Roadshow on a mission to ‘bring history to the people’

Historians are dusting down their maps of West Cork for an Antiques Roadshow-style road trip that they hope will unearth historical gems.

UCC and the Cork City Archive issued an open invitation last night to the public to attend their Revolutionary Roadshow next month.

Gabriel Doherty, a lect-urer in modern Irish history at UCC, said it was designed to bring history to the people.

He encouraged the public to bring any historical documents or artefacts from the period 1912 to 1923 to the event where it will be assessed by historians and archivists.

“We hope to take advantage of the heightened interest around the centenary commemorations.

“We are doing this for the sheer fun, enjoyment and pleasure of looking at history in the raw — to see the raw basic material with which history is constructed.

“But we also hope to find material that shed new light on historical matters, be they local or national.”

New material like letters, documents, photographs, diaries, and newspaper clippings will establish “a circle of knowledge” by making connections between people and events in a particular locality, he said.

Mr Doherty stressed they are not just interested in republican memorabilia, but also material from the First World War, from the labour and Suffragette movements, and the Great Dublin Lock Out.

The event is loosely modelled on the hugely popular BBC series, Antiques Roadshow.

It will roll into the GAA hall in Clonakilty on Dec 1, from 11am to 3pm.

Meanwhile, Billy O’Brien of UCC’s archaeology department will deliver a lecture in Kilmurry Nati-onal School, Co Cork, at 12pm on Sunday on the discovery of Ireland’s oldest ringfort — dubbed Cork’s ancient capital.

Mr O’Brien led a three-year excavation of the 20-acre Clashanimud hillfort site near Knockavilla.

Radiocarbon dating shows that the fort was constructed about 1,200BC — when Rameses III was pharaoh of Egypt — confirming it as the oldest known prehistoric ringfort in Ireland.

Mr O’Brien said this put its importance on a par with prehistoric sites such as Dún Aengus on Inishmore and Mooghaun, Co Clare.