Dress up as a monk or a Viking to celebrate the history of Round Tower

Clondalkin’s Round Tower and the area’s historical worth will be celebrated with a two-venue event this Sunday, August 25, 2024, during this year’s National Heritage Week, reports Alessia Micalizzi.

“From the Rally to Right Now!” is taking place at the Round Tower Visitor Centre and at the Áras Chrónáin Irish Cultural Centre on Orchard Road, from 1pm to 4pm.

Locals are invited to show up “dressed as monks, Vikings, from any period in the thousand years of the history of the Round Tower,” or to wear anything colourful and fancy that can celebrate Clondalkin’s heritage.

Along with free entertainment – music, exhibitions, face-painting and best-dressed prizes – free guided tours of the Round Tower and the Cultural Centre will be available.

Community organisations and heritage groups will be happy to spread information about Clondalkin’s history at their stalls.

At around 1.45pm, SDCC Mayor Baby Pereppadan will attend the event at the Round Tower and then likely engage with local organis-ations at the Heritage Showcase on Orchard Road.

Local boxing star Bernard Dunne will follow, by giving a short address at the Cultural Centre around 3.00 pm. Locals will have the opportunity to take pictures with him later on at the Round Tower Visitor Centre.

Besides bringing fun and special guests to the area, the event is “in keeping with this year’s Heritage Week theme of Connections, Routes and Networks,” explained the organisers from Clondalkin Round Tower Heritage Group.

Its name “From the Rally to Right Now!” recalls the first “Rally Round the Tower” established in 2004 with the aim to galvanize community support for the local heritage.

If 1,400 people attended back then, twenty years later the expectations aren’t any lower.

In the meantime, over fifteen organisations have been established to work on celebrating Clondalkin’s history all year long.