Tipperary weekend school honouring memory and legacy of TD Joe MacDonagh continues

The three-day Joseph MacDonagh Centenary Weekend honouring the vast and largely unheralded legacy of the younger brother of poet and patriot Thomas MacDonagh contnues in his home village of Clougjordan this Saturday and Sunday.

Among those taking part will be Dr Joe MacDonagh, grandson of the TD and grand-nephew of executed Easter Rising leader Thomas MacDonagh.

The programme of events is as follows:

Saturday, September 24, 10am-4.30pm; registration open from 9am:

- The greatest young Irishman of his day: The life of Joseph MacDonagh: Keynote address by writer and centenary weekend director Gerard Shannon on the extraordinary revolutionary career of Joseph MacDonagh, TD, city councillor, Minister for Labour, political activist, and political prisoner

- Impossible for a Belfast Merchant to sell as much as a Bootlace in any other part of Ireland: An analysis by writer and historian Cormac Moore of Joseph MacDonagh's role as director of the Belfast Boycott in 1921

- Internment during the Civil War: An exploration by librarian and historian Anne Marie McInerney on the nature of internment during the Irish Civil War, including treatment, conditions, and post-internment issues for prisoners

- The Civil War in County Tipperary, a Brief Overview: An overview by writer and historian Denis Marnane of events in county Tipperary during the Civil War of 1922-23

- The Elusive Collison(s): A Revolutionary Family in North Tipperary, 1917-22: An exploration of the revolutionary activities of the entire Collison family in north Tipperary from 1917 to 1922

- Closing remarks by Dr Joe MacDonagh, grandson of Joseph MacDonagh and grand-nephew of Thomas MacDonagh.

Sunday, September 25, 11am-4pm:

- A War of Independence Bus Tour hosted by renowned local historian John Flannery will highlight points of interest in north Tipperary which were affected by the war.  Starting and ending in Cloughjordan, the tour will visit sites in Moneygall, Roscrea, Shinrone, Borrisokane and Modreeny.

This project has received funding as part of the Tipperary Commemorations programme with funding from Tipperary County Council and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.

The Joseph MacDonagh Centenary Weekend marks the first event in the Thomas MacDonagh Museum’s History School.

The event opened on Friday night with the launch of An Illustrated Biography of Alderman Joseph MacDonagh TD, written by Gerard Shannon.