Welcome to our Lectures and Field trips page.

During the Spring and Autumn we have a lecture series which we hold in the community room in the Independence Museum Kilmurry, County Cork.

In the summertime we hold a number of field trips. These consist of trips around the County of Cork or sometimes further afield.

For the full list of lectures and field trips in 2019 please look below. Some lectures are still to be confirmed but in the event of that particular lecture not going ahead we will have a replacement lecture ready. We will update this page with any changes as soon as we have them.

January 16th 2019

Start Time: 8 p.m.

Lecture Title: Cork Burning

Talk given by Michael Lenihan

‘A tale of arson, loot and murder’ was how one source described the events that would befall Cork city on the night of 11–12 December 1920. In a scene of almost unprecedented destruction, members of the British forces bent on revenge for the ambushes at Kilmichael and Dillon’s Cross set fire to both the commercial and the civic heart of the city. One side of Patrick Street and the area surrounding it were razed to the ground, while City Hall and the neighbouring Carnegie Library were gutted as Auxiliaries and Black and Tans shot at Cork’s firemen and cut their hoses in an effort to ensure maximum damage. Then, to add insult to injury, as the smoke cleared the British, government tried to blame Cork’s own citizens for the devastation.

Michael Lenihan will discuss Cork City before December 1920, the Black and Tans, Auxiliaries and K Company, Republican Cork, a timeline of events before the burning of Cork City, early fires and arson by crown forces in Cork, the Kilmichael Ambush, the Dillon’s Cross Ambush, premises destroyed, official investigations into the causes, compensation and rebuilding.

March 13th 2019

Start Time: 8 pm

Lecture Title: Impaired Morals sexual deviancy and illegitimacy: The public dancehalls act 1935

Talk given by Sile Healy Hunt

Sile will give a talk on the dancehalls of the period and the politics of the period.

 

April 17th 2019

Start Time: 8pm

Lecture title: The Vikings in Ireland

Talk given by Dr. john Sheehan