Well, that was the 2026 Festival, our tenth West Cork History Festival. It was founded as a place to talk about our histories, in a way that is respectful but open-minded, informal and welcoming. The 2026 Festival was certainly all those things!

We were delighted that the Festival was opened by the Taoiseach, Micheál Martin.We had a broad range of speakers across the programme including academics, archaeologists, journalists, archivists and writers. Our theme was Boundaries, and our talks and panel discussions explored the crossing and challenging of boundaries of geography, time, politics, morality and social norms. This was all in the setting of the beautiful Inish Beg estate near Baltimore.

An enormous thank you to all our speakers, audiences, volunteers, supporters, friends and funders, notably Cork County Council, the Heritage Council and the Reconciliation Fund of the Department of Foreign Affairs.

See you next year !