Brian O’Looney and the role a resident of the Crumlin area played in Irish history

“We have been exploring the history of the buildings of Crumlin, including buildings that no longer exist, and the people who lived in them, and we have produced short biographies of many people associated with the area.”

This is what Aidan Hodson of the Crumlin Walkinstown History Group has to say regarding the group finding out about Brian O’Looney.

The group has invited Dr. Peter Daly to give a talk about Brian O’Looney at one of their meetings, and they arranged with Walkinstown Library to hold the talk at their August meeting at the library at 6:30 pm.

Brian O’ Looney collected, transcribed, and translated old Irish manuscripts.

He later became a member of the Royal Irish Academy and Professor of Irish Language, Literature and Archaeology at the Catholic University of Ireland.

A committed nationalist, he laid some of the foundations for an independent Ireland and is among those credited with inspiring the Celtic Revival.

The group discovered that O’Looney lived in a house called Grove Villa, which was on Old Country Road, and they posted a short biography of him on their social media.

Dr. Peter Daly subsequently made contact with the group and informed them he had written a biography of Brian O’Looney.

“We thought that it would be of interest to people to hear about Brian O’Looney and the role a resident of the Crumlin area played in Irish history,” continues Aidan.

The group invited Peter to give a talk about Brian O’Looney at one of their meetings, and they arranged with Walkinstown Library to hold the talk at their August 13th meeting at the library at 6:30 pm.

After this, the Crumlin Walkinstown History Group will have two talks with the Dublin Festival of History from September to October this year.

This includes a talk about the history of Raleigh Square, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, at the Walkinstown Library on October 4 at 2pm.

On October 11, at the same venue, at 2pm, the second talk will focus on the Kimmage Mills on the River Poddle. On behalf of the Crumlin Walkinstown History Group, Aidan would like to thank Dr. Peter Daly for agreeing to speak and Walkinstown Library for booking the event and hosting the arrangements.