Ireland’s Scientific Heritage
Promoting Ireland’s Scientific Heritage
Dr Norman McMillan, Secretary, National Committee for Commemorative Plaques in Science and Technology - Thursday 29 March 2012 | 8.00pm
Heritage
Maritime Remains & Irish History
Linking Maritime Remains and Irish History
Dr Edward Bourke, author and maritime researcher - Thursday 19 April 2012 | 8.00pm
Sir Thomas Cusack & Tudor Ireland
Where Faith and Politics Meet: Sir Thomas Cusack’s Ambitions for Tudor Ireland
Jeffrey Cox, researcher at the School of History and Archives (UCD) - Thursday 8 March 2012 | 8.00pm
View Heritage Series brochure here
Sir Thomas Cusack, a native of Meath, was arguably one of the most influential Anglo-Irish politicians in the Tudor political establishment. Entering politics in the 1530s, he served well into his sixties with only brief periods of absence from the workings of the Dublin Administration. Although his presence is well evidenced in state documentation, the absence of personal papers has made an analysis of his personal convictions difficult. One such area of ambiguity is the seemingly inconsistent and contradictory evidence of Cusack’s faith. Historians are of divided opinion concerning his religiosity; some labelling him a staunch protestant or crypto-catholic, others an irreligious politique. From his role in the dissolution of the monasteries (including Lismullen) to his Catholic sympathies, this lecture will weigh the evidence of Cusack’s personal faith and allegiance, ultimately seeking to understand it through the religious context of the mid-sixteenth century and the political ideals he championed for Ireland.
It will be given by Jeffrey Cox, researcher at the School of History and Archives (UCD). Formerly a history teacher in the United States, and a Fulbright sponsored teacher in Northern Ireland, Jeffrey Cox completed a Masters in Early Modern History at University College Dublin. His master’s research focused on the political career of Sir Thomas Cusack. Jeffrey is currently a PhD candidate in the School of History and Archives at UCD, and a research assistant for the Iberian Book Project. His current research centres on Catholic communities in Elizabethan and early Stuart Sussex and Kildare.
The back drop to the details about the Lismullin spring heritage series (view here) shows part of a letter Sir Thomas wrote from Lismullin.
The lecture starts at 8pm and there will be refreshments afterwards. Entry fee is 5 euro.
Lecture followed by discussion and light refreshments. Cover charge €5.
History of Clones Crochet Lace
The history of Clones Crochet Lace
Máire Treanor, Author of Clones Lace - Thursday 20 October 2011 | 8.00pm
Clones Lace is an Irish Crochet lace, named after the town where it was marketed, developing its own character since 1847. Cassandra Hand, wife of the local Church of Ireland minister, introduced this lace, inspired by Venetian needlepoint lace, as a famine relief project to the small drumlin region of west Monaghan and southeast Fermanagh, at the height of the Great Irish Famine. The Clones people soon made it their own, imitating the flowers that grew in the area. By 1850 there were 1500 lace makers in a 30 mile radius of Clones, supplying markets in Dublin, London, Paris, Rome and New York.
Máire Treanor has been making Clones Lace since she first came to Clones from Armagh in 1988. In 2002 Mercier Press published her book: Clones Lace – the story and patterns of an Irish Crochet, which was republished by Lacis in Berkeley SF in 2010. She loves to pass on this wonderful craft to others and teach it at workshops, especially in Clones, her source of inspiration, ensuring another generation of Clones Lace makers.
Oral History in Meath
Telling it like it was: collecting and preserving oral history in Meath
Tom French, Meath County Library - Thursday 27 October 2011 | 8.00pm
This talk will focus on the setting up and the progress to date of the Meath Oral History Project, and plans for the future.
Tom French works in the Local Studies department of Meath County Council Library Service, where he co-ordinates the Meath Oral History Project. The Gallery Press published his books Touching the Bones (2001), and The Fire Step (2009). In 2010 he edited A Meath Anthology (Meath County Library Service, 2010).
New Translation of the Missal
Our Liturgical Heritage and a new Translation of the Missal
Rev. Patrick Gorevan, NUI Maynooth - Thursday 10 November 2011 | 8.00pm
The Liturgy of the Catholic Church in Ireland from the time of St. Patrick until the 1960s was celebrated in Latin. Since the 1970s versions in vernacular languages became common. A new translation of the Roman Missal into English is to be introduced in Ireland on the first Sunday of Advent this year. This lecture will briefly trace the history of the Roman liturgy in Ireland through illuminated manuscripts like the Book of Kells, scriptural high crosses, psalters and prayer books, missals and leaflets to the present day. It will then consider the latest translation and explain the reasons for the changes.
Patrick Gorevan is a priest of the Opus Dei Prelature, working in Dublin. He specializes in 20th century phenomenology (Ph.D from UCD on Max Scheler) and has also written on emotional theory and virtue ethics. He has lectured in philosophy at NUI Maynooth and in recent years he has written on the translation of the liturgical heritage. He is presently translating some of St Thomas Aquinas’ commentaries on Aristotle.
Lismullin Iron Age Enclosure
The Lismullin Iron Age enclosure: a place along the way
Frank Prendergast, College of Engineering, DIT & School of Archaeology, UCD - Thursday 24 November 2011 | 8.00pm
The national monument at Lismullin was discovered by archaeologists in 2007 during topsoil stripping for a section of the M3 motorway. The most significant finding was a series of buried sockets that indicated the former presence of a large c. 80 m diameter multi-ring structure with a formal entrance avenue and other pit and post features. This is now described as a rare example of a timber post-built ceremonial enclosure. It is securely dated to the Iron Age in c. 600 BC, and to have had a probable ritual and ceremonial purpose rather than a burial or habitation function. This lecture will briefly examine the role of astronomy in prehistory and then focus on how geo-spatial analysis of the excavation data was used to unlock the construction method and the likely use and role of the monument at Lismullin in the Iron Age.
Frank Prendergast is a chartered geodetic surveyor, practitioner, and Head of the Department of Spatial Information Sciences, DIT. His interests in archaeology stem from an undergraduate dissertation relating to the archaeoastronomy of the Boyne Valley tombs. He has done research work on Newgrange as well as on Ireland’s prehistoric stone rows and stone circles. He is a contributor to TV and radio programmes on the subject for the BBC and RTE. In addition to being involved with scientific societies in archaeoastronomy at a European and world level, he holds a masters degree from TCD and has recently submitted a PhD to the School of Archaeology UCD entitled ‘Linked Landscapes – Spatial, Archaeoastronomical and Social Network Analysis of the Irish Passage Tomb Tradition’.
