Dear Members, It is with great regret that we hear of the death of Betty Cummins. She was a loyal member of the History Society until illness affected her some years ago. May she rest in Peace.
Ar Dheis Dé go raibh a h-anam uasal. Aoife
Elizabeth passed away peacefully in the tender care of St. Glady’s Nursing Home. Beloved wife of the late Nicholas. Loving mother of Stephen, Ivor and Nicholas. She will be very sadly missed by her children, grandchildren, daughters-in-law Ann and Eilís, brother Liam and sister Margaret, extended family, neighbours and friends.
The Cummins family would like to thank staff in St. Glady’s Nursing Home for all the care and kindness shown to Betty over the past two years.
Rest in Peace.
Reposing at Fanagans Funeral Home, Willbrook Road, Rathfarnham on Monday afternoon (22nd June) from 3.00pm to 5.00pm.
Funeral after 10.00am Mass in the Church of the Holy Spirit, Ballyroan on Tuesday (23rd June) to Burgage Cemetery, Co. Wicklow.
Title: Dublin Port Speaker: Lar Joye Time: @ 7:45 PM Location:Iona Pastoral Centre
Lar Joye has served as Port Heritage Director at Dublin Port since 2017, where he cares for the 300‑year‑old Port Archive and leads projects that reconnect the working port with the city through heritage, culture and public access. Before joining Dublin Port, he worked as a film archivist and as Curator of Irish Military History at the National Museum of Ireland, where he led the team behind the award‑winning “Soldiers & Chiefs” exhibition on the Irish soldier at home and abroad from 1550 to the present.
He is a well‑known lecturer and media contributor on topics ranging from the history of Dublin Port and its dockers to Irish soldiers in the British Army and the First World War, and he played a significant role in the Decade of Commemorations between 2012 and 2018. At Dublin Port he has initiated projects such as the Dublin Port Memory & Story oral history project and the development of new walking routes and cultural spaces, illustrating how archives, place and community stories can be brought together for contemporary audiences.
Dublin Port is both the historic maritime gateway to the city and Ireland’s busiest modern port, and it has become a major heritage and public-engagement site in recent years. You can view a ‘Behind The Scenes’ video on Dublin Port’s Archive efforts with Lar Joye in the video below.
If you wish to know more about Dublin Port click the ‘overview’ title below.
Overview of DUBLIN PORT – Click Here
Dublin Port is the main seaport of Dublin, handling the majority of Ireland’s unitised trade and an annual trade value of around €165 billion, making it critical to the national economy.
It sits at the mouth of the River Liffey, and the working port has moved progressively seaward over time to accommodate deeper-draught vessels and container traffic.
Historical development
Source: Port Collections Talk 13th March by Donnybrook & Sandymount Historical Society with Pembroke Library.
Efforts to improve the harbour go back at least to 1707, when an Act established a Ballast Office to dredge, maintain channels and levy port charges, marking the first systematic governance of the port.
The 5 km Great South Wall, begun in 1715 and completed in 1795, and the Poolbeg Lighthouse (1767) were major engineering projects that stabilised the entrance and protected shipping from shifting sands in Dublin Bay.
The construction of the Custom House in 1791 and subsequent dock developments turned the area into a major commercial quarter, with management later passing to the Dublin Port and Docks Board in 1867.
Dockers arranging imported timber poles on the quayside, Ocean Pier (1950s)
Pre-Containerisation – 1950 -1960 Photographic Collection (link) The colour slides displayed portray the daily life and operations in Dublin Port throughout the 1950 and 1960s. Before goods were shipped into containers, thousands of dockers relentlessly worked handling all kinds of imported and exported commodities
Heinkel Kabine Microcars at Dublin Port (c1960)
Modern port, planning and heritage
With containerisation in the later 20th century, Dublin Port extended further downriver, building deeper berths while older docklands closer to the city shifted towards mixed-use and cultural regeneration.
Today the port is guided by long-term strategies (such as “Port 2040”) and a Heritage Conservation Strategy that emphasise both infrastructure investment and conservation of historic structures, archives and landscapes.
The port is also investing in greenways and public spaces to reconnect the working port with surrounding communities and the wider city.
Public programmes and visiting These tours and events let visitors see freight terminals, container ships and heritage sites at close quarters, while exploring themes such as engineering, ecology, local communities and maritime culture. Learn about the importance of the ‘Button’ in the video below.
Dublin Port now runs a substantial cultural and events programme, with more than 100 events from April to October 2026 including behind-the-scenes bus tours, public lectures, exhibitions, performances and new boat and architectural tours.
