Photo: Valerie O’SullivanTHIS year marks the 38th year of the annual Killarney National Park ‘Autumn Talks Series’ 2026, set to return to Killarney House Auditorium (V93 HE3C) commencing Thursday, 8th October, and will continue each Thursday night for six weeks.
The popular weekly event will take place at Killarney House Auditorium at 8pm. The talks series is free, seating is limited, it will also be live-streamed via the Killarney National Park Facebook page @killarneynationalpark
Kicking off the Autumn Talks is multi-award winning Photographer James Crombie, Named PPI AIB Irish Press Photographer of the Year in 2021, 2022, and 2025, he works as a staff photographer with Inpho Sports Photography in Dublin.
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James is best known for his iconic images of the starling murmurations reaching millions of people, documented at Lough Ennell, Mullingar, County Westmeath.
Photographer James Crombie image of the starling murmuration at Lough Ennell, Mullingar, County Westmeath.‘Exploring the Annals of Inisfallen’ by Pádraig Ó Macháin, Professor of Modern Irish, UCC, will prove to be another very popular evening.
Currently on public display at the Glucksman Art Gallery, UCC. The monks documented their lives and a legacy of early Irish history, as it was known to them. Almost a thousand years old and hand-written in Irish and Latin, the 57 vellum leaves of The Annals of Inisfallen document the history of Ireland before the arrival of St Patrick and afterwards.
The Annals present a continuous, year-by-year narrative of death, conflict, dramatic weather events and unusual occurrences in one of the most important surviving records of medieval Ireland.
Other talks of notable interest are ‘Shadows of Splendour: 300 years of Kenmare House’ by Rachel Kavanagh of Killarney House. She will give a fascinating account of the arrival of the Kenmare’s and their legacy, from their time at Ross Castle, to the splendour of ‘the mansion’ to Knockreer House and Killarney House.
The 2nd talk is ‘The importance of Native Honey Bees and other Pollinators and current threats to their Survival’ by Prof. Grace McCormack, UCG.
Thursday 22nd October is the much loved Dinis Cottage, ‘Going Green’ by Kerry Corkery, Sustainability Engineer/ TEM and finishing the series with Dr Dheeraj Rathote, Senior Research Officer Teagasc, who will speak on ‘Securing the Future of Ireland’s Ash and Elm: From Conservation to Recovery’.
Long time organiser of the Talks Series and recently retired NPWS Conservation Ranger, Padruig O’Sullivan, said; ”The success of the talks is the incredible engagement with our community and in recent years, live-streaming the events has greatly enhanced the experience with audiences joining us from all parts of the globe. The diversity of speakers stemming from every walk of life with challenging and engaging topics, always an invaluable source of new information to share.”
