When Cahersiveen was all owned by Trinity College, the academics made a mistake in trying to teach the locals how to grow potatoes, writes Anne Lucey, at the town's Celtic festival.

Until recently, at least one person in Cahersiveen, Co Kerry, a town founded by Daniel O'Connell, the Liberator, paid ground rent of 1s and 6d to Trinity College, Dublin.

Some might still do so, according to contributions from the audience at the end of a lecture by Dr Robert MacCarthy, dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, on the opening evening of the Cahersiveen Celtic Festival of Music and the Arts.

In its seventh year, the festival is a mix of culture, archaeology, fireworks and craic. It was devised "to give Cahersiveen a bit of "jizz", said Mr John O'Connor, a founding member.

He returned from Germany and Spain to teach English in the second-level college the town.

"In the past, people left Cahersiveen every August weekend; now people plan their holidays around the festival," Mr O'Connor said.

The festival was ambushed by history at every turn, delightfully so, giving a sense of uncanny correspondences which began on the opening day.

"I feel a bit like Rip Van Winkle: I know a lot about Cahersiveen in the 19th century but nothing about Cahersiveen today," began Dr MacCarthy, author of The Trinity College Estates, 1800-1923.

The good dean was right on cue. It seemed some things had hardly changed in two centuries. The windows in the ground floor of the old library where the lecture was taking place could not be opened for fear of them falling on to the street.

The paving on the footpaths was still bad, speakers noted. There were problems with planning.

Up to 1815, Cahersiveen was just a few mud huts. "O'Connell's town" grew with the statesman, haphazardly and in a long stretch in the direction of Derrynane. The ruins of O'Connell's birthplace at Carhan bridge are still for sale. The Department of Arts had been asked to purchase it but thinks the site is over-valued.

Cahersiveen was the only estate Trinity College tried to run directly, taking over the lease in 1865.

Its management was not a success "to put it mildly", Dr MacCarthy said.

For one thing, the fellows of Trinity tried to teach the Kerrymen how to sow potatoes. With the door ajar for air, the 100-strong audience were not only able to hear the lecture but also heard blasts from Don Baker and his band revving up for a free outdoor gig.

He was to give encore after encore, and then the fireworks from the literally named Over-The-Water kept the children wide-eyed with wonder for another 20 minutes.

"The idea of a festival such as this would be unheard of at that time, it occurs to me," Dr MacCarthy observed. The town was a long way from when the population ate the seed potatoes (much as they do in Malawi right now, Dr MacCarthy noted).

Bathed in sunshine and bunting, with a new posh marina, millions of public money has been attracted into Cahersiveen over the past five years.

A new library, a new social welfare office, a new €7 million school, a €5 million legal aid board building, around €8 million into the roads - a lot done in five years, and a lot more to do, it looks like.

The investment is not for votes, Mr O'Donoghue, a Government Minister since 1997, said at the weekend. "Sure everybody here votes for me anyway," he told an amused gathering at the marina.

Mr O'Donoghue is determined to right old wrongs in a geographically precise way. For decades thousands had left Cahersiveen.

"It is ironic, but entirely appropriate, that the most significant development in the town for more than 100 years should take place where the railway once stood.

"The reason for this is the last train out of Cahersiveen carried with it the hopes, dreams and aspirations of an entire generation of people," he said.

There were 40 entries in the busking competition on Saturday evening, and no need to "consult the festival office window" in the event of wet weather.

Just miles away in Killarney it poured rain all weekend.

Oysters and stout were handed out on the main street. Smoke rose from the coals of the barbecue outside O'Connor's butchers - one could have been in a Greek marketplace,such was the scent of the kebabs.

This too was right on cue. It may be a Celtic festival but "our intention is to build up ties between Cahersiveen and other countries", said Mr O'Connor.