‘Proper' history of West Cork to be discussed at new forum

AN event has been organised to look at ‘the proper history of West Cork.’ 

The West Cork History Forum / Fóram Staire Iarthar Chorcaí will be held in the West Cork Hotel Skibbereen on Friday August 9th.

The area has been the focus of much new historical study in recent decades. But, according to the Forum organisers, ‘much of that new study  has been based on a fundamental misrepresentation of its history especially during the War of Independence.’

‘It was based on a fraud – the breaking of the basic rules of historical scholarship; blatant distortion, censoring and misrepresentation of historical sources; use of anonymous interviews - one with a dead participant of the Kilmichael Ambush; innuendo and insinuation of alleged sectarianism and ethnic cleansing as the driving force in the War of Independence in West Cork,’ organisers say. 

Members of the Crossbarry & Kilmichael Commemoration Committee, in conjunction with the Aubane Historical Society, say that they are ‘proud to have played a part in discrediting this revisionism’ and under their auspices this Forum is now being convened as a focus for dealing with the ‘proper history of West Cork – and Ireland’. 

The West Cork History Forum will commence at 7.30pm  with talks on the Tooreen and Kilmichael engagements, the Battle of Crossbarry and the attack on Rosscarbery Barracks by Seán Ó Céilleachair and Conn O’Callaghan of the Kilmichael/Crossbarry commemoration committee, both of whose fathers fought during the war of Independence.

At 9.30pm Brendan Clifford will  launch a new publication on the West Cork historian, AM Sullivan. A question and answer sessions will follow each session and all are welcome.