Lecture on St Colmcille, the founder of Durrow monastery

Offaly Historical and Archaeological Society will stream a lecture on Wednesday next on the topic: 'St Columba - founder of Durrow: what do we really know about him?'

The speaker is Brian Lacey and the lecture will be at 7.30pm on Wednesday, June 9.

Email info@offalyhistory.com for the link. The lecture is free but only the first 100 will be provided with the link.

This lecture is part of the celebrations marking 1500 years since Colmcille’s birth – for more information and national programming see https://colmcille.net/colmcille-1500/

St Columba (also known as Colmcille) was the founder of the early medieval monastery of Durrow, Co. Offaly. In fact, despite claims that he was the founder of many other monasteries in Ireland, Durrow is the only one for which there is genuine historical evidence. In the Middle Ages, along with Patrick and Brigid he was honoured as one of Ireland’s three patron saints. In some ways he could be said to be the favourite – there is hardly a parish in Ireland that doesn’t have some story about him or some monument to his name.

The genuine information about him, however, was continuously ‘embroidered’ with ever more fantastical legends which, although a testament to his popularity, nevertheless obscure the facts of his real life. This talk will reflect on that varied heritage and attempt to distinguish the facts from the fiction.

Dr Brian Lacey is a historian and archaeologist specialising mainly in the early medieval period in Cos Donegal and Derry. His interdisciplinary PhD (1999) dealt with the heritage of St Colum Cille. He lectured at Magee College, Derry, (1974-86) and later set up Derry’s Heritage and Museum Service having directed a series of salvage excavations at ‘Troubles’ bomb-sites in the city

He led the pioneering archaeological survey of Co. Donegal (1980-3) and (1998-2012) headed the Discovery Programme, an institute based in Dublin for advanced research in Irish archaeology. He is the author of many research papers and about 15 books, including St Columba: His Life and Legacy, Manus O Donnell: Life of Colum Cille (ed.), and Medieval and monastic Derry: sixth century to 1600. A recent edited book dealt with what happened in Derry during the Easter Rising of 1916. His latest book Adomnán, Adhamhnán, Eunan: the life and afterlife of a Donegal saint has just been published last week.