Muskerry Local History Society are organising an illustrated lecture on ‘Ethnic Cleansing in the Lee Valley – Medieval-style’ by Dr. Paul McCotter, UCC., on Tuesday, 18 February, at 8pm in Ballincollig Rugby Club. Research carried out by Dr McCotter shows how the Normans cleared out Gaelic clans from the Lee Valley but in turn the Gaelic clans rose up against Norman settlers with such ferocity that they butchered many of them and sent the rest seeking the safety of Cork City. Dr McCotter states that many hundreds, if not thousands, of Norman settlers were murdered as part of the ethnic cleansing of the Lee Valley, a sizeable proportion of the settler population at the time. Some were so frightened that they fled back to England.
