Friday 9^th September 2022:

16.00

Official Opening and welcome

Mr. George Jones, Chairman of the La Touche Legacy

Welcome by Cathaoirleach

Greystones Municipal District  

16.15

Irish Women and World War Two’

Dr. Jennifer Redmond – Dr. Jennifer Redmond is Assistant Professor/ Lecturer in Twentieth Century Irish History in the Department of History at Maynooth University. Her research interests include migration, women’s history, Irish social history and digital humanities. Dr. Redmond completed her undergraduate degree at University College Dublin and an M.Phil and PhD at Trinity College Dublin, the latter on the discourses surrounding Irish female migration to Britain during the first decades of Irish independence. This was published by Liverpool University Press in 2018 as Moving Histories which was long-listed for the 2020 Michel Déon Prize.
Dr Redmond’s talk on Friday afternoon, 9 September, will deal with Irish women and World War 2, focusing on female emigration with examples taken from Wicklow histories. 

16.45

‘The Civil War’

Professor Emeritus Michael Laffan – Michael Laffan studied at Gonzaga College, University College Dublin, Trinity Hall Cambridge and the Institute for European History in Mainz. Having lectured briefly at the University of East Anglia he took up a post in UCD, where he taught for over three decades and served in various positions, including as head of the School of History and Archives, before retiring in 2010. He has lectured widely in Ireland and across the globe. From 2010 to 2012 he was president of the Irish Historical Society; he is now an emeritus professor in UCD. He has published widely on Modern Irish History. His writings include The Partition of Ireland 1911-1925 (1983) and The Resurrection of Ireland: the Sinn Fein Party, 1916-1923 (1999), and he has edited The Burden of German History; 1919-1945 (1988) Michael’s talk at this year’s seminar will be on the Civil War.

17.15

‘Nazi War Criminals in Ireland in the 1940’s’

Dr. Michael Kennedy – Dr Michael Kennedy has written and published widely on modern Irish history, in particular on military and diplomatic history and on foreign policy. He has been the executive editor of the Royal Irish Academy's Documents on Irish Foreign Policy series and head of the DIFP series since 1997. He is a former member of the Irish Manuscripts Commission, a Research Associate of the Centre for Contemporary Irish History, Trinity College, Dublin and was formerly an adjunct Professor of History at University College Dublin. Michael appears regularly on television and radio discussing aspects of Irish history ranging from lighthouses to embassies to the history of curry houses in Dublin. His paper to the La Touche Legacy Seminar will be on Nazi war criminals in 1940s Ireland.

Saturday 10^th September 2022:

10.00

Welcome by Cathaoirleach of Wicklow County Council

10.10

‘Ireland in the 1940s: challenges and change’.

Mary E. Daly MRIA is Emeritus Professor of History at University College Dublin (UCD) and served for seven years as Principal of UCD College of Arts and Celtic Studies. She served as President of the Royal Irish Academy from 2014-17. A graduate of University College Dublin and Oxford, she has been awarded honorary doctorates by Queen’s University Belfast and the National University of Ireland. Many of her publications examine the history of twentieth century Ireland, including, Industrial Development
and Irish National Identity, 1922-39 (1991), Women and Work in Ireland (1997); 1916 in 1966.
Commemorating the Easter Rising (RIA, 2007), co-edited with Margaret O’Callaghan; Sixties Ireland. Reshaping the Economy, Society and the State, 1957-73, (2015); A Social History of Modern Ireland, 1740-2000, (2017), co-edited with Eugenio Biagini, and Brokering the Good Friday Agreement. The Untold Story, (RIA, 2019), which she edited. The Battle to Control Female Fertility in Modern Ireland will be published in 2023. Since 2012 she has been a member of the Irish Government’s Expert Advisory Group on the Decade of Centenaries

10.45

Coffee

11.00

‘The Relationship Between de Valera and Collins’

Dr. David McCullagh – Dr David McCullagh is an journalist , author and presenter with RTÉ, where he has presented the Six One News from August 2020. He previously presented  Prime Time from 2013 to
2020, and was former Political Correspondent with RTÉ News and Current Affairs. He began his journalistic career working for the Evening Press. In 2001, He presents Behind Closed Doors on RTÉ One which details released State Documents. He has also presented The Week in Politics [  and election and referendum Programmes on RTÉ. In 1999, he won a prize under the category 'TV features and documentaries' in the ESB national media awards. He has also written the book A Makeshift Majority: The first inter-party government, 1948-51, and a biography of John A. Costello. The Reluctant Taoiseach: A Biography of John A Costello, was launched in 2010. He also written DeValera Rise & DeValera
Rule McCullagh attended Newpark Comprehensive School and studied politics in University College Dublin. He holds a PhD in the subject. David’s talk at the seminar this year will be on the Relationship between Michael Collins and Eamonn DeValera.

