Tag Archives: Con Colbert

THE Cooraclare connection to the late Con Colbert, who was executed by firing squad at Kilmainham jail on May 8, 1916 was commemorated last weekend. In Cree, historian Paddy Waldron was joined by MEP Seán Kelly and former Minister for Education Mary O’Rourke for a fascinating discussion about Con Colbert’s life and times. Con Colbert was from West Limerick but his mother Hanorah Josephine MacDermott was from Clondreddan in Cooraclare. Tom Mac’s shop in Cooraclare village was the venue on Saturday for an exhibition of 1916 memorabilia, including a letter written by Con Colbert on the night prior to his execution, to his uncle Dan Irving of Cooraclare. Flan Irving is Dan Irving’s grandson and he told The Clare Champion on Saturday how touched he was by the three day commemoration. Incredibly, the letter has remained in the Irving household for a century. “This event has been emotional. The actual letter has been in our house for 100 years. Dan …

LECTURES, parades, book launches and commemoration ceremonies will be celebrated as part of a comprehensive programme in Clare to mark the centenary of the 1916 Rising. In total, 66 actions, covering seven strands, reflecting the themes adopted for the national programme were unveiled in the Clare schedule on Thursday in Dublin. The two main actions associated with World War I – the Clare Peace Park initiative and the Merriman Summer School, themed Ireland’s Gallant Allies in Europe – will be among the highlights of the local programme. It will include a focus on two men who are associated with 1916 in Clare – Con Colbert and Peadar Clancy. The official Clare County Council event is the re-development of the site commemorating the 50th anniversary of the 1916 Rising at the Club Bridge in Ennis. It is planned that there will be a re-launch of this site in early May 2016. The sub-committee meeting of the Cultural, Arts, Community, Recreation and …