The Annual General Meeting of the Trinity Retirement Association will take place in the Botany Lecture Theatre on Thursday 4th April 2019. The programme for the morning is as follows:

11.00 am: Guest Speaker, Joan Kavanagh: The title of Joan’s lecture is ‘ Women Sent to Van Diemen’s Land’

12.00 noon: Annual General Meeting followed by light refreshments. For catering purposes please complete the ticket section below if you are staying for the reception.

Joan Kavanagh Biography

I am currently an M.Litt candidate in Trinity College Dublin, researching Irish convicts transported to Van Diemen’s Land between 1840 and 1853. I have also been a teacher in inner City Dublin and an employee of Wicklow County Council, establishing the Wicklow Family History Centre. I was also involved in the research for the restoration project of Wicklow Gaol as a visitor interpretative centre. I transferred to Bray Town Council in 2003 and took early retirement in 2013. In 2015 together with Dr Dianne Snowden, University of Tasmania, I published a book Van Diemen’s Women: A History of Transportation to Tasmania, (The History Press Ireland, 2015). In July our book was awarded the Australian Historical Association Kay Daniels Award for original research into Australian convict history. I have edited a number of books including The Last County: The Emergence of Wicklow as a County 1606-1845, A Pictorial History of Rathdrum and Glen of the Two Lakes, Glendalough A Pictorial History. I am a member of Wicklow County Council’s Heritage Forum and the Glendalough Heritage Forum. I have also contributed numerous articles in local historical society journals in Wicklow and given papers in Ireland and at several Irish Studies Association of Australia and New Zealand (ISAANZ) conferences in Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. I gave a paper at the Irish Studies conference in the University of Sydney last November and carried out research while in Tasmania and Sydney.