The Festival is for everyone interested in history, covering topics from local archaeology to polar exploration, from the earliest times to now. It places Irish experience alongside wider European and global histories with a wide range of speakers.
Our theme is Boundaries setting them and crossing them. Those who set the boundaries of the state will feature when Iain Dale and three of the contributors to his collection of profiles of the Taoisigh talk about their subjects. Physical boundaries will feature in Cormac Moore on the Irish Boundary Commissio, and in Lewis Baston’s consideration of European borderlands.
The future shape of the Irish state will feature when Sam McBride and Mark Hennessy discuss a posssible united Ireland. Crossing social boundaries is a part of Elaine Farrell and Leanne McCormick's book Bad Bridgets while Gabriel Cooney considers the ultimate boundary, death in prehistoric Ireland.
This and so much more at the 2026 West Cork History Festival!
