History Matters in Dunhill

By John Hartery

It was  noted before in this blog that history talks bring crowds and it was proven again  at Dunhill Multi-Education Centre, no mean achievement on a dark and wintry January evening. Dunhill is an example of a community that's vibrant with a large range of local education and entrepreneurial activities amongst other initiatives. 

The lectures  come under the banner of The Julian Walton Winter Lecture Series and is now in its 14th Year. Walton is of course the doyen of historians in the region with an impressive track record of broadcasting and writing on historical topics many with a local flavour.

The Dunhill schedule  of talks run on a weekly basis on Thursday nights with a fiver admission charge and a cuppa and chat afterwards. Topics tend to have a local bias but placed  the context of wider history.

Tony Benn's memorial to Emily Davison

Last week's talk by Niamh Crowley had a full house for 'Women, The Vote and Waterford'. it was quite a wide-ranging talk tracing  the Suffragette movement in the UK and USA to local Waterford women who helped smash the glass ceiling. Archive footage and pictures illustrated the path taken to secure votes for all women (and some men) finally  in the late 1920s. Ireland in fact in the vanguard in granting the franchise to everybody. 

The Epsom Derby event and Emily Davison was noted and an interesting clip of what happened  

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Davison was also famous for hiding out in the House of Commons to feature there in the census. An occasion finally acknowledged there by a plaque placed by Tony Benn an act  subsequently chronicled by Reg Meuross

Many women used the census of 1911 to voice their views on no votes for women. Crowley illustrated the census returns of a trio of Waterford women active in pursuit of the vote; Lily Poole, Dr Mary Strangman and Rosamund Jacobson.

There's plenty of talks coming up  in the Dunhill lecture series and something for all tastes

Dunhill History Lectures with Julian Walton - Series XIV - 2020

The series will run for ten weeks, every Thursday from 9 January to 12 March. Lectures are held at Dunhill Multi-Education Centre (opposite the GAA grounds).

Starting at 8 p.m., each lecture lasts about an hour and is followed by a question & answer session and light refreshments.

9 Jan Julian Walton: “Eaten by a hog”: The early history of Kilmeadan

16 Jan Liam Suipéal: Coastal Place names from Dungarvan to Youghal - an illustrated talk on our coastal heritage.

23 Jan Niamh Crowley: Women, the vote, and Waterford

30 Jan Julian Walton: The Hore family of Dungarvan

6 Feb William Fraher: Visualising the past: Waterford County Museum’s photographic archive

13 Feb Julian Walton: Charles Newport Bolton (1816-1884) – artist, genealogist, and historian of Waterford Harbour

20 Feb Christina Knight O’Connor and Eddie Cantwell: Investigations at Gallows Hill, Dungarvan - a community archaeology project

27 Feb Dave Pollock: Finding medieval Stradbally

5 March Eugene Broderick: Thomas Meagher (1789?-1874): the forgotten father of Thomas Francis Meagher

12 March Julian Walton: A surprise!