“Yeats and Yeatses”

Professor Margaret Harper, Glucksman Professor in Contemporary Writing in English, University of Limerick

• 📅Wednesday, October 11, 2023
• 🕥14:00 - 16:00
• 🏟UL Access Campus, Unit J, LEDP, Roxboro Road(map)

This talk will look at the very different “Yeatses” inhabited by the poet and playwright William Butler Yeats over the course of his long career. Is “Yeats" the young love poet or Celtic revivalist of the 1880s and 1890s? the theatre founder of the 1900s or political writer of the period of Irish and world war? the elder statesman of the 1920s or the harsh modernist of the 1930s? We will talk about all these “Yeatses”, and also the various Yeatses of his illustrious family: his painter father, brother, and daughter; and his sisters who ran a press and arts and crafts business. Mostly, though, we will look closely at a few of the poems that .

Margaret Mills Harper is Glucksman Professor in Contemporary Writing in English at the University of Limerick. She is a specialist on modern and contemporary literature from Ireland and the United States, and she has a particular interest in Yeats.

Limber up with Joan, Relax with Michele

Joan Conran and Michele Ryan

• 📅Monday, October 23, 2023
• 🕥10:00 - 11:30
• 🏟Zoom Meeting(map)

Join Joan and Michele with your weights, mats and water in the comfort of your own home each Monday at 10.00 hrs. While these classes have now been suspended for the Summer, they will resume again in Octoberk 2023 as these online weekly classes are proving hugely popular with so many of our members. A Zoom link will be sent each week to all paid-up members.

Let us know by email at u3alimerick@gmail.com if you want to be a member. The annual membership fee is €20 per person or €30 for a couple. Membership is from 1st November to 31st October. The contact for paying is Maura Turner at maura.turner1@gmail.com. If you have difficulty finding the €20, just let Maura know.

Joan Conran, a U3A member, is an experienced fitness instructor and qualified to work with older folk. She will work on issues of mobility, strength and balance designed to ease your limbs and muscles safely into action.

Michele Ryan, another U3A member, is an experienced Yoga teacher and will offer a guided deep relaxation to complement the physical exercises. For this you will need somewhere comfortable to lie or sit on.

U3A Limerick Annual General Meeting and Charity Fundraiser

• 📅Wednesday, October 25, 2023
• 🕥14:00 - 16:00
• 🏟UL Access Campus, Unit J, LEDP, Roxboro Road(map)

The U3A Limerick Annual General Meeting will take place on Wednesday 25th October 2023 at 14.00 hrs in the UL Access Campus so please save that date for your diary

As with all voluntary organisations, the smooth and effective running of all events depends on the co-operation and clear, cohesive communication between committee members and all other members. If you feel that you would like to be part of the Committee and are able to commit a little bit of time and work, please let us know at u3alimerick@gmail.com or talk to any committee member as soon as possible. Give some thought to what talents, skills, experience you might be willing to bring to your U3A association. As a member of U3A Limerick, you are very much entitled to have a say in how the group is run, what the priorities of the group should be and how the Committee can better serve its members. Now is your chance to have your say!

The meeting will be combined with a Charity Fundraising Coffee Event. The recipient of this years fundraiser will be the Society of St Vincent de Paul. The focus of the Society is on a practical approach to dealing with poverty, alleviating its effects on individuals and families through working primarily in person-to-person contact by a unique system of family visitation and seeking to achieve social justice and equality of opportunity for all citizens. Ann Bourke, who is the Regional Coordinator for the Society will give a short overview of their work in the Mid West. Every contribution that each one of us makes on the day, no matter how large or small, will help to make a difference in our own area.

Do please try and come and make this an enjoyable and social gathering for us all, as well as a meeting. It's so very important for us to get together, socialise and celebrate life. And we promise tea, coffee and cake for all!

The Sarsfield Homecoming Project

Dr Loïc Guyon, Honorary Consul of France in Limerick.

• 📅Wednesday, February 14, 2024
• 🕥14:30 - 16:00
• 🏟UL Access Campus, Unit J, LEDP, Roxboro Road(map)

A group dedicated to locating and repatriating the remains of Patrick Sarsfield - who led the Jacobite army during the siege of Limerick in 1691 - have made further progress following three years of research.

The Sarsfield Homecoming Project is led by French Honorary Consul in Limerick Dr Loïc Guyon, Head of the Department of French studies at Mary Immaculate College, along with Alliance Francais Limerick.

Dr Guyon launched the project in 2020 with the aim of trying to locate, identify and repatriate Sarsfield's remains to Ireland.

Sarsfield, also known as the 1st Earl of Lucan, played a pivotal role in wars of 1690, the siege of Limerick in 1691 leading the army of King James against the Williamite army at the city's famous King John's Castle and in negotiating the famous treaty of Limerick in 1691 which ended that war.

Following the signing of the treaty over 10,000 Irish Jacobite soldiers and their families fled in exile to France, known in history as the Flight of the Wild Geese, and many including Sarsfield, went on to fight for France in wars against Britain.

Many descendants of the Wild Geese went on to become prominent families throughout French society down the centuries, families such as the McMahons, Quins, McCarthys, Clarkes and Lynches.

Sarsfield was badly injured and died in the battle of Landen in 1693 and was believed to be buried in Belgium. Dr Guyon has established that Sarsfield was buried at the Church of Saint Martin d'Outre-Meuse in Huy in Belgium.

His further study of the parish registers has revealed that a total of 24 people were buried inside the church over the relevant 106 years, but of the 24, only 10 were men of the same age group as Sarsfield, eight of whom have been identified. In addition they were all buried individually which will assist the work of archaeologists.

An archaeological excavation of the site at the church is the next stage of the Sarsfield Homecoming Project who have now engaged the Limerick based Aegis Archaeology company who have experience of such excavations in both Ireland and Europe, to further help the project.

Dr Guyon said "The authorities in Huy have been very encouraging in our work about locating and identifying the remains of Patrick Sarsfield”

“We aim to raise around €90,000 in funding to carry out the work, but we will endeavour to do so by a crowdfunding and sponsorship campaign.

"While the first aim of the Sarsfield Homecoming Project is to find and repatriate the remains of Patrick Sarsfield, a secondary aim has always been to bring Sarsfield and the whole historical episode of the Flight of the Wild Geese back into the spotlight and educate, particularly the younger generation, about this important part of Limerick’s history and the history of the ties between Ireland and France”