Click here for Our complete list of themes and Speakers over the years
Saturday 19th September 2026 – Programme – 11th Festival of History
Venue: Greystones Golf Club, Whitshed Road, Greystones
10.00: Official Opening and welcome by Mr. George Jones, Chairman of the La Touche Legacy Committee
Welcome by Cllr Dr. Caroline Winstanley, Cathaoirleach of Wicklow County Council & Cllr.or Mark Barry, Cathaoirleach of Greystones Municipal District
10.15; Mr. Frank Barry, Professor Emeritus Trinity Business School
Title of lecture: Industry and policy independent Ireland, 1922-1972
Frank Barry is Professor of International Business & Economic Development at the Trinity Business School and a member of the Royal Irish Academy. He has held positions at the Universities of Stockholm, California, and New South Wales, and with the Harvard Institute for International Development.
He has acted as a consultant for the World Bank, the European Commission, the African Economic Research Consortium, and various Irish and UK government agencies. His current research interests are in the fields of foreign direct investment and economic and business history.
Publications
- Barry Frank, The Evolution of the Irish 12.5 Percent Corporate Tax Rate: An Oral History, Enterprise and Society, 2025, p1 – 25Journal Article, 2025
- Barry, Frank, and Michael Scholz, The Regional Location of Indigenous and Foreign Manufacturing Establishments, 1929-1975, Journal of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland, 53, 2024, p34 – 56Journal Article, 2024
- Barry, Frank, A reappraisal of Cumann na nGaedheal economic policy, Irish Political Studies, 39, (2), 2024, p139 – 161Journal Article, 2024
11:00 Coffee
11.15: Dr. David McCullagh, RTE
‘Title of lecture: From Crown to Harp: How the Treaty was undone, 1922-1949’
David began his journalistic career working for the Evening Press in 2001. In August 2025, McCullagh was named as the successor to Claire Byrne as the presenter for Today With… on RTÉ Radio 1, and began in November. He signed off from the Six One News on 31 October 2025.
In September 2025, he hosted a series on Éamon de Valera. His most recent book is called From Crown to Harp: how the Treaty was undone, 1922-49, which tells the tale of how Ireland escaped from the Treaty.
12.30 : Stephen Collins, Journalist & Author (ex Irish Times) Guest Speaker
Title of Lecture “Current Political Climate”
Journalist and author, former Political Correspondent with The Irish Times. In 1983–84 Collins sat on the New Ireland Forum, a body designed to establish common ground amongst Irish nationalist political parties. His later criticisms of Charles Haughey, who also sat on the Forum, were, it has been said, primarily moulded by the complacency with which he had seen Jack Lynch‘s handling of the Arms Crisis of 1970. Collins has published books on the Cosgrave political dynasty and, more recently, on the foundation of the Progressive Democrats political party, called Breaking the Mould. His father Willie Collins (1916–2006) was a journalist with the Irish Press and was deputy editor of The Sunday Press, and Stephen is the older brother of Sunday Independent News Editor Liam Collins.
Followed by lunch
Fee: €50 Bookings: Kay Coughlan Tel: 01 2876694 Email: Greystonesmd@wicklowcoco.ie
Further Info: George Jones Email: george.anthony.jones@gmail.com Tel: 086 821 7357
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10th Festival of History – 35th La Touche Legacy weekend
‘The Emerging New Ireland’
Friday 19th – Saturday 20th September, 2025 – Greystones Golf Club
Friday 19th September 2025:
16.00 Official Opening and welcome by Mr. George Jones, Chairman of the La Touche Legacy Committee
Welcome by Councillor Lourda Scott, Cathaoirleach of Greystones Municipal District
17.15pm: Dr. Sorcha O’Brien (Institute of Art, Design and Technology) ‘
Chairperson: Cllr. Erica Doyle
Saturday 20th September 2024:
10am: Welcome by Councillor Melanie Corrigan, Cathaoirleach of Wicklow County Council
10.10 Dr. Cormac Moore – ‘The 1974 Dublin / Monaghan Bombings’
Chairperson: Councillor Mark Barry
Cormac Moor, resident of Greystones is an historian-in-residence with Dublin City Council and a columnist with the Irish News. His publications include The GAA v Douglas Hyde (2012), The Irish Soccer Split (2015), Birth of the Border (2019), and most recently The Irish Boundary Commission (2025) The Root of All Evil recently launched by An Taoiseach and The Irish Revolution: Laois (2025). He is currently chairperson of Greystones Archaeological and Historical Society.
10.45am – Coffee
11.00am Julie Parsons : ‘From Portland Road to the Pacific Ocean; the life and tragic death of Dr. Andy Parsons’. Chairperson: Councillor Graham Richmond
Julie Parsons was a radio and television producer with RTE before becoming a best-selling author. Her first novel, Mary, Mary, appeared in 1998. A critical and commercial success, it was translated into seventeen languages, and was followed by a number of other successful novels, among them The Guilty Heart, The Hourglass and The Therapy House, which won the Crime Fiction Book of the Year at the 2017 Irish Book Awards. Julie has ancestral links to Greystones – the Parsons family lived at ‘Dromore’ on Portland Road, and her father, Dr Andy Parsons (1914-1955), grew up in the town, and she has recently been delving into his story and the history of her Parsons family.
Dr Andy Parsons, Royal Army Medical Corps, 1940.
Parsons family outside ‘Dromore’, Portland Road, 1930s.
Parsons family outside ‘Dromore’, Portland Road, 1920s.
11.45 (Jim Brennan Memorial Lecture), Dr. Chris Lawlor: ‘Robert Barton: a remarkable revolutionary’
Chairperson: Dr. Cormac Moore
Chris Lawlor is former head of the history department at Méanscoil Iognóid Rís, Naas. He is a member of the committee of West Wicklow Historical Society and co- editor of the Society’s biennial journal, and is a member of Dunlavin Writers’ Group. He is the author of eleven books and numerous articles on Irish and local history, and his most recent publication, Robert Barton: a Remarkable Revolutionary, was published by The History Press in 2024.
20.00 pm. Seminar Dinner in Greystones Golf Club
Guest Speaker Tanaiste Deputy Simon Harris