11.45

Jim Brennan Memorial Lecture

‘Through her Eyes: writing women into history’.

Ms. Clodagh Finn – Clodagh Finn is a journalist and author, whose work appears regularly in the Irish Examiner and   the Irish Independent. She is the author of a biography of Mary Elmes, A time to risk all (2017) and Through her eyes: a new history of Ireland in 21 women (2019). Most recently she has been commissioned by Dublin Lord Mayor Alison Gilliland to produce Her keys to the city, an account of Dublin-born and based women whose achievements deserve wider recognition.
As this year’s Jim Brennan Memorial Lecture speaker, Clodagh will discuss the recovery of Irish women’s stories, looking among others at Derry educationalist, historian and archaeologist Mabel Colhoun, and at Mary Elmes from Cork, who is credited with saving the lives of at least 200 Jewish children during World War 2.

20.00

Seminar Dinner in Greystones Golf Club

Official Opening and welcome by Mr. George Jones,

Chairman of the La Touche Legacy

Saturday 14^th September 2019 – 

Welcome by Cllr Irene Winters, Cathaoirleach, WCC

Professor Fearghal McGarry, Queens University, Belfast

‘Communism, sex and all that Jazz: popular anxieties in 1930’s Ireland’

Jim Brennan Memorial Lecture 

Dr Margaret Ward – ‘Hanna Sheehy Skeffington – a woman for our times’

Seminar Dinner in Greystones Golf Club

Guest Speaker: H.E. Michael Collins, Recently retired Ambassador to Germany

Fri 16.15 September 21st

Irish ‘votes for women’ campaign

Rosemary Cullen Owens

Rosemary Cullen Owens is the author of Smashing times: a history of the women’s suffrage movement, 1889-1922. She will speak on the Irish ‘votes for women’ campaign, which culminated in the 1918 Representation of the People Act, the centenary of which is being widely celebrated this year.

Fri 16.45 September 21st

The Enemy Within- the Spanish Flu in County Wicklow 1918-19

Noel Campbell

Noel Campbell is an Assistant Keeper at the National Museum of Ireland – Country Life where he has worked since its opening in 2001. He is a graduate of NUI Galway and UCD and holds a particular interest in the history of local government and public services. Noel is the author of A History of Castlebar: Municipal Government 1613-2014 and is curator of the NMI travelling exhibition Preserving the Peace: Policing on the Island of Ireland 1814-2014. He will speak on the The Enemy Within- the Spanish Flu in County Wicklow 1918-19

Fri 17.15 September 21st

The Legacy of the Irish Parliamentary Party in the Irish Free State

Dr Martin O’Donoghue

Dr Martin O’Donoghue (NUIG), historian and Academic Director of the Parnell Summer School 2018, will speak on the legacy of the Irish Parliamentary Party in the Irish Free State.

Sat 10.00 September 22nd

The periodical Dublin Opinion – a safe valve for public opinion

Felix Larkin

Felix Larkin is a former public servant, historian and former Academic Director of the Parnell Summer School. In his contribution, he will consider the part played by the periodical Dublin Opinion in providing a safety valve for public opinion in the new Irish state.

The Life and Times of De Valera

Dr David McCullagh

David McCullagh PhD is a journalist and author. He is a presenter of the current affairs television programme Prime Time, and Political Correspondent with RTÉ News and Current Affairs.

In 1999, he won a prize under the category ‘TV features and documentaries’ in the ESB national media awards. He has also written the book A Makeshift Majority: The first inter-party government, 1948-51, and a biography of John A. Costello. The Reluctant Taoiseach: A Biography of John A Costello, was launched in 2010. In October 2017 he published DeValera Vol 1 1882-1932 , his Vol 2 is due later this year.

Sat 11.45 September 22nd

Jim Brennan Memorial Lecture

Liz Goldthorpe

Liz Goldthorpe is a retired lawyer and judge. She will be speaking on the life and career of Averil Deverell, Greystones resident and the first woman to practice at the Bar in Ireland, whose biography she is currently researching.

The Seminar Dinner Guest Speaker was Dr Martin Mansergh Historian, Former Minister of State and former Advisor to successive Taoisigh, Chairperson of GAHS Ms Rosemary Raughter commented “everyone enjoyed Dr Mansergh’s elegant and exhilarating presentation on Saturday night and he made a very memorable contribution to what was an extremely successful weekend”.

The Minister of Heath Deputy Simon Harris also addressed the dinner audience.