A Historic Team for a Historic Time

A community event grant funded under the Carlow County Council Decade of Centenaries programme is taking place TOMORROW Saturday 19^th October in Ballykealy House Hotel at 8pm.

The title of the event is A Historic Team for a Historic Time and the project focuses on the success of a local Club Football team who brought the first Gaelic Football County Championship to the community in 1919. As part of the commemoration a history of the team and the community will be launched on the night.  It reflects the role of the GAA as part of the cultural revolution that lead to the birth of the state. It has established and recorded links between the players, club members and IRA activity during the War of Independence. It has identified and recorded families in the community impacted by the Spanish Flu and the Great War and some of the socioeconomic pressures which lead to individuals and families leaving the community.

Aside from the publication, the event which consists of a community dinner, will see a keynote speech delivered by Dr Kevin Whelan on the period in history and a piece of theatre which will seek to reflect how the community has moved forward as a result of those who have gone before.

A small exhibition of memorabilia will be facilitated at the event. The publication will be a permanent record of our community and its role in our National History. A physical reminder of the events of 1919 will be created and placed in the GAA Club.

The project is a collaboration between Clonegal Kildavin Veteran Players group and Kildavin Clonegal GAA Club assisted by Dr Kevin Whelan of Notre Dame University. It has the support of the Local Heritage Committee and of the Ben Mulhall Park Association and will be part funded through Carlow County Council Decade of Centenaries Community Events Grant Scheme.

To attend please contact:

John Shortall,

County Librarian,

Carlow County Library HQ,

Tullow Street,

Carlow.

Phone: 059 9129713 or 086 8222209

Email: [email protected]

Web: www.carlowlibraries.ie  or www.carlow.ie