The 2021 Mícheál Ó Cléirigh Summer School will be a virtual Summer School and held over a long weekend beginning on
Thursday 6th May until Sunday 9th May
The theme of the 2021 Summer School will be “Women in Turbulent Times 1551- 1651″ which will examine the role women played in this century of Irish history. Their story was largely forgotten but more recent research into the period has revealed a story of women taking charge of their families and property whilst their fathers, brothers or husbands were exiled, imprisoned or dead during this most turbulent time in Irish history.
We are currently working on the full programme which will be held over short sessions on afternoons and evenings each day. We hope that this will go some way to give a flavour of what our Summer School weekend is like and to make up for the loss of our actual Summer School held in Rossnowlagh each year and which we hope can resume as normal in 2022.
We shall give details how to book for the Virtual Summer School in the next few weeks.
Fáilte chuig Scoil Samhraidh Mhíchíl Uí Chléirigh
Welcome to the Mícheál Ó Cléirigh Summer School
A Summer School for remembering, for learning, for enjoyment. We remember a great local man, Mícheál Ó Cléirigh. We learn from scholars about his story and his times. We begin to understand what this means for us today. And we enjoy ourselves. We travel to local historic sites. We visit Mícheál’s birthplace. We walk the beautiful Rossnowlagh beach. We talk late into the evening in the local hostelries. Welcome to the Mícheál Ó Cléirigh Summer School to a family distinguished by scholarship. His older brother, Maolmhuire (Fr Bernadine) was ordained in Salamanca, Spain, later moving to Louvain, Belgium in 1619 and Michael joined him a few years later. As a lay brother Michael was able to concentrate on historical research and transcription rather than on priestly duties. In 1626 he was dispatched by a fellow Donegal man, Hugh Ward to Ireland to collect the lives of the Irish saints. This he did. But he also did more. For 10 years, Michael travelled the length and breadth of Ireland gathering the ancient manuscripts and histories wherever he could find them. He and his collaborators transcribed the material into Annála Ríochta na hÉireann (the Annals of the Four Masters). They left us with an incomparable record of the history of Ireland.
The Micheál Ó Cléirigh School Partnership
The Mícheál Ó Cléirigh School has been set up by a partnership of:
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- Some Members of the 2019-2021 Committee
Local people from Ballyshannon / Creevy / Rossnowlagh in Co. Donegal with a mission to preserve the memory of a great local hero.
The Franciscan Friars who established a Friary on Donegal Bay 1474 and played such an important part in Irish writing and scholarship from their monasteries in Ireland and Louvain.
♦The Mícheál Ó Cléirigh Institute at University College Dublin repository of an unparalleled archive of historical documents and the centre of voluminous research on Irish medieval history since its inception in the year 2000. See: www.ucd.ie/mocleirigh
