Our next monthly meeting will ake place on Wednesday, 10th April at 7:00 pm in the Observatory Library.
Our speaker this month is our chairperson, Sean Barden, who will be discussing:
Armagh datestones –what they tell us about the buildings and their builders
Our next monthly meeting will take place on Wednesday, 13th March at 7:00 pm in the Observatory Library. Our speaker this month is Antaine Ó Donnaile, who will be discussing Séamus Mac Murphy 1720-1750: An Armagh Outlaw.
Antaine is director of Armagh-based production company Macha Media, which released the award-winning Irish language programme Séamus Mac Murchaidh – Díolta Faoina Luach about the famous South Armagh ‘rapparee’ in 2023.
Our monthly meeting will take place on Wednesday, 14th February at 7:00 pm in the Observatory Library and Matthew McMahon will be discussing “A Planetarium for Armagh – a 25 year journey“.
Starting with Dr Eric Mervyn Lindsay’s ambitious plan to create a memorial to the service men of the United States who were stationed in Northern Ireland in 1943, and moving through the twenty five year long journey that saw many false starts and massive changes in the technology of planetaria, this talk will examine how a familiar community fixture came to exist, and the forgotten characters who made it possible. It will draw upon original letters, minutes and notes made by the parties involved on four continents over a period of thirty years.
The Armagh & District History Group produces a magazine “History Armagh” each year. This year we have moved the usual publication date from December to January .
The latest copy of the magazine is available in local shops and other outlets from 1st February.
The magazine is free to members and costs £4.50 to non-members. It will be available in the following local outlets: Armagh County Museum, The Mall; Cultural Heritage Services Library, 1 Markethill Road, Armagh; Emerson’s Supermarket; Macaris Newsagents; McAnerny’s Supermarket; Navan Centre; O’Kane’s Supermarket; Red Neds Bar; Rocks, Thomas Street; Royal Irish Fusiliers Museum, The Mall; Whittle’s Supermarket, Newry Road.
If you live at a distance from Armagh postage can be arranged by contacting: magazine@history-armagh.org
Some sample articles from the early magazines can be found here.
Some pdf copies of earlier magazines can be found here.
Our meeting this month will take place on Wednesday, 31st January at 7:00 pm in Armagh County Museum,
At the meeting we will be launching this year’s issue of History Armagh .
We will start with our Annual General Meeting, and members will then be able to collect their free copy of the magazine. Please note that if you wish to purchase additional copies the price has risen to £4:50, but you do get more pages.
You can also pay your membership fee for the upcoming year.
Armagh Townscape Heritage is organising a talk next Wednesday, 6th December at 7:00p.m.in Armagh County Museum.
The speaker is Sean Barden, who will be discussing Armagh Datestones and what they tell us about buildings and builders.
The talk is free but if you wish to attend, please book a place with Ciara McNeice by emailing
Ciara.MacNeice@armaghbanbridgecraigavon.gov.uk>.
Our next monthly meeting will take place on Wednesday, 8th November at 7:00 pm in the Observatory Library.
Our speaker this month is Simon Chadwick, who will discuss Harpers in Armagh and beyond.
Simon has been researching the Irish harp tradition, focusing on the period from the end of the 18th Century through to the start of the 20th Century. He will discuss some of the traditional harpers who were active in Armagh over this period, including Patrick Quin and Patrick Byrne. He will show portraits of the harpers, photographs of their harps in Museums and private collections, and newspaper clippings detailing their events in the Market House and other venues around Armagh.
The talk will also be enlivened by a few tunes played on a traditional wire-strung Irish harp, to show how the old tradition is being revived and rediscovered here in Armagh.
The photograph of Simon is from his website (see below)
You can find out more at https://simonchadwick.net/
Our next monthly meeting will take place next Wednesday, 11th October at 7:00 pm in the Observatory Library.
Our speaker this month is Eoin Maginness, who will be discussing:
Gender and the Irish Revolution in County Armagh, 1918-1924: The case of Nano Aiken
Nano Aiken was born Annie Aiken on 11th August 1896, the daughter of James Aiken and his second wife Mary McGeeney. James Aiken was a successful farmer living in Carrickbracken, Camlough, and as such became a public figure. He held positions as chairman of Newry’s Board of Poor Law Guardians, chairman of Newry No 2 Rural District Council and Justice of the Peace for county Armagh.
James Aiken died in 1900 , and his wife Mary in 1913, Nano’s younger brother Frank became involved with the Caml;ough Volunteers in 1914, and by 1918 Nano and Roisin Ni Beirne were organising republican women in the Camlough area in Cumann na mBan.
To find out more come to the talk.
Our first monthly meeting after the summer break take place on Wednesday, 13th September at 7:00 pm in the Observatory Library. Our speaker this month is Dr Patrick Gleeson, who will discuss:
‘Re-discovering Emain Macha: ritual, religion kingship in Later Prehistoric and Medieval Ireland’
This lecture will present new results from large-scale geophysical survey in the Navan Fort landscape and targeted excavation of new parts of the Navan Fort complex itself. The results of this work transform our understanding of the Navan Fort and its wider landscape and regional context. Discoveries to be discussed include new medieval activity, Iron Age discoveries that transform our understanding of the Waterman excavations, and the identification and excavation of some of the largest and most complex monuments identified on the island of Ireland. Results will be contextualised in terms of how these discoveries illuminate the ‘royal sites’ as a group, and their wider Northern European comparanda.