Title: Census 1926 Speaker: Dr. Noel Carolan Time: @ 7:45 PM Location:Iona Pastoral Centre
Dr Noel Carolan is a Dublin‑based historian with a particular interest in national, local and family history. He recently completed a PhD in history at Dublin City University on the politics of Ireland’s food supply between 1895 and 1923, spanning peace, war, revolution and partition. A former Garda superintendent, he took early retirement in 2018 after thirty‑two years’ service and then returned to university, completing a first‑class MA in History before his doctorate. Noel has presented conference papers in Ireland, Northern Ireland, Britain and the Czech Republic, and has given dozens of talks to local history and community groups. An active member of Raheny Heritage Society for around three decades, he divides his time between local history, family history and public talks on sources such as the 1926 Free State census. He describes himself as a “father, husband and increasingly slow runner who simply enjoys helping people make sense of the past”.
Irish Family History Society, “IFHS AGM – Talk: Getting ready for the 1926 census by Dr Noel Carolan,” event notice, 29 January 2026, https://ifhs.ie/event/ifhs-agm-4/.[ifhs]
Near FM, “Lifeline: Getting ready for the 1922 Irish Free State census … Myra Gleeson speaks with Dr Noel Carolan,” radio programme, 25 June 2025, https://listenagain.org/?p=56254.[listenagain]
Irish Family History Society, “Calendar – IFHS AGM: Talk: Getting ready for the 1926 census by Dr Noel Carolan,” event calendar entry, https://ifhs.ie/calendar-2/.[ifhs]
LoveClontarf.ie (Facebook repost), “Get Ready Clontarf – speakers including Dr Noel Carolan (Raheny Heritage Society),” event promotion post, https://www.facebook.com/Clontarf.ie/ (specific post referencing Dr Noel Carolan).[facebook]
CENSUS 1926
The 1926 Census is particularly notable because it was the first full census of the Irish Free State and marks a clear break from the pre‑independence censuses of 1901 and 1911.
Click image – Unfortunately scanned image is small and not easy to read. Census form A of the Irish Free State, 1926.
What was special about the 1926 Census?
It was the first census of the Irish Free State, taken on 18 April 1926, and only covered the 26 counties under the new state, unlike 1901 and 1911 which were 32‑county censuses under British administration.[nationalarchives][youtube]
The population recorded was about 2.97 million, roughly a 5.3% decline since 1911, highlighting continued depopulation with Dublin as the only county to grow.historyireland+2
It introduced bilingual household forms: for the first time, returns could be completed in either Irish or English, reflecting the Free State’s emphasis on Irish language and identity. (nationalarchives+1)
The main household form (“Form A”) was redesigned and standardised: there was now space for ten individuals per sheet rather than fifteen, which pushed large, extended families across multiple sheets and makes multi‑generational households more visible to researchers.[historyireland]
Special institutional forms used in 1901/1911 (for barracks, ships, prisons, hospitals, etc.) were dropped; everyone, including people in institutions and the military, was enumerated on the same Form A, signalling a new administrative approach that folded institutions into the general population. (nationalarchives+1)
It collected rich detail not just on age, religion and occupation, but also on employer and on the acreage of agricultural holdings, aligning with the new state’s priority on land ownership and agrarian reform. (historyireland+1)
Why historians care about it
It is the earliest comprehensive demographic snapshot of an independent Ireland, capturing society in the aftermath of revolution, war of independence and civil war.rte+1
It bridges a major gap between the well‑known 1901/1911 censuses and later 20th‑century data, giving insight into rural dominance, overcrowding (around 800,000 people in overcrowded conditions), migration patterns and social change in the 1920s.irishtimes+1
Because the forms and questions changed, it allows historians to read household structure, dependency and the rural economy in subtly different ways from the earlier imperial‑era returns. (cso+1)
Title: The Lives and Legacies of Robert Emmet and Anne Devlin Speaker: Liz Gillis Time: @ 7:45 PM Location:Iona Pastoral Centre
Historian and author Liz Gillis is from the Liberties. Specialising in the Irish Revolution, she is the author of six books including, ‘The Fall of Dublin’, ‘Revolution in Dublin’, ‘Women of the Irish Revolution’, ‘The Hales Brothers and the Irish Revolution’ and ‘May 25: The Burning of the Custom House 1921’. She is the co-author of ‘We Were There: 77 Women of the Easter Rising’.
