Kildare military seminar in May

NEXT month Kildare County Council’s Library and Arts Service will host the ninth Irish military seminar, with events taking place in Naas, Kildare Town and Newbridge between Tuesday 13 May and Saturday 17 May.

All events are free to attend, but early booking is advised for the events in the Riverbank Arts Centre, Newbridge on Friday and Saturday (16-17 May), and you can reserve your free space on the Riverbank Arts Centre website.

The main event of the 2025 Irish military seminar will be held on the evening of Friday 16 May at the Riverbank Arts Centre, focusing on the Irish Defence Forces.

County council cathaoirleach Kevin Duffy will officially launch the weekend’s events at 7.30pm. This will be followed by a special event featuring former Lieutenant-Colonel Ray Lane, in conversation with Cathal Berry, who will discuss his wide range of experiences both at home and abroad dealing with landmines and other explosive devices, based on his fascinating best-selling memoir Only a Soldier Knows.

On the Saturday (17 May), the programme of talks at the Riverbank Arts Centre includes an exciting line-up of published authors exploring a range of topics including the Irish in the Resistance, the life and death of IRA leader Rory O’Connor, the Irish military in France from 1690 to 1815 and Colour and Conflict in Ireland between 1922 and 1945.

Other events include a special screening of two films on Tuesday 13 May at 7:pm at Naas Library and Cultural Centre: ‘The Rathbride Flying Column – Kildare in the Civil War’, produced by Prosperous Heritage Society, and a WWI short ‘The Land’, produced by FrameIt Productions.

This event will also feature author and film historian Wayne Byrne interviewing Joe Murphy about the making of a film documentary on Kildare’s Civil War and discussing with Joseph Butler the filming of a war movie shot in Kildare.

Kildare Community Library will host Michael Rowley’s photographic exhibition All the Queen’s Men and all the Queen’s Women: The portrait photographs of J F Church on the Curragh Camp 1860-1880, during library opening hours from Thursday 15 May onwards.

The full programme is available in all Kildare Libraries and also as a pdf, and the whole Irish Military Seminar is supported by Kildare County Council and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.