Basques in West Cork

Clonakilty Sinn Féin Councillors Paul Hayes (left) and Cionnaith Ó Súilleabháin (third left) recently hosted a group of Basque young people who were visiting Ireland. The two councillors took the group to the site of the Battle of the Big Cross, just outside Clonakilty, which was the only rising in Munster in 1798, where they presented each of them with a souvenir book published in 1998, the bicentenary of the rising.

From there, the group proceeded to nearby Timoleague Cemetery, where Volunteer Diarmuid O'Neill is buried. Diarmuid had a great affinity with the Basque independence struggle, and his father Eoghan welcomed the group.

They then did a quick tour of Clonakilty town, stopping at the birthplace of Michael Collins, before heading west to Skibbereen, where they were met by Cllr Donnchadha Ó Seaghdha who showed them the local historical sites in that area, among them the local Famine Graveyard and the Kilmichael and Crossbarry ambush sites.