Historian honoured for outstanding dedication

A dedicated local historian and educator has been honoured as the Cork Person of the Month for September.

Dermot Lucey, secretary of the Muskerry Local History Society and editor of its bi-annual local history journal, Times Past, received the honour in recognition of the lasting impact of his work.

Mr Lucey’s tireless efforts have fostered a deep appreciation and understanding of history within the community, making significant strides in both educational and historical spheres. His journey began in the early 1980s when, while teaching at Ballincollig Community School, he spearheaded the establishment of a local history society. His students' history projects garnered significant success, leading to the publication of their first journal in 1984, with Mr Lucey as both mentor and editor. This success laid the foundation for the Muskerry Local History Society, which Dermot was instrumental in founding.Mr Lucey played a pivotal role in the preservation and development of the Gunpowder Mills, contributing to the creation of the Regional Park in Ballincollig. As a lecturer on the Professional Masters of Education course at UCC and a major adviser on secondary-level history curricula, he was an advocate for maintaining history as a core subject at the Junior Certificate level. Throughout his career, Mr Lucey has authored several market-leading history textbooks, including ‘Making History’, ‘Modern Europe’, ‘The Wider World’, and ‘The Past Today’.

Fellow Cork historian, Cllr Kieran McCarthy, said: “Enormous work was pursued in the late 1980s and early 1990s by history teacher Dermot Lucey of Ballincollig Community School, who encouraged his students to document the changing village of Ballincollig in the twentieth century. That work culminated in a number of annual historical journals that shine a light on people, events, and transformations within Ballincollig over the century.”

Mr Lucey’s name will now go forward for possible selection as Cork Person of the Year.