The Galway Archaeological and Historical Society will host a talk next week on the good old days, when the Kellys were in charge, from Athleague to Athenry.
The next lecture in the GAHS winter series is titled The archaeology of later medieval Gaelic lordship: insights from Ó Cellaig Country in eastern Connacht.
Archaeologist Daniel Patrick Curley will deliver the lecture in the Harbour Hotel on Tuesday, October 14, at 8pm.
The Gaelic-Irish Ó Cellaig (O’Kelly ) lordship of Uí Maine and Tír Maine was a later medieval territory straddling the River Suck in the modern counties of Roscommon and Galway. Until recently, there has been little historical or archaeological research on it.
This talk will first set about placing the Ó Cellaig in their territory. Thereafter, utilising a multidisciplinary approach with archaeological inspection at its core, a select number of case studies of Uí Chellaig lordly centres and associated cultural landscapes will be interrogated.
This is an examination of the form of elite settlement espoused by the Gaelic Irish throughout this period, and a consideration of potential implications for understanding later medieval Gaelic Ireland more generally.
The speaker, archaeologist Dr Curley, is a native of Taughmaconnell, in Roscommon. He is manager of Rathcroghan Visitor Centre in Tulsk, Co Roscommon, the interpretive resource for the prehistoric and early historic ceremonial capital of Connacht.
See www.GAHS.ie
