In the year that is dominated by commemorations of the 1798 rising, a community group in east Tipperary is determined that the convulsion which came 50 years after that will not be forgotten.
The Young Ireland 'rebellion' of 1848, an episode in which the educational and opinion-forming influence of an alternative press was signally demonstrated, is to be celebrated by Slieveardagh Rural Development (SRD) with a major festival.
The Slieveardagh area lies in the triangle between Thurles, Kilkenny and Cashel. The names of William Smith O'Brien, John Mitchel, Thomas Francis Meagher, Charles Gavan Duffy, John Blake Dillon, and the other young intellectuals who promoted the Repeal movement as the Famine raged are still vivid there.
The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, is to attend SRD's ambitious 1848 Festival this summer which will have an elaborate historical pageant as its centrepiece.
Because the penal colonies of the Australian state of Tasmania became the enforced 'home' of many of the Young Irelanders in the aftermath of the rising's failure, great interest persists there in this historical period.
About 250 people from Tasmania are to visit Slieveardagh during the festival, and some of them claim descent from the exiled leaders.
SRD has been working in co-operation with FAS and Barrow-Nore-Suir Rural Development to construct an extensive 150th commemoration programme over nine days at the end of July and the beginning of August.
Lectures, traditional music and dance, and an old-rules 21-a-side hurling match between Tipperary and Kilkenny will figure.
Slieveardagh has a strong tradition in athletics. The Ballincurry Hare, John-Joe Barry, was a famous native son. In honour of this association the organisers are promoting The Rebellion Route, a tough 11-mile road race covering the journey of the rebels from Mullinahone to the site of the rebellion at The Commons, Ballingarry.
SRD also plans to produce a drama-documentary film of the rising, and doubtless the seminal role of the campaigning newspaper, the Nation, conceived by Dillon, Duffy and Thomas Davis, will be recalled.