The Daniel O’Connell School 2025 will take place on Friday, 29th August, and Saturday, 30th August 2025, marking the 250th anniversary of the birth of Daniel O’Connell.
- Friday’s sessions (29 August) will be held at the Ring of Kerry Hotel, Cahersiveen (at the western end of the town).
- Saturday’s sessions (30 August) will take place at Derrynane House, Caherdaniel.
If you plan to attend either or both days, pre-registration is required. You can register online at www.danieloconnellsummerschool.com. The attendance fee is €30 per day or €50 for both days, which includes morning tea or coffee.
If you are unable to register online, you can do so by calling 087-7562772. Without pre-registry, admission cannot be assured.
Seating in both venues will be on a first-come, first-served basis. Preferential seating for the disabled must be pre-booked.
For those who cannot attend in person:
- Friday’s lectures from Cahersiveen will be live-streamed via the website.
- Saturday’s lectures from Derrynane will be recorded and made available online from early September.
A registration fee of €15 applies to access the online content. For the latest updates on the programme, please check the School’s website.
Lunch arrangements:
- On Friday, lunch can be purchased at the Ring of Kerry Hotel or in any of Cahersiveen’s restaurants.
- On Saturday, lunch will be served by Ahamore Tea Rooms at Derrynane House. Lunch coupons can be purchased at the registration desk on Saturday morning - we recommend pre-purchasing to avoid delays.
PROGRAMME
Friday, 29 August 2025, Ring of Kerry Hotel, Cahersiveen
9.30 am: Introduction and Welcome
9.40 am: Opening Remarks: Dr. Linda Doyle, Provost, Trinity College Dublin. Linda was Professor of Engineering at Trinity and manager of a number of research projects before becoming the 45th Provost in August 2021. The Provost is the University's Chief Officer. She is the first woman to hold the post since the University was founded in 1592.
10:00 am: "Building on O'Connell's Legacies: Reporting and Representing Ireland", chaired by John O'Donoghue, former Minister and TD for South Kerry.
Vincent Boland has been a journalist for 35 years. Between 1994 and 2017, he was correspondent for the Financial Times in Prague, London, New York, Ankara, Milan and Dublin. He now writes a column in the Business Post on international affairs and business.
Daithí Ó Ceallaigh is former Ambassador of Ireland to the UK (2001-07) and one of Ireland's most accomplished diplomats. He was also Director of the Institute of International and European Affairs (Dublin) and Chairperson of the Press Council (2010-16). Daithí will draw on his career as a diplomat and negotiator to address the topic.
Claire Connolly is Professor of Modern English at UCC. She has also held a number of visiting positions in Britain and the USA and is Secretary of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the Royal Irish Academy. She is a distinguished author and critic, particularly on the cultural contexts of nineteenth-century literature. In her contribution, Claire will look at how literature reflects the wider societies of which it is part.
11.20 am: Coffee Break
11.50 am: The Daniel O'Connell Award, 2025. Presentation will be moderated by Joe McGill, Radio Kerry. The name of the awardee will be announced in mid-August.
12.20 pm: "Daniel O'Connell: Lives and Legacies", chaired by Brigid Laffan, Cahersiveen native and Chancellor of the University of Limerick.
Patrick Geoghegan is Professor of History in Trinity College Dublin and Director of its Reseach Long Room Hub. He is the author of a number of historical works, most notably a two-volume biography of Daniel O'Connell
Mary O'Dowd is Professor Emerita, Queen's University Belfast, and an authority on pre-Union Ireland. Her History of Women in Ireland,1500-1800 was published in 2016.
1.30 pm: Lunch Break
2:45 pm: "O'Connell in his Private Worlds", chaired by Áine Hyland, former Vice-President of UCC.
Muiris Bric, Professor Emeritus of History at UCD, will talk about 'The O'Connells of Iveragh". Muiris is a Member and former Vice President of the Royal Irish Academy and has been Director of the Daniel O'Connell Summer School since it was re-established in 2011.
