While researching in the Local Studies Centre in Ennis, our society secretary, Arlene White, discovered a treasure trove of cassette recordings made in the early 1990s. This was a community employment scheme which invited older people living in Killaloe and Ballina at this time to tell the stories of their lives lived here, and be taped doing so. These memories went back a long way, and are so detailed.

Arlene has been studying these tapes for the past six months, and has chosen a selection of recordings to play for us on the 22nd of August. With the help of Deborah Dudgeon, fellow committee member, she will pair these vignettes with a slideshow of relevant photographs or documents from the era being described. Her work with these tapes has won the society a Creative Ireland grant, to digitise them, and make them known in the local community with this event. Congratulations Arlene!

As well as being an incredible society secretary, Arlene is a heritage graduate of GMIT, and now manages Clare Walks Ltd. Clare Walks brings sensitive tourism to remote areas of Clare through two walking trails – the East Clare Way and the Mid Clare Way.

We will see you on the evening of Wednesday 22nd August at 7.30pm (new later starting time!) in the back room of our venue at Wood and Bell café. Wood and Bell continue to provide our Society with this venue for free, and we thank them for this sponsorship. If you want to thank them for this, why not try out their new wine bar on Friday and Saturday evenings? We have tried it, and can recommend it!

Entry to our August lecture is FREE as usual, and everyone of all ages and levels of interest is welcome.

Help us promote this event by clicking ‘Going’ on the Facebook event here, or sharing this blogpost, or even by putting up a poster for us – you can print out one from this link. See you at the lecture!

Nothing quite brings to life the story of the past like the little details, and these receipts were full of the little bits and pieces that made up the daily life of one man. The receipts dated from the 1920s to the 1950s, and showed the arc of his life, with the last receipt containing a set of funeral expenses. We examined each one, front and back (the reverses were often very ornate!), scanned them, and then handed them back to the owner. He has generously allowed us to share a selection with you here, and they appear below. Can you match them up with the shops still in existence on Main Street and beyond?! If you have any more information on any of these shops at this time, please do get in touch with us as we would love to hear about them!

You can read more about Saturday Morning History Club and our scanning service here. Dates for the next couple of months are 30th June, 14th July, 28th July, 11th August, and 25th August. If you would like to participate in our scanning project, but cannot make Saturday mornings, please just get in contact with us at killaloeballinalhs@gmail.com; we are very flexible!

We started our free fortnightly Saturday morning informal research session in Killaloe Library last month, and are glad to report that it is going very well! Here are some photos from the Saturday just gone. We usually have around five to ten people. We read up on our own local history interests, seek help from each other when we need it, and generally enjoy a coffee and a bit of a chat!

Our next one is on the 24th March, and you can find all the details, and a list of dates for the rest of 2018, at this link. See you there!

Do you love reading about local history, chasing elusive photographs or dates, and collecting information on areas that interest you? Do you ever wish that you could do this in a cosy library, with a cup of coffee, shelves bursting with relevant titles, a librarian on hand to answer your search queries, and a bunch of likeminded people to bounce ideas off? You’ve come to the right place then!

Every second Saturday of the month, we will host Saturday Morning History Club in Killaloe Library.

This is not a class or a workshop. This is just a casual getting together of people who want to do a bit of study on their own topic of interest, and look up once every so often for a bit of chat. A bit like the knitting group, except with books and pens instead of yarn and needles!

Scanning Service

We are also thrilled to announce that we are starting a scanning service at these club mornings (from June 2018). We will have a portable scanner with us. If you have any old photographs or documents that you would be happy for us to scan, please bring them along. We will then share these files, with your permission, with Clare and Tipperary Library Archives so that our local area is represented in the county heritage. Any items of historical interest would be most welcome! If you can’t make it on the Saturday mornings, just bring your item/s along to one of our lectures.

As it is every second Saturday morning, the dates for the year are:

10th March
24th March
7th April
21st April
(5th May is a Bank Holiday weekend so the Library is closed)
19th May
(2nd June is a Bank Holiday weekend so the Library is closed)
16th June
30th June
14th July
28th July
11th August
25th August
8th September
22nd September
6th October
20th October
3rd November
17th November
1st December
15th December
(29th December the Library is closed for Christmas)

The times are 10am to 12noon, although you can drop in or out when you want! We finish at 12 noon so that anyone who is a member of the Killaloe Community Garden can get there in time for the Saturday working hours there.

Saturday Morning History Club is FREE to attend, and no membership of either the Society or the Library is required. Just bring your curiosity and your notebook!

We would like to thank Killaloe Library for hosting us. See you there!