September will be University Month. It will mark the fact that the Hole in the Wall, as part of the extensive Archer Mansion 17 – 19 High St was where the students registered for the first Irish Catholic University College in 1686. Bishop James Phelan’s initiative was quenched by the Williamites after the Battle of the Boyne (around 1692). (It would take another 100 years before the English agreed to support third level education with the founding of Maynooth (1795).
The Hole in the Wall has been a central aspect of the warmth and homeliness that the organisers of the Arts Festival and its international performers have experienced in Kilkenny. It has the potential to be a great asset to life in Kilkenny and might yet achieve its legendary status as a supper house – of international flavour in time. Let’s hope it survives the dream.
September (evenings at 8.00 pm) (Week one)
1st Thursday
Launch: 30 – 30: University Month - 30 lectures in 30 days: Michael Conway
The Royal College of St Canice
2nd Friday
Lady Desart: Gabriel Murray & Michael Conway
3rd Saturday
10,000….. Prof Richard Crampton, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
4th Sunday
Joyce on Joyce and the Joyces. John Joyce
5th Monday
Henri Clarke, Duc de Feltre, Napoleon’s Miinister for War: Michael Conway
6th Tuesday
Elizabethan Kilkenny: Michael Conway
7th Wednesday
The Kearney/Obama family: World Premiere of Documentary: Gabriel Murray