A new Summer School is to open to honour the principal of the Four Masters who drafted annals which tell the history of Ireland from the earliest times.
A simple Franciscan Friar, Brother Mícheál Ó Cléirigh, is to be honoured at a school in Rossnowlagh, close to his birthplace about 1590 at Creevy, outside Ballyshannon.
Brother O’Cleirigh, is credited with “rescuing the Gaelic past from oblivion.”
A committee has been working for several months to set up a summer school to honour him and his partners.
The inaugural event will be held on Saturday 17th May this year in the Franciscan Friary Campus at Rossnowlagh.
The committee has been supported by the Franciscan Friars in Ireland and by University College Dublin’s Mícheál Ó Cléirigh Institute, where the archives related to the Four Masters and many other priceless documents are held.
The first Mícheál Ó Cléirigh School will have talks and discussions on Mícheál Ó Cléirigh’s life and times.
The day-long event will include discussions on The Franciscans in Donegal; The Plantation in the Ballyshannon Area; and St. Anthony’s College in Louvain.
The keynote address on “The Annals of The Four Masters.” will be delivered by Dr. Bernadette Cunningham of the Royal Irish Academy.
No identifiable pictorial record of Bro O’Cleirigh exists. So pupils of primary schools will take part in an art competition to paint a picture of what they believe he looked like. The prize-giving for the competition will take place during the Summer School.
A tour to Mícheál Ó Cléirigh’s birthplace at Kilbarron Castle in Creevy has also been organised by the committee for May 17th.
The day will conclude with a ‘School’ dinner in the Sandhouse Hotel in Rossnowlagh followed by entertainment and the specially-formed ‘School Club’ at the hotel.
The Mícheál Ó Cléirigh School Committee welcomes everybody from the local area and from farther afield to all the events of the day which are free, except for meals.
They are offering an invitation to all to ‘come and join us.’
Information about the School can be found on Facebook Micheal O Cleirigh or from 0873863681.