Here is a link to info on The Standing Council of Irish Chiefs and Chieftains. Their recent publication is Gaelic Ireland (c. 600 – 1700). Lordship Saints and Learning (Wordwell 9781913934668). There is more on the web. It may be worth discussing some form of Prize for Local Studies in schools organized on a regional, perhaps sub-county level, or even smaller, but ending up in a publication, print or otherwise and a cash prize (always a motivator) on a national basis. Surely the History Teachers Association – which used to exist – would be interested.
In case you are planning on circulating a newsletter in the coming days, we would be very grateful if you could please include details of the following talk.
The Irish Labour History Society are hosting a free Zoom talk by Dr Alan McCarthy this Thursday 10 March at 7PM on Workers’ Education in Cork and Dublin in the 1946-51 period.
THE REAL PEOPLE’S COLLEGE? WORKERS’ EDUCATION IN CORK AND DUBLIN, 1946-1951 – THURSDAY 10 MARCH at 7PM
In 1948 after two years of dedicated study, twenty-four trade unionists were awarded diplomas in social and economic science by UCC President Alfred O’Rahilly. O’Rahilly trained as a Jesuit but left before ordination. His deeply held religious beliefs heavily influenced his attitude towards adult education which was guided by the papal encyclicals, Rerum Novarum (1891) and Quadragesimo Anno (1931). Concerned by the potential spread of crypto-communism, O’Rahilly sought to influence the development of adult education nationally at institutions like UCD and the Catholic Workers’ College. This staunch espousal of Catholic social teaching within the nascent adult education movement brought it into conflict with advocates of non-denominational workers’ education, such as the People’s College, within the context of Catholic integralism in the 1940s and 1950s. This is the story of the institutions that claimed to be the ‘real’ college of the People.