John Bruton to open history fest

FORMER Taoiseach John Bruton will open this year’s West Cork History Festival in Skibbereen in August.

Mr Bruton will speak alongside ITV News political correspondent Carl Dinnen on the timely subjects of Ireland’s relationship with Europe and the USA, as well some of the planned centenaries of 1919.

Organiser Simon Kingston outlined just a sample of what’s on offer: ‘This year, for obvious reasons, we will be looking at events of 1919 in West Cork and also looking beyond Ireland to the connections between our area, the UK and Continental Europe.

‘From Daniel O’Connell’s monster meeting in Skibbereen or the two overlapping themes: one the situation at the outbreak of the War of Independence in 1919 and the other a long-view of the triangular relationship between Ireland, Britain, and continental Europe over the last five hundred years. The panel debate on the current manifestation of that relationship should be lively.’

This year there will also be more field trips to locations around West Cork.

‘We have four separate field trips covering the history and archaeology of West Cork, the Beara Peninsula and the Mizen,’ Simon said.

 ‘We are also working closely with the Ludgate to discover just who Percy Ludgate was,’ Simon continued. 

‘And here we need The Southern Star’s help as we are appealing for information from anyone in the area that can tell us more and add to his story, to please get in contact with us.’ The festival will take place from Thursday August 8th to Sunday August 11th.

For tickets see westcorkhistoryfestival.org. See also page 11.