Lecture to focus on Offaly born piper's role in Chicago Police Department

TWO lectures will be given this week at Offaly History Centre in Bury Quay, Tullamore.

On this Saturday, April 12, at 3 pm, Frank and Seamus Kelly will give a talk entitled "Bernard Delaney (1854-1923) – Offaly piper conquers America."

Bernard Delaney was an extraordinary man, a superb musician and above all a survivor. Birr Historical Society presented the story of piper Bernard (Barney) Delaney in January and Offaly History Society are glad to confirm a further lecture and musical afternoon to recall his life and contribution to Irish traditional music.

This time in his home town of Tullamore. Delaney suffered the loss of three of his four children and his wife in the late 1870s and was forced to leave his country in search of hope and a better life in the New World. Delaney was a master of the Uileann Pipes. The talk will focus on his life, the story behind his enrolment into the elite Irish Music Club of the Chicago Police Department and his legacy.

Delaney's musical heritage will be played at the event by Frank Kelly and musical friends.

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Frank Kelly is from Lusmagh and has written articles about Delaney for the Fleadh Cheoil Clár and the Comhaltas magazine Treoir.

Seamus Kelly is from Kildare with Birr connections. He has researched Barney's life and written the book Bernard 'Barney' Delaney (1854-1923) Offaly and Chicago Piper. Copies available from Offaly History Centre.

On Monday, April 14, at 7.30pm, Con Manning will speak on "Clonmacnoise and its churches."

Mr Manning worked for nearly forty years as an archaeologist with the National Monuments Service. During that time he directed excavations at Clonmacnoise as well as at many other monuments around the country. He has a special interest in medieval churches and castles and has published widely on aspects of the medieval and post-medieval periods in Ireland.

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Clonmacnoise is among the very most important early medieval monasteries/ecclesiastical sites in Ireland and has a remarkable group of churches, high crosses and the largest collection of cross-slabs in Ireland or Britain. The lecture will focus on the building history of the churches, the layout of the main churches and the crosses and the royal patronage involved. The cathedral, built in 909, is the oldest exactly dated mortared stone church in Ireland and the largest pre-Romanesque church in the country.

All welcome to both lectures.