50 Years: Ireland and the EU - David McCullagh at Ardee Library

What to Expect

David McCullagh brings his talk “50 Years: Ireland and The EU” to Ardee Library on Saturday 29 August 2026 at 11am. Louth Libraries have booked him for two separate sessions in the county on the same day, this morning one in Ardee and an afternoon one in Dundalk, so anyone who cannot make the town-centre date has an alternative. Booking is required for the Ardee session and is taken by phone.

McCullagh is one of the more substantial figures in Irish broadcasting and historical writing: a long-serving RTÉ political correspondent and presenter, and the author of biographies of John A. Costello and a two-volume life of Éamon de Valera. The subject suits him. Ireland joined the European Economic Community on 1 January 1973 alongside Britain and Denmark, after a referendum the previous year, and half a century later the shape of the country is unrecognisable from the one that voted: the transformation of agriculture, the arrival of foreign direct investment, structural funds that built roads and universities, free movement, the single currency, and the strange position Ireland was left in after Brexit as the only English-speaking state in a Union it had joined in tandem with its nearest neighbour. That last point has particular weight in a border county like Louth, where the practical effects of both membership and Brexit are visible on the road north.

Good to Know

• Saturday 29 August 2026 at 11:00am
• Venue: Ardee Library, Ardee, Co. Louth
• Free, but booking is required: phone Ardee Library on 041 6859023
• Speaker: David McCullagh, broadcaster and historian
• A second session of the same talk runs at Dundalk Library on the same day at 3:00pm
• Ardee Library also runs a monthly adult book club, a Saturday board games club and a Thursday conversational Irish group

Getting There

Ardee sits on the N2 in mid-Louth, roughly 20km west of Dundalk and 25km north-west of Drogheda, and the library is in the town centre off the main street. Bus Éireann route 100 between Dublin and Derry and Local Link services serve the town from Drogheda, Dundalk and Slane. Drivers coming from the M1 should take junction 14 and follow the R170, or the N33 link from junction 15. There is on-street parking in the town centre and public car parking a short walk from the library.