Dr. Erin Bishop has held a number of positions advising Presidential Libraries and US Cities on archival and heritage policy. She will talk about Mary O'Connell, wife of Daniel, the subject of a two-volume biography, which was the subject of her PhD from UCD.
4.00 pm: Book Launch of Sir Adrian FitzGerald's two-volume edition of the Disillusioned Unionist and Rejected Emancipist, some of the letters and papers of his ancestor, the 18th Knight of Kerry, under whom Valentia was further developed as a transatlantic hub.
5.15 pm: Con Keating Memorial Park. An Address by Jarlath Burns, the National President of the GAA. Subject to the weather, this event will be held on the Field. Seating will be available in the Stand on a first-come, first-served basis.
Saturday, 30 August 2025. Derrynane House, Caherdaniel
9.30 am : Introduction: Rosemary Collier, Assistant Secretary General - Heritage Services and Capital Works Delivery, Office of Public Works
9.40 am: "Life among Friends - and Foes?". Mary Lyne, Balliniskelligs, will chair this session which will be led by Daniel O'Connell - the Great, Great, Great Grandson of Daniel O'Connell - who will use of some of his family's Visitors' Books to discuss some of the many visitors, including the curious - who came to Derrynane.
Brian Crowley, Historian to the Office of Public Works, will talk on some of the surviving artifacts relating to O'Connell, while Sir Adrian FitzGerald, the 24th Knight of Kerry, will talk on the historical relationships between his family and that of the O'Connells.
11.15 am: Coffee
11:45 am: "Contemporary Life and Living in the Age of O'Connell", as chaired by Muiris Ó Raoghaill, Castlecove.
Neil Buttimer, retired Senior Lecturer in Irish in UCC, will talk about what Gaelic sources tell us about the life and times of O'Connell. A graduate of UCC (1977) and Harvard (1983), Neill has a particular interest in pre-Famine Ireland and how it is reflected in Gaelic literary and manuscript sources.
Máirtin Mac Con Iomaire will talk about food and diet in the Ireland of the O'Connells. Máirtin is an award-winning chef and culinary historian and broadcaster, and lectures in the School of Culinary Arts and Food Technology at TU Dublin. He is a regular contributor to the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery which brings together some of the world's leading chefs and food writers.
Fiona Brennan is a Theatre Historian and will talk about how O'Connell features in the literature and theatre of Iveragh. A champion of Amateur Drama, she was recently successful in having Ireland's amateur dramatic tradition added to the national inventory of intangible cultural heritage, which gives it formal state recognition for the first time.
1:00: Lunch
2:15pm: The Daniel O'Connell Lecture (2025)
Introduction and Moderator: Professor Muiris Bric, Director of the Daniel O’Connell Summer School
Speaker: Micheál Martin, TD, Taoiseach na hÉireann.
An Taoiseach’s address will be followed by a Reception.
An Scoil 2025
Chuir Dómhnall Ó Conaill tús le cultúr nua i bpolaitíocht na hÉireann agus na hEorpa. Duine mór le rá ab ea é sa Bhreatain agus cáil air mar óráidí ag treisiú an liobrálachais. Eiseamlár do lucht polaitíochta ins na Stáit Aontaithe ab ea é maidir lena shlite polaitíochta agus mar a mheall sé an gnáth-phobal chun páirt a ghlacadh i bpolaitíocht na tíre. D'fhág sé rian fé leith ar chás na nIúdach agus cás na mílte a bhí brúite fé smacht ag an sclábhaíocht. Dlíodóir iomráiteach ab ea é agus bhí baint mhór aige le cúrsaí gnó na hÉireann. Déanfaidh an Scoil Samhraigh an méid seo a iniúchadh, a scagadh agus a cheistiú.
For further information, please contact Phil O'Neill: Tel: 087-7562772.
The School's website is at www.danieloconnellsummerschool.com
The Daniel O'Connell School acknowledges the encouragement and financial assistance which we receive from our Sponsors, OPW, Kerry County Council, the Department of Culture, Communications & Sport, Walshe's Supervalue of Cahersiveen, and the Glasnevin Cemetery Trust.
