The Charles Kickham summer school confirms that small is beautiful. Without the hype of the larger, better known schools and festivals, it cherishes its subject matter and is truly a local concern.
Last weekend activities commemorating the literary Fenian in Mullinahone, Co Tipperary, included lectures, a tour of the historical sites of Galmoy, and a poetry reading - in the shadow of Slievenamon.
The weekend was opened by Archbishop Dermot Clifford of Cashel. It ended with a wreath-laying ceremony by Senator Des Hanafin, who spoke at Kickham's grave about fulfilling the patriot's dream by respecting the dignity of all people in Ireland. He expressed confidence that this would be achieved through implementing the Belfast Agreement.
The Kickham weekend has existed in this form since 1982. Most of the events are in the local community hall, and Mullinahone-Slievenamon people are loyal enthusiasts, a contrast to some of the larger schools which host veritable invasions. It is a heartfelt celebration of south Tipperary's cultural heritage.
Brendan O'Donoghue, MRIA, lectured on the engineering careers of the father and three brothers of archbishop Patrick Leahy. The Leahys were upwardly-mobile Irish Catholics, who hitched their wagon to the Victorian empire. Two brothers died of tropical diseases in Trinidad. The third sibling, Edmund, plagiarised Adam Smith and was dismissed later from the colonial service in Jamaica - despite the archbishop's intercession. His grave is in Kensal Green cemetery, London.
Dr Fergus O'Farrell gave a talk on William Carrigan (1860-1924), historian of the diocese of Ossory. Fr O'Farrell, who wears his learning lightly, said Canon Carrigan spent some weeks of every summer for 37 years researching in the Public Record Office in Dublin. The calamitous destruction of the office in 1922 meant that Carrigan's manuscript collection of 160 notebooks became an extremely important repository for genealogical information. Carrigan served in five different parishes, and received considerable help from fellow priests. After the publication of his history, however, one of them published a 115-page critique anonymously. Fr O'Farrell identified the critic as a parish priest of Johnstown, none too pleased to be reminded of St Kieran's prophecy that part of his parish (Fertagh) "would never be without a rogue and a liar till the end of time".
