This illustrated talk is 75 minutes long and will be available online on the Tipperary Studies YouTube channel from October 14th

Tipperary Studies lecture on Seán Treacy 

If times were normal, the centenary of the death of Seán Treacy in Dublin on October 14th, 1920 during one of the most intense periods of the War of Independence would be marked across the county.  But times are not normal. However Tipperary Studies, Tipperary County Council Library Service’s designated centre for Tipperary history, mindful of these circumstances and anxious that the centenary be noted in a useful way, asked Dr Denis G Marnane to give a talk on Treacy’s life. 


Over the past few years, Tipperary Studies marked this decade of commemoration by producing a history of the 3rd Tipperary Brigade and two collections of related documents. A third collection covering 1921-1923 is forthcoming.  Also Des Marnane with Mary Guinan Darmody is preparing a comprehensive history of the Civil War in the county, hopefully to be published next year. 


The title of Dr Marnane’s talk is Seán Treacy, 1895-1920: A Life For Ireland and was produced with the assistance of Jane Bulfin of Tipperary Studies.  As Des explained: “It is important to mark such a centenary in an appropriate way and it was interesting to prepare this talk but it was delivered and recorded some weeks ago in Thurles to an empty hall and that was a strange experience.  I did not want to give a tedious rehash of the outline of Sean Treacy’s life.  Such an exercise serves no useful purpose.  Instead some themes are discussed such as how family influences shaped a political activist; how that activism was demonstrated and how in death a spotless legend became more useful than a complicated life.” 


This illustrated talk is 75 minutes long and will be available online on the Tipperary Studies YouTube channel from October 14th. For further details contact 076 1066123; studies@tipperarycoco.ie; www.tipperarystudies.ie