The Phyllis Flanagan Memorial Lecture took place on Friday 26 September 2025 at the Lalor Centre, Baltinglass. It was a very sociable and well attended event, which our society was delighted to arrange to mark the first anniversary of the death of Phyllis, a founding and honorary member of our society. She was a very well-known Baltinglass native and resident. Although in her 96th year, Phyllis possessed an inexhaustible joie de vivre and served as an inspiration to all of us in the West Wicklow Historical Society.
Cora Crampton, our society’s secretary, provided the lecture on the night. Her research traced the historical imprint of three Gaelic women of the early modern period – Sadhbh O’Byrne, Margaret O’Byrne and Sadhbh Kavanagh who were related to the famous Wicklow leader Feagh Mc Hugh O’Byrne as mother, half-sister and first wife respectively. The lecture explored the importance of marriage in creating and sustaining political and military alliances in a stateless society which lacked any form of central authority. The conflict between canon law and the tradition of ‘Irish secular marriage’ was examined in the context of Sadhbh O’Byrne’s marriage to Hugh Mc Shane O’Byrne, with emphasis on the impact that divorce-on-demand had on high-status Gaelic women. The escalation of violence in the 1570s during the plantation of the midlands came into focus in Margaret O’Byrne’s story, while the break up of Feagh Mc Hugh’s first marriage to Sadhbh Kavanagh led to an exploration of the relationship between members of this clan and a branch of the Butler family.
The nett proceeds of this event were donated to local choir Baltinglass Sings.
Photo: Gathered in front of the West Wicklow Historical Society’s banner are Orla O’Sullivan (LHS), PRO of the society and Cora Crampton (RHS), joined by members of Baltinglass Sings Choir.