Looking for something to do Wednesday night the 28th of January? Why not join us for a talk held by our ex-chairman and Arklow Chamber person of the year 2025 Jim Rees.

The talk will be held at 8pm sharp and early doors will open at 7pm, so be sure to get in early to secure your seat.

This talk will be based on KATHERINE O'SHEA - the cause or excuse in the fall of Charles Stewart Parnell?

Using Arklow as a focal point, Jim Rees will explore how attitudes to Parnell changed in the 1870s and 1880s. He will ask whether his affair with his long-term partner, Katherine O’Shea, was really the cause of the split in Irish nationalist politics or was it merely the excuse the growing anti-Parnellite faction used to get rid of him? Nowhere were these tensions greater than here in Arklow, with the town split right down the middle into pro- and anti-Parnellite factions. Was his fall from grace really so sudden, or did his enemies finally find a way to bring him down?

Look forward to seeing you there