ACCLAIMED historian Tomás Mac Conmara, will provide a lecture on a very significant subject – The Scariff Martyrs on Wednesday, November 17th at the Lakeside Hotel at 7.30pm.
Hosted by the Killaloe Ballina Historical Society, this will be the first in person talk since February 2020 due to Covid-19 restrictions.
Interestingly, it will be held on the 101st anniversary of their tragic deaths on Killaloe Bridge.
Tomás will provide the facts, photographs and audio from the extensive research conducted over a 17-year period for his new book on The Scariff Martyrs, War, Murder and Memory in East Clare.
It has been 101 years since the Scariff Martyrs – Michael Egan, Brud McMahon, Alphie Rodgers and Martin Gildea – were shot by Crown forces in Killaloe.
The story includes commitment of the young rebels, their betrayal, subsequent torture, refusal to give up others, the nature of their death, the subsequent withholding of their bodies, and the collective burial.
Tomás, who lives in Killaloe, is an award-winning oral historian. He completed a PhD at the University of Limerick in 2015, which explored the memory of the Irish War of Independence.
He began recording oral history as a teenager and is now regarded as one of the leading oral historians in Ireland.
He was the founder of Cuimhneamh an Chláir Memories of Clare and was commended by President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins with a Comhaltas Forógra na Cásca Centenary Award in 2016.
In 2017, he published Days of Hunger, and in 2019, his twenty-year oral history collection work, The Time of the Tans was published by Mercier Press.
The event is free but booking is essential. To book a place text 086 3586293. In line with current guidelines, masks must be worn on the night.