Cities under Siege: Derry and Clonmel 1649-50
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About this event
The 1649 Parliamentarian-Royalist Siege of Derry is often overlooked in favour of the very famous Jacobite-Williamite Siege of 1689, but it is just as interesting. With an illustrated talk - "Cities under Siege: Derry and Clonmel 1649-50", Dr Pádraig Lenihan of NUI Galway will discuss Derry's Other Siege (1649) and Cromwell at Clonmel (1650). Pádraig is a specialist in seventeenth-century Irish history and warfare.
With financial support from the Ireland Funds, Heritage Council of Ireland, Acorn Trust, UK Heritage Lottery Fund, and the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs, during the past four years, the Friends of the Derry Walls have been researching the physical and cultural legacies of the sieges. Archaeological investigations and site surveying support have been provided by the Centre for Archaeological Fieldwork at QUB and the School of Built Environment at UU. St Columb's Cathedral, the Siege Museum and individual researchers, e.g. Dr Brian Scott and Prof James Stevens Curl, have been active guides in this endeavour.
Afterwards, there will be an opportunity to walk to St Columb's Cathedral and see the layout of the 'lost Citadel', which had been erected by the Parliamentarians following the 1649 Siege. Just inside the bell tower of Cathedral, there will be a pop-up museum, displaying replicas of Irish native, Scots, English, and Continental early-modern clothing, arms and armour. Some 'stragglers' from Coote's and O'Neill's armies of 1649 will be on hand to explain their use.
The pop-up museum will be provided by Claíomh Living History is a professional 'living history' group portraying late medieval and early modern military life in Ireland to a museum-quality standard. Claíomh, means 'sword' in Irish.