and later FCJ Bunclody and played for Kildavin GAA club. He has been director at the University of Notre Dame’s Dublin campus since 1998 and has lectured in 15 countries and at some of the world’s most prestigious institutions, including Oxford, Cambridge, Yale, the Sorbonne and Berkeley. He has written or edited more than 20 books and over 100 articles spanning Irish history, geography, literature and culture.
The lecture begins at 8pm and all are welcome.
