Tipperary Museum to kick start its annual lecture series with one-day seminar in Thurles

Tipperary Museum's 13th annual lecture programme - Beyond Belief - begins in the TUS Campus in Thurles with a seminar featuring three historian guest speakers who will shine a light on Irish customs and traditions. 

The speakers are Dr. Gillian O’Brien from Liverpool John Moore's University speaking on The Irishman’s House is his Coffin: Death and Burial in Ireland, Dr Kelly Fitzgerald from UCD on The Otherworld in Irish Vernacular and Folk Tradition and Dr Rosari Kingston of UCC on The Wheel of the Year and Health.

You can now book your place on the one-day seminar through Eventbrite. Admission is €50 and includes lunch.

The monthly lectures in the Council Chamber of Tipperary County Council's Civic Offices in Clonmel cost €10 that is payable on the door.

The will feature Michael Fortune from Folklore.ie on beliefs and practices surrounding death, Dr Jenny Butler on the case of Brigid Cleary, Dr Barry O’Reilly on vernacular houses, Dr Louise Nugent on Pilgrimage in Tipperary and retired National Museum of Ireland Curator, Dr Ann O’ Dowd on the potency of objects for curing and protecting.

With a diverse range of topics, the series offers audiences the opportunity to attend all lectures or just the ones that interest them.

So come along meet old friends, make new ones, learn why your parents/grandparents always practiced a particular tradition and continue the conversation over a cup of tea/coffee and scones.

The focus of this year’s series of lectures is the beliefs, customs and traditions practiced by our ancestors.

These rituals or more simply put the everyday ways of life, may appear old fashioned, curious or even superstitious to us.

Many such customs are decreasing in popularity or have disappeared from contemporary life altogether.

But have you ever thought about why such beliefs may have come about – were they rooted in practical experiences, in scientific or medical thinking of the day? Were they religious beliefs adapted over time or something more magical?

Our 21st Century education and immediate access to information make it difficult for us to understand many of these customs and how such events could have popular support but, in a society where such practices and traditions were just a way of life passed down from one generation to the next they did not appear strange.

Honouring these traditions was a way to honour family, locality and heritage. This series will look at some of the common beliefs in areas such as health, death and burial, folklore and religion.

This is the 13th season of the Tipperary Museum lectures series, which is one of the most anticipated elements of the Museum annual events schedule.

So come along meet old friends, make new ones, learn why your parents/grandparents always practiced a particular tradition and continue the conversation over a cup of tea/coffee and scones.

For bookings or further information contact museum@tipperarycoco.ie or telephone 052 6165252. A full lecture brochure is available via email or hard copy on request or through your local library.