Our final event for 2022 is a lecture by our own Cora Crampton. The title is:
‘Remember Mullaghmast’: the past, nationalism and the south Kildare monster meeting
Where & when:
Lalor Centre [W91 XW57], near St. Joseph’s Church, Baltinglass
Tues. 6 December @ 8pm admission €5
DESCRIPTION
On Sunday 1 October 1843 thousands of people converged on the Rath of Mullaghmast near the village of Ballitore for a carefully orchestrated and richly symbolic public event. This was to be the second in a trio of especially large ‘monster’ meetings of Daniel O’Connell’s ‘great Repeal year’. The Rath was selected because it was the site of the 1577 massacre of native Irish chieftains. This lecture will explore how and why the site’s traumatic past was resuscitated and why a mass gathering of Leinster people assembled en fête for a peaceful and unified protest so alarmed the authorities.
THE SPEAKER
Cora Crampton is a native of Baltinglass, a longstanding member of WWHS, currently a committee member and a regular contributor to our journal. She was the 2021 recipient of the Lord Walter FitzGerald Prize, awarded by the County Kildare Archaeological Society for the original historical research which forms the basis of this forthcoming lecture. Cora recently completed an MA in English Literature at Maynooth University.
Photo Credit: John Hughes