Public’s help being sought as part of Civil War project

THE public is being asked to help identify and record monuments, plaques or even statues, marking the War of Independence and Civil War era across the county.

As part of the Commemorations Work Programme 2021, Cork County Council’s Commemorations Committee is setting out to record and document the many memorials relating to the Irish revolutionary period, including the War of Independence and Civil War.

Historian and author Dr Tomás Mac Conmara will oversee the project and is looking for communities across West Cork to help record their monuments. ‘We are very aware of Cork’s central and intense role in the revolutionary period and also how that memory has been treasured by the people of the county over the last 100 years,’ Dr Mac Conmara told The Southern Star.

‘The central focus of the audit will be to document what has been memorialised across the public landscape of memory in Cork over the last century.

‘The output will include a wide-ranging database, as well as contextual, geographical, historical, and cultural descriptions of identified memorials.

‘By undertaking this audit, we will be able to see what has been publicly remembered and of course, what has not. This will generate a greater understanding of both history and memory in Cork.’

However, it is not just the recognisable and well known monuments that Dr Mac Conmara wants to record.

‘Memorials, statues and wall plaques, as well as church inscriptions will be included, where relevant,’ he said.

‘Grave markers, where there is a clear reference to the individual’s connection to the period, will also be documented.’ To be part of the project, email [email protected] or call 087 9160373 for more information.