Land and the Irish Free State 1922-1939

Blanchardstown Library, The Civic Centre, Blanchardstown Centre

Tuesday 7 October. 6.30 pm

One of the first acts of the new Free State administration was to pass the 1923 Land Act, which re-jigged the Land Commission and began the re-distribution of Irish land while continuing to pay land annuities to the British government. How did the Cumann na nGaedheal and the Fianna Fáil governments approach the issue of land in the first two decades of Irish independence. The author of Land is all that matters, looks at the continuing land conflicts of the 1920s and 1930s.

A Short History of Deception, Mechanics Institute, 57 Post Street, San Francisco, 12 noon.

Monday 6 November, Monday 20 November, Monday 4 December, Monday 18 December

The art of deception has been an integral part of our human story, one where we want, but rarely get, all the sordid details. Even our myths (the Wooden Horse of Troy) abound with instances of inspired duplicity. The resourcefulness required to steal weighty secrets from your enemies (and sometimes from your friends) and the degree of ingenuity involved in laying false trails to bamboozle and misdirect—and to convince the world that you don’t exist—have often been the difference between success and failure in war, revolution, organized crime, and competitive chess (though we won’t be dealing with the latter either). This close study of the wild goose chase and the double bluff will examine the chicanery with which Sir Francis Walsingham stabilized the Protestant revolution, how Bletchley Park knew what the Germans were doing before they did themselves, and why the initials KGB still sound more awe-inspiring than CIA. This offering is free for Mechanics Institute members, or $20 for non-members.

This serial, presented by Myles Dungan, will be held during the first and third Mondays in November and December 2023: November 6 and 20 and December 4 and 18 from 12:00-1:00 pm in the 4th Floor Board Room at Mechanics’ Institute.https://www.milibrary.org/events/short-history-deception-nov-06-2023

‘The Last Land War’, Muckross House Online Talk, Friday 17 November