Heritage Notes - 11 March 2011

Royal Visit?

With the news of a visit by Queen Elizabeth II to Ireland next May now being virtually certain, our picture this week is a vivid record of the only time we know for sure that a British monarch visited Cappoquin. To the best of our research capabilities, this was in 1904, when King Edward VII toured County Waterford during a week or so in Ireland. As the image shows, a decorative arch of what looks like laurel was erected at the western entrance to the town and many folks turned out to see the unique event, unsurprisingly, as the king travelled to Lismore. This was a time of great hope that Ireland would soon be granted Home Rule – it took a further ten years, in fact – though the mere fact that a motor car was about to pass through the town in 1904 would have been enough cause for serious curiosity. The picture comes from the collection of the late and legendary John Fraher.

Cúpla Focail agus Lá Fhéile Phádraig

With St. Patrick’s Day just around the corner and all hands on deck in many clubs and organizations trying to make our third parade the biggest and best yet, our Heritage Group has provided dozens of fliers in local hostelries and other venues around town, providing simple guides to conversational Irish. Hopefully, some folks will be inspired to give the language a new go with the help of these fliers. Go n-éirí an t-ádh libh.

Town Twinning

Following the successful visit of friends from Chanat La Mouteyre last June when they joined in the Cornerstone Carnival activities with very obvious enjoyment the next exchange will see three people from Cappoquin taking up the invitation to enjoy the hospitality of our French Twins and celebrate the St Patrick’s Day period in the hinterland of Clermont Ferrand.

On Thursday next Anna Ní Fhiannusa, John McGrath and Keith Dransfield will take the good wishes of us here in Cappoquin all the 1044km by plane and train to Chanat where, at 800 metres high, they are promised a warm welcome even though there is plenty of snow still on the ground. They have been warned to bring stout shoes so obviously they will not be spending all their time sheltering indoors. Looking through the recently-arrived programme for the trip, the group will visit a number of local monastic sites as well as the world famous volcanic formation, the Puy de Dome near the home of Volvic mineral water. The menu looks pretty good too, mind you, with various local wines and cheeses featuring prominently in the detail.

We wish them Bon Voyage, ask them to give very best wishes to all in Chanat and hope it won’t be long before we are welcoming the Chanatois back here.

Cornerstone Carnival

Following a productive second planning meeting of the Carnival committee last week, the dates for this year’s carnival have been confirmed as June 24-26 inclusive, more or less the same weekend as last year. It is really terribly important that any club or organization wishing to be involved in the programme attends the planning meetings at this stage, to avoid complications later. The next meeting of the committee, which means of all interested representatives, is in the Toby Jug on Monday, March 21^st at 7.30.

Civic Link AGM

A further reminder that the annual general meeting of Civic Link will be held in the parochial hall, Cappoquin on Wednesday, March 23^rd next. We will have fuller details in next week’s papers but please put this date in your diaries and come and have your say on what we do, and don’t do to your satisfaction.