Autumn Lectures 2026
Autumn Lectures - 2026
Our lecture series for Autumn 2026 begins on Thursday 1st October at 7pm, in Johnston Central Library. Further details on each upcoming lecture can be found below:
John Joseph Therry:‘Irish Landlord, Merchant and Priest in the Australian Colonies’
by Dr. Damian Gleeson
John Joseph Therry, appointed ‘Roman Catholic Chaplain to New South Wales’ in 1820, was a formidable advocate of the rights of Irish convicts transported to the Australian penal colonies.
Thursday, October 1st at 7.00pm
Johnston Central Library, H12 A3T1
Booking advised. Ring 049 437 8500
‘Workhouses in Cavan, before and after independence'
by Dr. Georgina Laragy
Dr Georgina Laragy is an Irish historian working in Glasnevin Cemetery and Trinity College Dublin. She has written several articles on suicide and poverty in Ireland, and is the co-author, with Olwen Purdue, of Poverty, Children and the Poor Law in Industrial Belfast, 1880-1918 (Liverpool University Press, 2024). She has published on the history of Cavan in Breifne and Cavan: History and Society (Scott and Cherry).
Thursday, October 8th at 7.00pm
Johnston Central Library, H12 A3T1
Booking advised. Ring 049 437 8500
'A century sealed: The 1926 Census and the National Archives'
by Dr. Zoë Reid
The release of the 1926 Census has transformed access to the earliest demographic record of the Irish Free State. Now fully digitised and searchable, over 700,000 household returns reveal a society marked by rural life, demographic decline and the administrative priorities of a new state. The presentation will also outline the National Archives’ extensive conservation and digitisation project, involving 2,496 volumes and 45 million data points, and reflects on how researchers and the public are already engaging with this remarkable resource.
Thursday, October 22nd at 7.00pm
Virginia Library, A82 PA03
Booking advised. Ring 049 8548456
'Their Footprint Can Be Found:
Some of Cavan's Contribution to the
Making of America'
by Mary Sullivan MSSc
The talk will focus on the exceptional growth of America after 1776 and on the legacies of various Cavan individuals and families as part of that growth. Mary Sullivan is the manager of Cavan Genealogy where she has worked for over thirty years. She holds an MSSc in Irish Migration Studies.
Thursday, October 29th at 7.00pm
Johnston Central Library, H12 A3T1
Booking advised. Ring 049 437 8500
‘People, place and politics:
shifting allegiance in Cavan during the long Irish revolution’
by Dr. Conor Mulvagh
Dr Conor Mulvagh is Associate Professor in Modern Irish History at the School of History, University College Dublin. His research centres primarily on British and Irish political history from the 1870s to the 1920s. His current research focusses on a comparative study of partition and federation in the British Empire and Commonwealth. He is chair (2024-26) of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment’s History Development Group for Senior Cycle which is redeveloping the Irish Leaving Certificate Syllabus for History.
Thursday, November 5th at 7.00pm
Johnston Central Library, H12 A3T1
Booking advised. Ring 049 437 8500