Séamas O'Kelly Night

Loughrea hosts an evening of celebration of the legacy of writer, journalist and patriot Séamas O'Kelly on 19 November at 8pm in O Dea's Hotel. It is almost 90 years since the death of the Loughrea-born writer, who spent a large part of his life in the east of the country.

O'Kelly played a leading role in the cultural revival movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and was a founder of Conradh na Gaeilge

During the Tan War O'Kelly was active with Sinn Féin and when Arthur Griffith was arrested he asked O'Kelly to replace him as editor of his paper Nationality based at 6 Harcourt Street, now the Headquarters of Conradh na Gaeilge.

In November 1918, ex-soldiers and soldiers of the British Army, celebrating Armistice Day, broke into the Sinn Féin offices. O'Kelly, weak and unwell at the time, tried to defend the presses. He was struck and died the same evening of a heart attack.

The Loughrea Craobh of Conradh na Gaeilge in conjunction with the Séamas O'Kelly Players are hosting an evening of remembrance on Saturday 19 November, which opens with the broadcast of an RTÉ programme, On the Weavers Grave, followed by a reading of O Kelly's works by the O'Kelly Players.

The evening's main talk will be given by historian, journalist, and Sinn Féin's Political Manager in Leinster House Mícheál Mac Donncha will give a talk on Séamas Ó Ceallaigh. Mac Donncha has more than a passing association with O'Kelly as a former Editor of Sinn Féin's paper An Phoblacht.

Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann will bring the evening to a close with a session. Everyone is welcome, and admission is free at the door.