It was wonderful to see fifty members and visitors attend the first lecture of 2025; our first meeting back in Down County Museum. The Curator of the museum, Dr Kris Reid, welcomed the Lecale & Downe Society back to this great attraction. The guest speaker was Professor Peter Gray, Director of the Institute of Irish Studies at Queen's University Belfast, who informed and entertained the audience about the life and times of William Sharman Crawford. Sharman Crawford was a leading agrarian and democratic radical, active in Ulster politics between the early 1830s and the 1850s. His impact as a radical reformer on Irish and British politics was profound, promoting the Ulster tenant right custom and being in favour of religious toleration. His association with the Chartist movement in England (he was elected MP for Rochdale in Lancashire) brought him into close contact with many of the reformers of the age, such as William Lovett and Feargus O'Connor. He also worked closely with reformers such as Joseph Sturge and John Bright. Locally, he inherited his father-in-law's estate at Rademon, Crossgar. This important political figure is buried locally at Kilmore and an obelisk commemorating his life was erected on the Rademon estate in the years after his death.