In 2021, Liz was appointed Historian in Residence for Dublin South County Council for the Decade of Centenaries and lectures at Champlain College Dublin.
She worked as a Researcher for the History Show on RTE Radio and was a Historical Consultant for the new Custom House Visitor Centre and the Hyatt Centric: The Liberties Hotel. She was a Curatorial Assistant in RTE, specialising in researching the Easter Rising.
Liz has also contributed to numerous publications, television and radio documentaries covering the Irish Revolutionary period and had given talks nationally and internationally on the subject and is the owner of Revolution in Dublin Walking Tours.
In 2018 Liz was a recipient of the Lord Mayor’s Award for her contribution to history..
Anne Devlin (c.1780–1851) was an Irish republican from a strongly insurgent Wicklow family who became Emmet’s housekeeper, confidante, and key conspirator in 1803. Having moved with her family to Rathfarnham after her father’s imprisonment for his 1798 activities, she met Emmet when he rented Butterfield House nearby and soon began carrying messages, arranging meetings with her cousin Michael Dwyer, and moving arms and supplies in preparation for the rising.
After the failure of the 1803 rebellion, Devlin was arrested and subjected to brutal interrogation, repeated floggings, and imprisonment in Kilmainham Gaol and later Dublin Castle, with her family also jailed and a younger brother dying as a result, yet she consistently refused to betray Emmet or the wider network. Released in 1806 after public concern about her condition, she lived out a hard life in domestic service and as a laundress, ultimately dying in poverty, but has since been recognised as a heroine of Irish republicanism and is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery.
The Irish film “Anne Devlin” (1984), directed by Pat Murphy, tells the story of Anne Devlin’s role in Robert Emmet’s 1803 rebellion from her perspective. The film has been shown at venues like the IFI and cultural centers, but no major streaming platforms like RTÉ, MUBI, or YouTube list it. You can rent the DVD online through UK-based services like Cinema Paradiso, which ships to Ireland.
Source: Perplexity Ai – Oval portrait of Anne Devlin:en.wikipedia
Location: Johnstown Castle Estate Museum & Gardens, Wexford Date: Saturday 6th June 2026 Duration: 1 hour 45 mins. Non-stop. Start: 9.00 a.m. leave from near the church. 10.45 a.m. arrive Johnstown 11.45 a.m. Make way to Castle 1.00 p.m. visiting grounds, museum etc 4.00 p.m. Depart to Arklow Bay Hotel 5.30 p.m. evening Meal 7.00 p.m. Depart for Dublin N.B. For paid-up members only Details to follow.
Title: Who Killed Honor Bright? Speaker: Gerry Lovett Time: @ 7:45 PM Location:Iona Pastoral Centre
Gerry Lovett
Gerard Lovett retired in 2004 as a detective inspector of An Garda Síochána Special Branch. Since then, he has been general secretary of An Garda Síochána Retired Members’ Association for seven years, and was editor of their quarterly magazine Síocháin. He has written numerous articles on police history and has regularly given lectures to historical societies on both Gardá and RIC history, as well as famous historical murder cases. One of those cases is tonight’s talk on the 1925 unsolved murder of Lily O’Neill (Honor Bright).
Gallery: click on images to enlarge
Who was Honor Bright?
“Honor Bright” was the nickname of Lizzie (Elizabeth/Lily) O’Neill, a young woman whose body was found near Ticknock, south Dublin, in June 1925, prompting intense press and public interest.
Contemporary coverage portrayed her as a glamorous but “scandalous” figure, and the case became a touchstone for debates on morality, sexuality, and urban life in the new Free State.
The book “Who Killed Honor Bright?”
The book Who Killed Honor Bright? was written by Patricia Hughes, who identifies herself as the granddaughter of Lily O’Neill/Honor Bright.
Hughes advances a controversial thesis that her grandmother was murdered on orders linked to senior Free State figures, and that William Butler Yeats was Honor Bright’s lover and the father of her child.
What remains uncertain
Officially, Honor Bright’s killer was never definitively established; Hughes has campaigned for a modern re‑investigation and states that the Garda case remains formally unresolved.
Later historical work (such as Nursing Clio’s article on the case) treats the murder as emblematic of the tensions of 1920s Dublin, but does not endorse Hughes’s claims about Yeats and state‑ordered assassination as established fact.
Sources via perplexity Ai.
