NEXT WEEKEND MARKS the 150th anniversary of the Fenian Rising and the Battle of Tallaght.

Local historian Seán Bagnall will present a talk to commemorate the event at the county council library.

The Dublin Fenian uprising in March 1867 saw several thousand members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood making their way to gather on Tallaght Hill.

They wanted to draw the military out of Dublin while a separate rising took place in the city. A small contingent engaged in battle at the police station in Tallaght village.

TheIrishStory.com reports that police sergeant at Crumlin said, “the Dublin road is crowded with young men, all taking the direction of Tallaght”.

It also describes the battle as “a mere brush between the police and the Fenians trying to get to Tallaght Hill”.

Fourteen armed officers were sent out to the crossroads of the Main Road and Greenhills Road, where a battle with about 40 Fenians took place.

A spokesperson for the South Dublin County Council described the Battle of Tallaght as “really just a skirmish in the village”.

“The large gathering of up to eight thousand men on Tallaght Hill was left leaderless, and eventually dispersed. The hoped for rising petered out.”

Local historian Seán Bagnall will give a lecture on ‘The Battle of Tallaght’ on Thursday 2 March at 7pm at the County Library, Tallaght.

An exhibition on the Battle of Tallaght can also be viewed at the County Library, Tallaght from 2 -31 March during library opening hours.