Wicklow Historical Society Talk - 30th Nov 2015

The next lecture in the Wicklow Historical Society winter lecture series  will be given by Seamus O’Brien.

The talk will cover the history and development of the Kilmacurragh Estate from its monastic beginnings, through to the arrival of the Acton family in Ireland in Cromwellian times and from there to the building of Kilmacurragh House in 1697.

The lecture will also focus on the development of the gardens, the family’s time in British India, connections with the Royal (now National) Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, Kew in London & the rise to international fame of the gardens under Thomas and Janet Acton.

The Ball-Actons, the Great War, the death of the brothers, the demise of the demesne, neglect and overgrowth. The return of the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin. Restoration.

Seamus O’Brien is Head Gardener at the National Botanic Gardens, Kilmacurragh, Co. Wicklow. He is Ireland’s leading authority on the flora of China and has travelled widely across North America, Chile, China, the Himalaya, Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand to study the flora of those regions. He is author of the award winning In the Footsteps of Augustine Henry and is currently writing a book on the Himalayan pursuits of the English Botanist, Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker. Seamus contributes to a wide number of Journals including Kew’s Curtis’s Botanical Magazine and he is the first ever Irish member of the Royal Horticultural Society’s (UK) Woody Plant Committee.

 The Meeting will take place in the De La Salle Pastoral Centre, Wicklow Town (http://www.wicklowparish.ie/delasalle_pastoral_centre.html) on Monday 30 November, beginning at 8.00 pm.  All Welcome!  

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