Busy Heritage Week at Clonmacnoise

Heritage Week saw the Clonmacnoise monastic site, and its recently renovated Education Hub, play host to several events introduced by both OPW guides and guest speakers, along with a series of performances from local young musicians.

The programme got underway on Saturday August 16 with ‘ Warriors of Erin: Clonmacoise and the Irish Revolution’ an examination of the Seven Churches role as a rallying point for the Land League, Home Rule Movement and Sinn Fein before the War of Independence; the secret nighttime burial and disinterment of IRA flying column Jim Tormey; the lives of the three Easter Rising veterans buried at the site and the commemoration ceremony held in their honour in 1966.

On Wednesday, Daniel Breheny hosted a children’s workshop giving budding archaeologists a chance to learn the basics of the trade. The workshop complemented Katie Rigney’s weeklong children’s scavenger hunt at Clonmacnoise.

On Thursday attention swung to the undermined Anglo-Norman castle as Dr. Kieran O’Connor with the assistance of Ruari Henshaw introduced ‘Faith and Fortress’ an appraisal of the construction and subsequent destruction of Clonmacnoise’s most unusual landmark. Friday saw two events at the Education Hub,

During the afternoon, Peter Cleary’s ‘A Herbal Monastery: a “pinch” of the past’ focused on the religious community’s use of herbal medicine and the continued presence at the site of many of the plants they utilised.

That evening Breeding Waders EIP presented ‘Echoes of the Callows’ outlining their efforts to protect and promote birds like the Curlew, Lapwing, Oystercatcher, Redshank and Snipe in a changing world which increases encroaches on their traditional habitats. Saturday, August 23, saw Shannon Clarke and Cathal Smith collaborate an Irish Sign Language Tour of the site, while later the afternoon Patrick Carton held a Storytelling performance at the hub. On Sunday Kathy Scanlon lead an Autism Friendly Tour, concluding a busy week of activities at Clonmacnoise.