Interesting things to read, watch and listen to

We're really sad that we are having to cancel the 2020 Festival, but already looking forward to 2021. In the meantime, we will continue to post weekly updates on interesting things to read, watch and listen to with a historical theme and check on our Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts too.

This week:

Ambassador Dan Mulhall has spoken twice at our Festival, and is well-known for his interest in poetry and his regular postings of Irish poetry on his Twitter feed. Yesterday he wrote the Irish Times' Irishman's Diary on Yeats and the Spanish flu pandemic.

The River-side is the blog of UCC Library's research collections and has some interesting posts, including most recently a series called Mapping Cork: Trade, Culture and Politics in Late Medieval and Early Modern Ireland.

The Skibbereen Heritage Centre, although sadly closed at the moment, has good articles on its website looking at our local history here in West Cork - see here for features on specific buildings in Skibbereen, local historical figures, the dreadful famine years and other topics.

The RTE History Show on 17 May featured Festival contributor Lar Joye talking about weapons from the revolutionary era, including quite an insight into how to throw a hand grenade successfully. Lar spoke at greater length on a similar subject at our 2018 Festival and his talk can be heard here.

On the same programme, the producer Eithne Hand talked about the assassination of RIC officer District Inspector Percival Lea-Wilson, 100 years ago this year. Her grandfather, Liam Tobin, was one of his killers. She also discussed the link between Lea-Wilson's death and the Caravaggio painting The Taking of Christ, which hangs in the National Gallery, and is reproduced below.

 

© National Gallery of Ireland