Annaghdown Heritage Society is delighted welcome Martin O’Halloran to present a talk on the migration of families from Co. Galway to Meath on Wednesday, November 9 at 8 p.m. In the period from 1935 to 1940, 63 families from County Galway alone were relocated by the Land Commission in an enormous social engineering project. Over the period from 1881 to 1983 migrations such as these impacted hundreds of thousands of families and more than one million people. Families were relocated from Annaghdown to Meath as late as the 1960’s.

Martin O’Halloran is the son of a migrant family from Clonbur who were resettled, together with twenty-three other families, in Allenstown, County Meath in 1940 by the Land Commission, with the dual aims of redistribution of land and to establish an Irish speaking colony in the east of the country. The title of Martin’s talk is ‘Everyone knows a Land Commission Family’.  Martin’s first book, The Lost Gaeltacht won an award in 2021 at the Heritage section of Listowel writers’ week. He is currently working on his second book Seanchas Drishaghaun, a collection of stories, customs, old sayings and lore based on the Dúchas 1937 Schools’  Collection and his third book Band of Cousins which explores the diapsora descended from his great great great grandparents on the shores of Loughs Mask and Corrib.

Martin has meticulously researched the reasons why migrations took place, why families were selected and why they choose to move and the implications for these decisions for them and their descendants. Martin who holds degrees from Trinity College Dublin and the University of London was chief executive of the Health and Safety Authority, a company director and is currently President of the Institute of Public Administration, and Chairman of the Audit and Risk Committee of the Department of Social Protection. He is passionate about lifelong
learning and has a keen interest in migrations within Ireland, land resettlement and the work of the Irish Land Commission and Local History.

The presentation will take place in the Heritage Room, Old Girls’ School, Corrandulla and will also be available online via Zoom. All are welcome to attend.

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/4244845743