Journal Volume 5 2006

Chairperson's Introduction

Greystones continues to grow at a rapid rate, and our town and its environs are changing beyond previous generations’ imaginations. An anchor during this transformation is provided by our heritage, both archaeological and historical, and our Society, in its modest way, offers a link to our unchanging but shared past.

The Society remains very active. Our monthly lectures, mainly on local history, provided by such regulars as: Pat Power, Chris Corlett and James Scannell, and by new presenters: Emmett O’Byrne, Carole Holohan, Peter McNiff and Bryan McMahon, continue to be popular. In our well – attended spring tours in March 2005 and April 2006 we took a number of days to explore the heritage of Counties Cavan, Fermanagh and Clare. And our many summer day-trips included visits to Kildare and Wexford, exploring the abundant heritage of these counties.

Every few of years we publish the Greystones Archaeological and Historical Society journal that captures in permanent form some of the lectures we have heard and other material we believe may be of interest. That time had come around again. So it gives me great pleasure to introduce this journal, our fifth. Within it, Jim Rees provides an insight into the impact of the Famine on the people of Wicklow; James Scannell discusses the activities of two Irish spies during World War II; Pat Power tells us about Derrylossary Churchyard; Síle Ní Thiarnaigh summarises the Society’s eventful tour of Cavan; a fragment of a diary by Henry Edward Kearns captures his experiences as a young man at sea in 1860; and, in a piece written in 1960 by P J Noonan, the history behind the building of the catholic church in Rathdrum is described.

For those of you who have missed our previous journals, electronic versions of these and other information related to the Society can be found on our World Wide Web site: www.greystonesahs.org.

Finally, many thanks are due to our committee members for their time and effort, all our contributors for their support, and particularly Aileen Short for her hard work in organising and coordinating our lectures, tours and visits.

Geraldine Herrera – Chairperson

Greystones Archaeological & Historical Society