Huge crowd attends launch of Westmeath history book

A landmark history of County Westmeath launched at Westmeath County Council’s Atrium on Thursday night of last week (March 24) generated a lot of interest, with a large crowd turning out to pick up a copy of ‘Westmeath: History and Society – interdisciplinary essays on the history of an Irish county’.

The book, launched by the Castletown Geoghegan native and current Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Dermot Farrell, is edited by Mullingar historian and former principal at Garbally College, Ballinasloe, Seamus O’Brien.

It is the 29th in a series of 32 ‘History and Society’ compendia on the local history of each Irish county, which began all the way back in 1985 with the publication of the first volume on Tipperary, edited by then professor of geography at UCD, William Nolan. The Thurles native then set up Geography Publications and embarked on a project to assemble and publish knowledge on the history of every county in Ireland.

It was a hugely ambitious project, but with just Antrim, Sligo and Louth to go, the result is a treasure trove of local history which will, in the fullness of time, surely have a similar impact on preserving knowledge of the past at a micro level to that of the corpus of work left behind by the originators of Ireland’s Ordnance Survey.

The late Michael Herity, the Tyrrellspass-born UCD archaeology professor who published extensive, annotated collections of letters from the Ordnance Survey in his later career, was among those to whom tribute was paid by the editor of ‘Westmeath: History and Society’, Seamus O’Brien.

Seamus – introduced to the large audience by Westmeath Archaeological and Historical Society chairman, Myles Cosgrave – said that Michael gave constant to the project, which had a gestation of over 10 years, in which time a host of contributors were assembled to provide a multi-thematic survey of the history of Westmeath, organised along broadly chronological lines and across 35 essays.

The result is a 937-page tome which, Seamus joked, his wife Marie remarked mightn’t “make bedtime reading”. But the standalone nature of each chapter is a quality which allow ‘Westmeath: History and Society’ to be dipped into over time, instead of consuming it a single narrative.

This point was made by the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Dermot Farrell, who officially the launched the book. “If this was a ship, I’d throw a bottle of champagne against it,” the archbishop joked, holding it aloft.

Dr Farrell said that ‘Westmeath: History and Society’ traces the history of Westmeath from prehistoric times to the present day using a multi-disciplinary approach, looking through the prisms of geology, archaeology, folklore, cartography, historiography, literature and art history. All angles are covered; there are also substantial contributions on political, military, social, oral, religious, sporting and cultural history, as well as an essay focusing on archives in Westmeath.

The archbishop added that one only had to glance at the endnotes at the end of each chapter to appreciate the volume and diversity of original and authoritative source material which had been consulted in compiling the collection of essays. It was a publication that would stand the test of time, he said.

Mullingar historian Ruth Illingworth, one of the contributors, also spoke at the launch, referring to a continuation of the long tradition of recording local history in Westmeath exemplified by the likes of James Woods (author of ‘The Annals of Westmeath’), Fr Paul Walsh, Billy English, Leo Daly, Marian Keaney and others.

Meanwhile, Westmeath County Council chief executive, Dr Pat Gallagher, said that the local authority was proud to have given its support to the project. “Westmeath County Council is delighted to be associated with the publication of this volume,” he said, noting that the content of the book had struck an excellent geographical balance, with north and south of the county covered. Dr Gallagher gave particular mention to Heritage Officer, Melanie McQuade, Country Librarian, Mary Stuart, and Senior Executive Librarian, Paula O’Dornan for their input.

The book features a foreword by Castlepollard native Professor Marie Coleman, Professor of Twentieth-Century Irish history at Queen’s University, Belfast, charting the development of her interest in history locally.

Editor, Seamus O’Brien also paid tribute to those involved in the design, indexing and printing phases, and mentioned the front cover, which includes the painting ‘Out for the Day, the Fly Fishers’ by Scottish painter Erskine Nicol. Seamus was alerted to the painting by one of the book’s contributors, art historian Dr Amélie Dochy-Jacquard; it depicts fishermen at play on Lough Derravaragh in the mid-19th century.

The publication of ‘Westmeath: History and Society’ was supported by Westmeath County Council’s Heritage Office. It is available in bookshops or can be ordered at www.geographypublications.com for €60.