27 March 2022
Dear KDHS members and friends
First, let me apologise for the Zoombombing which forced us to abandon our February lecture midway-through and brought the society to national attention for all the wrong reasons. While there is very little that can be done to completely prevent those who wish to engage in such despicable behaviour from joining an organisation whose activities they wish to disrupt or from impersonating its members, we have been forced to make some changes to how we use Zoom and how we publicise our events from this month.
The Kilrush and District Historical Society March lecture, again delivered via Zoom, will take place at 8pm GMT on this Tuesday, 29 March 2022.
The speaker will be Michèle O'Dea and her talk is entitled Scattery Island Conservation Works.
Some lucky people have been isolated on Scattery Island from time to time during the last two years of anti-COVID-19 restrictions, and the rest of us are looking forwarding to hearing about the great work that has been going on there and in due course to seeing it.
Michèle is a Senior Conservation Architect with the Office of Public Works (OPW). She is responsible for the care and presentation of the national monuments in the west and northwest of the country, from the Shannon Estuary to Malin Head. This area includes some of the most significant heritage sites in Ireland and islands such as Scattery Island, the Aran Islands, Inishmurray, Clare Island and Tory Island as well as a number of inland islands such as Holy Island (Inis Cealtra) in Lough Derg on the River Shannon and islands in Lough Key. These sites are maintained by the OPW operational staff, which comprises of skilled carpenters, stonemasons, stonecutters and general operatives.
Michèle has kindly asked that we donate her honorarium to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) Kilrush Lifeboat Station.
Just follow the Zoom link below at the time of the lecture (8pm Irish Summer Time, Tuesday 29 March 2022) in order to participate.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88504981574?pwd=L0lkSWp2RVhuR1hhWkRmeFgwZUZOUT09
Meeting ID: 885 0498 1574
Passcode: 405908
Attendees will be vetted by the hosts before admission to the Zoom call and may have their audio and video turned off by the hosts. Please identify yourself by your full name (first name and surname) and video or photograph. You will not be admitted if you use an alias such as "phone" or "tablet" or "computer" or "PC" (even if your real initials are PC) or "Kilrush" or "Clare" (even if your real name is Clare).
If you need to change your current alias to your real name:
* if you do not already have a username and password for Zoom, then sign up at https://us04web.zoom.us/signup
* go to https://us04web.zoom.us/profile
* sign in with your own Zoom username and password if necessary
* click the "Edit" link towards the top right of the window
* type your real name in the Display Name box
* upload a photograph of yourself if you wish
* click the blue Save button
Please remember to remain muted during the presentation, particularly if you intend to take telephone calls or watch television or listen to the radio or use bad language to your barking dog at the same time (some people really do these things!). You may also want to keep your video off after being admitted to the Zoom call in order to prevent pressure on bandwidth at either end.
If you wish to participate in the discussion while muted, then you can select "Reactions" from the menu at the bottom of the Zoom window and select "Raise Hand" from the pop-up which appears. The hosts can then turn on your audio and video and allow you to participate.
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Although the COVID-19 situation remains extremely volatile, our current plans are that our April and May lectures will be held in the Teach Ceoil in Kilrush with an in-person audience and will be simulcast from there using Zoom.
On Tuesday 26 April, Mary McAuliffe of University College Dublin will deliver the lecture which was interrupted last month, entitled Surveillance of and violence against women during the War of Independence; case studies from Co Clare.
Saturday 9 April 2022 will mark the 100th anniversary of the death of the famous antiquarian Thomas Johnson Westropp (1860-1922), still arguably the greatest ever historian of County Clare. To mark Westropp's centenary year, Liam Irwin, formerly of Mary Immaculate College, will give a lecture on Tuesday 31 May on Westropp's life and achievements.
Details of how to watch these lectures will be circulated shortly beforehand.
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For now, we are not charging those who view our Zoom events, but new and renewing members and donations are always welcome! The annual membership fee (July-June) is EUR20.
There are links to the membership renewal form, to the ongoing fundraiser for the Kilrush WW1 memorial, and to our PayPal account from our website home page at
http://kdhs.ie/
Mail orders for our recent publication (Kilrush: Memories of an Irish Market Town, 1879-1979) can also be submitted using the PayPal link, but please add a note when sending payments to make it clear what the payment is for.
Best wishes
Paddy Waldron
PRO, KDHS
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