Eclectic view of Galway’s history

Lifestyle – Galway’s newest festival explores historic events, large and small, that have helped shape the present. Its co-organiser Dr Sarah-Anne Buckley tells Judy Murphy about the inaugural Galway History Festival and how this is just the start.

One of the most fascinating legacies of the commemorations for 1916 and Ireland’s War of Independence has been a growing interest in history, according to NUIG lecturer, Dr Sarah-Ann Buckley.

Historian Sarah-Ann, whose specialist area is childhood, youth and gender in Ireland and Britain, is one of the organisers of a new conference which will kick off in the Aula Maxima, NUIG, next Thursday and will run in venues throughout the city until March 16.

Galway’s inaugural History Festival is been spearheaded by the University History Department with the support of Galway City Council and Creative Ireland.

In addition to talks on medieval times and early 20th Century Ireland, the eclectic programme includes occurrences from closer to our own era too. The 1970s are in the spotlight with a discussion featuring Arts Festival founder Ollie Jennings, Evelyn Stevens of the Family Planning Association and Seosamh Ó Cuaig of the Gluaiseachta Chearta Sibhialta na Ghaeltachta. Galway Activists and Enthusiasts will take place at the Black Gate Cultural Centre on Francis Street on Saturday, March 9 at 11am.

There will also be discussions on the role and value of history in people’s lives as well as a workshop especially for younger people, giving tips on how to gather oral history from older family and friends. Most events are free.

The Festival launch at NUIG’s Aula Maxima on Thursday, March 7, at 5.30pm will be followed by Galway, Sydney and the Wobbly World. This fusion of words and music, starting at 6.30pm in the Aula, will celebrate an internationally influential but now largely unknown Galwayman.

Dr John Cunningham of the NUIG History Department will discuss the life of Tom Glynn of Gurteen, (1881-1934), who was a teenage soldier in the Boer War. After that experience, Glynn went on to become a trade unionist, leading a strike in Johannesburg, organising workers in Vancouver and becoming a labour journalist in Sydney. During World War I, Tom Glynn became one of the Sydney Twelve – members of the Industrial Workers of the World who were imprisoned for their opposition to the war.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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