The Society’s lecture on Monday 22 Feabhra 2021 was given by our own Dr John Cunningham, who spoke on aspects relating to Galway’s Claddagh community in the late 1800s.

Central to the lecture was the amazing story of the crew of the St Patrick, a hooker from An Cladach, which set sail on the 13th November 1876 before encountering a tremendous storm on the way to Ceann Léime in western Conamara. Their families and neighbours had already given them all up for dead by the time news of their safe arrival in America reached home.

This talk was presented in conjunction with the Moore Institute at Ollscoil Na hÉireann Gaillimh. Members who joined the live event on Zoom and Facebook were able to ask questions and make observations in real time using the chat and comment feature on those platforms.

If you missed the talk, or want to enjoy it again, it has been uploaded to YouTube by the Moore Institute

(open post to view).

A lecturer in History at NUI Galway, John Cunningham is a committee member of the Society, a member of the editorial board of its journal, and a past editor of Saothar: Journal of Irish Labour History. He is co-editor (with Ciaran McDonough) of a forthcoming volume commemorating the bicentenary of James Hardiman’s history of Galway – Hardiman and Beyond: Arts and Culture in Galway, 1820-2020 is due in April 2021.