“Honor Bright” song written and performed by By Peter Yeates (audio only)
Source:HappyStPats via YouTube Peter Yeates “Honor Bright” – (AKA) “Honour Bright” from his CD “Back in the Middle” 1996
Title: Sisters of the Revolutionaries The Story of Margaret and Mary Brigid Pearse Speaker: Teresa and Mary Louise O’Donnell Time: @ 7:45 PM Location:Iona Pastoral Centre
Teresa O’Donnell is a harpist and musicologist. She was awarded a Foras Feasa fellowship to pursue doctoral studies at St Patrick’s College, DCU, which she completed in 2012; she also lectured there. Her research has been published in a number of journals including, the Journal of Music Research Online and the Journal of the Society for Musicology in Ireland.
Mary Louise O’Donnell is a harpist and author of Ireland’s Harp: the Shaping of Irish Identity, c. 1770-1880 (2014). She has published widely on topics relating to Irish cultural history, semiotics, and performance studies. Her research has been published in Utopian Studies, Éire-Ireland, the Journal of the Society for Musicology in Ireland,and The Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland. Source: irishacademicpress.com
‘Sisters of the Revolutionaries’ focuses on the lives of Margaret and Mary Brigid, sisters of Patrick and Willie Pearse who were executed for their role in the 1916 Rising. Patrick and Willie Pearse have long been memorialised in Irish society, yet comparatively little is known about their two sisters and the efforts made by them to uphold the image of their brothers’ legacies. Margaret was an Irish language activist, politician and educator, working with Patrick in founding St. Enda’s School. She took the school into her own hands following his execution. Mary Brigid was a musician and author of short stories, children’s stories and dramas.
The sisters’ successes were divergent and they never enjoyed a close relationship like Patrick and Willie; however, they both shared a deep affection for their brothers. Authors Teresa and Mary Louise O’Donnell provide a fascinating insight into the lives of the lesser-known Pearse siblings. Their book illuminates Margaret and Mary Brigid’s relationship with their brothers, the many joys that were the pattern of their upbringing, and the poignant disintegration of their own relationship later in life.
Title: ‘This Is Your River’ (Film) Speaker: Dodder Action Group Also a few members of the KHS will speak for one minute on what the Dodder means to them. Time: @ 7:45 PM Location:Iona Pastoral Centre
Screenshot of Duncan Stewart from ‘This Is Your River’ Film by Greenstem Films.Dodder Action Group
The River Dodder is one of Dublin’s great natural treasures – and Dodder Action is the volunteer group stepping up to look after it. From its source in the Wicklow Mountains to its mouth at Grand Canal Dock, the Dodder flows through neighbourhoods like Firhouse, Templeogue, Rathfarnham, Milltown and Ballsbridge, providing a green corridor for walkers, anglers, dog‑lovers, cyclists and wildlife.
Dodder Action brings local residents, community groups and partner organisations together for regular riverbank clean‑ups, conservation projects and “citizen science” monitoring along the entire length of the river. Their volunteers remove litter, support tree‑planting and habitat projects such as Stepping Stone Forests, and promote a cleaner, healthier river for everyone to enjoy.
Capacity is built every year by the Dodder Action committee. In 2017, a Capacity Building partnership was started with Dublin City Council (Local City Authority) supported by Dublin Bay Biosphere and Local Authorities Water & Community Office (LAWCO)
Title: Daniel O’ Connell 1775 – 1847 Speaker: Patrick Geoghegan, Professor of History at Trinity College. Presentation: 40 min. video followed by 10-15 mins. discussion. Time: @ 7:45 PM Location:Iona Pastoral Centre
Dear members, This should be an interesting format so do attend.
Attendance at the last talk was a little down, hence the takings of the evening did not cover the costs. A considerable number of subs have not yet been renewed.
Looking forward to seeing you all. Thanking you, Aoife
Subs: €20 individual, €30 couples. No cheques please. Money in named envelope.
Prof. Patrick Geoghegan – Trinity College Dublin
Professor Patrick Geoghegan is a leading historian at Trinity College Dublin, specializing in eighteenth and nineteenth century Ireland, particularly the Anglo-Irish relationship during this period. He has authored five monographs focusing on key historical figures and events such as the Irish Act of Union, the Robert Emmet rebellion, and Daniel O’Connell’s political and legal career, reshaping views on constitutional nationalism and republicanism. He has been teaching at Trinity since 2001 and is noted for innovative teaching methods, winning the Provost’s Teaching Award in 2009.
