Page 5 - Greystones Archaeological Historical Society

GREYSTONES ARCHAEOLOGICAL & HISTORICAL SOCIETY JOURNAL VOLUME 8

Chairperson's Introduction

T
his latest volume – the eighth – of the Greystones
Archaeological & Historical Society Journal offers insights
both into the history of Greystones and the surrounding area,
and into the activities of the Society itself over the two years
since the appearance of our previous journal. Those years have
been particularly busy ones for our membership: in addition to
the Society’s usual very full programme of lectures and outings,
it has collaborated with the La Touche Legacy Committee in the
compilation and publication of volume II of Greystones: its
buildings and history, and more recently in the preparation of
Trails of Greystones, an historical walking tour of the town.
Moreover, in September 2014 the Society joined with the La
Touche Legacy Committee in hosting the annual La Touche
Legacy weekend seminar, an extremely successful event,
which focused on an examination of World War 1, both in its
global and national contexts and at a more local level. Indeed,
we are delighted to be able to include in this journal the
contributions of two of the speakers at the seminar, Lord Meath
and Anne Ferris TD.

In his presentation to the seminar, published as the opening
article in this collection, Lord Meath offers an overview of the
impact on his own family of the catastrophe of 1914-18, which
included the deaths of his maternal grandfather and several
great-uncles. And, as he points out, the legacy of the war long
outlasted the fighting: his other grandfather, decorated for
gallantry, suffered the effects of gas poisoning for the rest of his
life, while his maternal grandmother, who lived to be over a
hundred, was a widow for more than seventy years. Indeed,
both Lord Meath’s article and the two which follow it reveal the
experience of women at all levels of society, who bore their own

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