Kildare presentation on O'Casey, de Valera and Laverty

Imagining Ireland takes place in Rathangan

A special three-part presentation titled Imagining Ireland is taking place at The Old Schoolhouse, Rathangan on Saturday, October 12 from 10am to 1pm.

Although the Easter Rising is sometimes referred to as the ‘Poet’s Revolution,’ with three poets — Pearse, McDonagh, and Plunkett — signing the Proclamation, they were not the only ones to have ‘dreams of Ireland.’

The years leading up to 1916 were a period of intense cultural activity where poets, writers, and painters, imagined and re-imagined what an Independent Ireland would look like.

In what has become known as his ‘comely maidens’ speech, de Valera conjured up an image of Ireland as rural, frugal and Catholic — a place where women were confined to the home, and where there was little tolerance for dissenting voices. It was not the Ireland that so many had fought, suffered and died for.

This is the starting point for three presentations to be followed by audience questions and a panel discussion.
In Disappointed Revolutionaries Historian John Dorney will examine the Ireland the revolutionaries dreamed of and how they came to terms with their disappointment.

In Where Stands the Republic? Author Paul O’Brien will show where Sean O’Casey’s works fits in the imagining of a new Ireland, and how O’Casey’s later work highlighted how the new State betrayed the promise of the revolutionary period.
In No Place for Equality, the focus will be on the life and work of Rathangan’s Maura Laverty, with Dr Morgan Wait exploring Laverty’s experience in an Ireland hostile to women and to critical voices. This is a free event funded by Kildare Co. Co. and Creative Ireland.

Places are limited, to book — Email Rathangan2024@gmail.com