An evening with Professor Terrence Dooley

The next Cahans Meeting House event will be an evening with Professor Terence Dooley of Maynooth University on Friday, April 24 (8pm) on the history of the Irish Land Commission, with reference to County Monaghan and, in particular, the Ballybay area.

For most of its existence from 1881 to 1992, the Land Commission was the most important state body operating out of rural Ireland where its long tentacles spread into every nook and cranny. It began life as a regulator of fair rents but soon evolved into the great facilitator of land transfer, and by extension the main instigator and architect of rural reform.

This lecture will look at the impact of the Land Commission on Co Monaghan, and, where appropriate, on the Ballybay and surrounding areas. It will provide historical background to the Commission's establishment, before examining the role it played in land transfer up to independence, and in land redistribution and migration schemes after 1922.

The lecture will conclude with a discussion on the possible reasons why its archives have not yet been opened to the research public (except on an extremely limited basis.) While no one has officially admitted that they might reveal some political corruption and skulduggery, it is a possibility that is hard to dismiss.

Terence Dooley is Full Professor of History at Maynooth University and Director of the Centre for the Study of Historic Irish Houses and Estates.