Clare County Council to launch extensive programme of events as part of Ireland 2016 Centenary Programme

Clare County Council will launch its Ireland 2016 Centenary Programme of Events on Tuesday, 1st December 2015 at the De Valera Public Library in Ennis. Cllr James Breen, Cathaoirleach of Clare County Council and Cllr Pat Hayes, Chairperson of the County Clare 1916 Steering Committee, will officially launch the programme at 6.45pm. The County Clare programme is the outcome of consultations with interested local groups, organisations and individuals, who were invited to participate in the planning and implementation of the local programme. Led by Clare County Council and under the guidance of the local 1916 co-ordinator Helen Walsh, the programme contains events and initiatives ranging across all seven strands of the national Ireland 2016 programme. Further information on the Ireland 2016 Centenary Programme is available at www.ireland.ie.

Following the launch, at 7pm, Dr. Tomás Mac Conmara will give the first in a series of lectures/workshops that will explore the Easter Rising of 1916, its impact in County Clare, the key people involved from the county and a focus on how the event has been remembered and commemorated over the last 100 years in the county. Importantly, the lecturer will afford the public a chance to contribute their inherited stories of 1916. Dr. Tomás Mac Conmara is an oral historian who has been documenting memory and tradition relating to the Irish revolutionary period across the country for over ten years. He has interviewed over 150 of Clare's oldest citizens connected to the revolutionary period. He was awarded a doctorate by the University of Limerick in 2015 for his study into the social memory of the Irish War of Independence.

The other venues hosting the lecture series are Kilrush Library on Friday 4th Dec, Scariff Library on Tuesday 8th Dec, Shannon Library on Friday 11th Dec and Ennistymon Library on Friday 18th Dec. There is a start time of 7pm for all venues.

Dates for the lectures are as follows:
Tuesday, 1st Dec – De Valera Public Library, Ennis at 7pm
(Preceded by the launch of the Ireland 2016 Centenary Programme of Events for County Clare at 6.45pm)
Friday, 4th Dec - Kilrush Public Library at 7pm
Tuesday, 8th Dec - Scariff Public Library at 7pm
Friday, 11th Dec - Seán Lemass Public Library, Shannon at 7pm
Friday, 18th Dec - Ennistymon Public Library at 7pm