Lots on in Kildare for Heritage Week

There are ten in-person events scheduled for Heritage Week 2021 in County Kildare, spread across the county, writes Brian Byrne. Other projects in the listing are online presentations. The week runs from 14-22 August.

The live events include an art exhibition in McAuley Place in Naas from local Naas artists Greg Hallahan and Andrew Barrett, with stories of the town by Liam Kenny. This event will be videographed by Daniel Dunne, and will run through the week from 14-21 August.

An exploration of cultural heritage in Kildare Town will be held in the Heritage Centre on Market Square from 10am-4pm each day of 17th, 18th and 20th August, with Tom McCutcheon. He will also give a guided walk of the three Medieval Abbeys in the town on Saturday 14, Wednesday 18 and Saturday 21 August, all starting at 11am.

The Heritage of Ardclough will be detailed by Eoghan Corry on 14 August from 2pm, in the tower House Reeve's Castle, a site to which the public do not normally have access. The role of the five local tower houses will be discussed.

Denis Dennehy of the Allen Heritage and History Group will conduct a trip from Locks 19-21 on the Grand Canal, from 6pm on Sunday 15 August. The 2km walk will span five centuries.

An exhibition of works resulting from a research collaboration between Marie Phelan and Audrey Walshe carried out around Castletown House in Celbridge, Co. Kildare is the centre of 'Interventions', at Castletown on Friday 13 to Sunday 15 August open from 10am-5pm.

The Castletown area is also the location for the bicentenary celebration of Lady Louisa Conolly, 1743-1821, at the Tea Lane Graveyard in Celbridge. The event will be presented by Breda Konstantin of the Tea Lane Graveyard Restoration Project.

The North Kildare Beekeepers will talk about their lives and all aspects of their work on Saturday 21 August in the Pleasure Grounds of Castletown, introduced by Kevina Dunne of the OPW and running from 11am-4pm.

There will be a talk on 'Peatlands, Climate and Carbon' on 14 August from 2-4pm, presented by the Irish Peatland Conservation Council. Details from 045 860133. The IPCC is also conducting eaerlier on the same day, from 11am-1pm, a family friendly walk & talk event ‘Discovering the bumblebees and butterflies of Lullymore West’.

The online events are a webinar celebrating the bicentenary of St John's Church in Kill, courtesy of the St John's Church 200th Anniversary Committee on Wednesday 18 August at 7pm, and a talk from the Kill History Group on the War of Independence given by Brian McCabe on 16 August at 8pm.

There's also a virtual Youtube event from the Solas Bhride Centre and Hermitage which introduces both St Brigid’s wells in Kildare town, the Wayside Well and the Garden Well, following a local group of people who took part in a pilgrimage to both wells led by the team from Solas Bhride Spirituality Centre.

More information on the Kildare events is available on the National Heritage Week website here. 

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