The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
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 …
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