Tag Archives: Dr Tomás Mac Conmara

STILL a teenager when he started collecting people’s stories, Tomás Mac Conmara’s new book The Time of the Tans is backboned by many years of work. It’s an oral history of the War of Independence in Clare and he said the fact that he spent so long gathering the information and accounts at the core of the book, means The Time of the Tans means a lot to him. “I’d say it is the most important one at a personal level. Anything you do like that, in terms of publishing a book, you put a lot of years and time into it, and you should do so as a historian. But because it has been 20 years in the making, almost all of the people who I interviewed and who were good enough to share their memories with me have passed away. It’s very sad in one sense, but it was always my point, that they would be gone. Historian …

WITH Easter 2016 just over six months away, the Banner County has not allocated enough funds to commemorate the event properly nor involved those with the best knowledge of the period, it has been claimed. At This week’s meeting of Shannon Municipal District, Fianna Fáil’s Cathal Crowe criticised Clare County Council for the level of preparations to commemorate one of the seminal events in Irish history. He said he will be calling on the council to increase the amount of funding allocated five-fold and to involve some prominent local historians in the preparations. Regarding the sum he wants to see spent on commemorating the centenary, he told The Clare Champion, “I’d hope around €150,000. I just think €30,000 (the current figure) is insulting to those who fought for independence”. In general terms, this country fails to honour those who fought for Irish freedom, he believes. “I’m a realist; funding is limited for everything but this is the centenary. I lived …