Ballymote Heritage Weekend – August bank holiday 2025 information
* lectures to begin at 8:00 pm
Schedule:
⁃ Friday 1st August – Deirdre McGuirk – The Michael Davitt Museum: Conserving a Legacy
⁃ Sat 2nd August – John McCarrick – The changing role of co-ops in a changing world and the place of Sligo’s co-op tradition
⁃ Sun 3rd August – Sam Moore and Fiona Beglane – The Green Fort Archaeology Project: Research into Sligo town’s bastioned artillery fort
⁃ Monday 4th August – There will be a guided tour of Sligo Abbey on Monday, August 4th. The tour starts at 1pm sharp and will last for 45 minutes. Cost is €4 per person. Starts at the Abbey gate.
⁃ Sunday 24th August – John Coleman, M. Litt., historian, Ballymote native & resident leads a walking tour of Ballymote “Ballymote Heritage Town: A walking tour drawing attention to important buildings and street development from the medieval to the modern.” Meets at the front of the castle @ 3:30 pm.
Speakers:
John McCarrick – A native of South Sligo John McCarrick Economist and Accountant was Director General of ICOS the coordinating body for Co-ops in Ireland 1978-1983 and since worked as a co-op expert in over 40 countries.
Sam Moore – Sam Moore is a faculty member in archaeology at the Atlantic Technological University, Sligo, and his main research focus is on the Carrowkeel/Keshcorran passage tomb complex in Co. Sligo. Sam is also a member of the Green Fort Archaeology Project and the Green Fort Working Group.
Deirdre McGuirk – Deirdre McGuirk is the Curator of the Michael Davitt Museum. Deirdre holds an MA in Public History and Cultural Heritage from the University of Limerick and has worked in Cultural Institutions in both Dublin and Mayo. The Michael Davitt Museum is based in Straide in Co Mayo and holds the Museum Standard Programme for Ireland accreditation. This year the museum was awarded a grant by The Heritage Council to carry out a conservation survey on its collection. Deirdre will present a talk on the processes of protecting such a valuable collection.
Fiona Beglane – Dr Fiona Beglane is a Lecturer of Archaeology at ATU Sligo. Her main areas of research include zooarchaeology, scientific approaches to archaeology, and medieval and post-medieval ecclesiastical sites and landscapes.
Founded on May 30th 1984, Ballymote Heritage Group Co.Sligo is now more than a quarter century in existence. Since that date it has met without fail each month and has continued to devote itself to its stated aim of raising awareness of all matters of Heritage and in particular promoting knowledge of and interest in all aspects of local history, archaeology, culture, folklore and all the many things that make up the unique character of any given area.
Highlights of its activities include the Ballymote Heritage Weekend which has taken place each year since 1990 at the August Bank Holiday and The Corran Herald published each year since 1985. The Ballymote Heritage Weekend continues to attract audiences from near and far and has been widely praised for the high quality of its lectures and outings. The Corran Herald has developed a unique blend of styles and subjects and continues to hold the interest of its increasing readership from year to year.
