Heritage Talk | Wednesday, April 8
Situated at the foot of the Hill of Tara in the historic Boyne Valley, Lismullin Conference Centre is in an area with a very rich and varied heritage. In this series of Heritage Lectures, we will explore various aspects of our local heritage so that visitors to the Lismullin Conference Centre and our neighbours will have a greater knowledge and appreciation of the history and attractions of their surroundings.
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In the two decades spanning the height of the Irish Cultural Revival and the establishment of the Free State, revivalists sought to reimagine the Irish landscape as a living archive of national identity, drawing on ancient sites as focal points for a movement that was at once linguistic, political, and spiritual. This lecture examines two such sites — the Hill of Uisneach and Durrow Abbey — and the networks of public dialogue and association they catalysed between 1906 and 1926.
Long understood as places of mythological and ecclesiastical significance, both sites were reanimated by revivalist sensibilities that saw in them a deeper grammar of Irishness, one that could speak to the energies of the language revival and the wider project of cultural self-determination and unity. Tracing the individuals and ideas that gathered around these spaces, the lecture considers how this reclamation of sacred geography shaped emerging debates about culture, heritage, and national life in the critical years surrounding Irish independence.
Research for this lecture was made possible by a grant from the Royal Irish Academy Commemorations Bursary 2025/26.
To reserve a place, book and pay now.
For more information contact Lismullin Office Dublin
T: (01) 6760731
E: lismullinoffice@gmail.com
Angus Mitchell has published widely on the history of the Kingdom of Meath before and after the War of Independence. Articles relating to this lecture have appeared in recent editions of Ríocht na Mídhe and Iarmhí.
Angus will have available some of his most recent publication — a new biography of the revolutionary leader Roger Casement (London: Haus Publishing) — launched in London in March 2026.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hill_of_Uisneach#/media/File:Hill_of_Uisneach.jpg
https://www.hauspublishing.com/product/casement-2/
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