He has contributed extensively to public history and outreach, presenting the award-winning “Talking History” on Newstalk radio, which is widely popular in Ireland. He also wrote the text for the multi-award-winning O’Connell exhibition at Glasnevin Cemetery. Beyond teaching, he served as Senior Lecturer/Dean of Undergraduate Studies at Trinity, where he developed new admissions policies and outreach programs, including one to increase students from Northern Ireland.
In 2025, Professor Geoghegan was appointed Director of the Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Research Institute, a key position showcasing his leadership in humanities research. He is also a Vice-President of the Irish Legal History Society and the College Historical Society, where he has been commissioned to write a history for its 250th anniversary.
Source: perplexity Ai
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Daniel O’Connell (1775–1847), known as “The Liberator,” was a pivotal Irish political leader and lawyer who championed the rights of Ireland’s Roman Catholic majority in the early 19th century. He is most famous for leading the campaign for Catholic Emancipation, which culminated in 1829 with the right of Catholics to sit in the British Parliament after over a century of exclusion under the Penal Laws. O’Connell founded the Catholic Association in 1823, mobilizing mass grassroots support across Ireland through peaceful, legal means to achieve this emancipation.
Born near Cahersiveen in County Kerry to a Catholic farming family, O’Connell was adopted by a wealthy uncle and educated in France and later in law in England and Ireland. His experiences during the French Revolution shaped his firm commitment to non-violence in political struggle. After the 1801 Act of Union abolished the Irish Parliament, O’Connell sought to repeal this union to restore Irish legislative independence, but despite his efforts and leadership of Irish MPs in Westminster, this goal was not achieved.
O’Connell’s political career included advocating for broader liberal reforms such as the abolition of slavery, rights for Jews and other minorities, penal reform, trade union rights, and secret voting. He was the first Catholic Lord Mayor of Dublin since the late 17th century. Despite setbacks including imprisonment in 1843, his campaign style—mass meetings known as “monster meetings”—influenced political mobilization beyond Ireland.
He died in 1847 in Genoa, Italy. O’Connell remains a complex and highly influential figure in Irish history, hailed for his non-violent activism and political achievements while also facing criticism and internal divisions within his movement in later years. His legacy endures in Irish public life, including the naming of Dublin’s main street, O’Connell Street, in his honour.
Quote from a letter to Isaac Goldsmid dated 11 September 1829, O’Connell wrote:
“To my mind it is an eternal and universal truth that we are responsible to God alone for our religious belief — and that human laws are impious when they attempt to control the exercise of those acts of individual and general devotion which such belief requires.”
He expressed the view that religious belief is a matter solely between an individual and God, and condemned any human laws trying to govern such belief as blasphemous and tyrannical. This quote is part of his advocacy for freedom of conscience and civil rights for Jews, among others. Source: wikiquote
Prof. Patrick Geoghegan Icon Lecture Series – The Little Museum of Dublin
Talk Main Themes & Points
Daniel O’Connell’s Legacy: Geoghegan recounts O’Connell’s pivotal role in Irish history as a champion of Catholic emancipation, civil rights, and peaceful resistance.
Statues and Symbolism: The talk begins with a reflection on the O’Connell statue in Dublin and the challenge of further commemorating his legacy.
Political Achievements: O’Connell was the first Catholic Lord Mayor in almost 150 years (1841), achieved emancipation in the 1820s, and represented multiple constituencies, notably Dublin City.
International Recognition: O’Connell’s support for abolition drew the praise of figures like Frederick Douglass and criticism from American slave owners. He spoke passionately against slavery, earning an international reputation for moral leadership.
Courtroom Bravery: Anecdotes show O’Connell confronting judges and legal adversaries, making himself a symbol of resistance for Irish Catholics repressed under British rule.
Dueling Controversies: Geoghegan discusses how O’Connell was both involved in and criticized for avoiding duels, highlighting his evolving rejection of violence.
Faith & Personal Struggles: O’Connell’s return to Catholic practice, moral wrestling over his actions, and efforts to maintain integrity amid controversies (such as financial quarrels and confrontations with Young Ireland).
Mass Movements & Reforms: His democratization of activism—crowdsourcing through penny subscriptions—and leadership of non-violent “monster meetings” are described as revolutionary for Irish self-determination.
Peaceful Revolution: O’Connell’s decision to cancel potentially violent protests, his subsequent trial and imprisonment, and the mass public support illuminate his commitment to change by peaceful means.
Impact & Reflection: The lecture closes with reflection on the modern reassessment of O’Connell, arguing his civil rights victories laid the foundation for Irish nationhood, and calling for further recognition of his legacy.
