Heritage Notes - 11 February 2011

Fifty years ago…

In this week’s picture, we have some of the cast and organising committee of the Cappoquin Hurling and Football Clubs’ fourth annual concert and play, at the Desmond Cinema on March 12^th 1961. The show featured a number of acts by local school children, with two one-act plays called ‘After Hours’ and ‘The Pawn Shop’. In the photograph here we have: Front Row from left: John Fraher, Ned Lonergan and Billy Conway. Back Row from left: Eddie Fraher, Michael Fraher, John Smith and Arthur Murray. Both Eddie and John are looking a bit worse for wear in the picture, but don’t worry – it’s just make-up!

Heritage Notes - 4 February 2011

Past Times

Our heritage photo this week comes from Ger Mason’s archive and shows the famous garage owner, Mick Sargent, standing at his petrol pumps on Main Street during the 1960s. What may not be clearly visible is some of the detail from the background. When magnified, you can see that Bridie Gallagher was due to perform in the Boathouse, according to the poster in the window, while the price of petrol was also interesting. For £5, you could buy 11 gallons of ESSO. If we take it that £5 was worth about €6.35 in euro, and 11 gallons is the same as about 50 litres, that makes the price of a litre of petrol in the 1960s at around 12 cent in today’s money. Ouch!

Heritage Notes - 28 January 2011

Library Celebrations

2010 sees the centenary of the Carnegie Free Library at Cappoquin. Built and opened in 1910 on a site donated by Sir John Keane, the local library has stood the test of time and economics in excellent shape, and it will be great to see it reach this milestone during the year. We hope to have more complete details about any plans for anniversary celebrations in the coming weeks, and know that this is something that a lot of people feel very positively about.

In the Money

Many thanks to the various bodies who assisted Civic Link projects towards the end of 2010 with financial aid, much of it unexpected but all of it very welcome in these cash-strapped times. The Foróige club benefited from two grants from Waterford County Council, totalling €1559 in all, which will be a great support to its efforts to provide activities and supports to our teenagers. Civic Link has also been successful in its first efforts to promote the Inch area, with a promise of €1250 from the Local Agenda 21 fund, for wildlife signage and possibly a seat at the car park adjacent to the Red Bridge. We are going to visit the Fenor Bog in the Spring in search of more ideas for enhancing and preserving this unique natural area at the river bend, a project which has been identified for implementation under the 2010 town plan. A note also to inform people that the Heritage Group sold over 600 Christmas cards with Cappoquin themes in the four-week spell before Christmas, netting a profit of over €200 and helping people to send a bit of the old place to friends and relatives around the globe. Thanks for the support. Lastly, but by no means least, our thanks to everyone at Cappoquin Fire Station for their contribution of €400 to Civic Link’s funds for community support, part of the proceeds from their pre-Christmas ladder climb. It all counts, big time!

Keep in Touch

Just a reminder that you can keep in touch with all Civic Link goings on at www.cappoquin.net or join us on facebook, where you will find we have 206 ‘friends’ at the last count, with 338 following the heritage group also.

Heritage Notes - 14 January 2011

Weather history

Happy new year to everyone. After many investigations and discussions, it looks fairly certain at this point that the recent spell of cold weather, which caused the Blackwater to freeze at Cappoquin in huge solid masses, was the most extreme on record locally. There were very cold winters in 1963 and 1947, but the freezing river was certainly a new one locally, by all accounts. Celsius and Farenheit measuring scales only go back two or three hundred years and for sure we have no record of anything colder locally from them either.

Our picture this week is of the river as seen from the Rock, looking across at Lefanta. The spot on the far bank where the boat and pontoon are is one of those where the very first ‘Cappoquin people’ operated from back in 6000 BC or so. This has been documented by archaeologists at UCC since the 1980s. At that point, the river also probably had large chunks of ice in it like you can see here, as the ice age was ending and the earliest people began to make their way up rivers to hunt and fish. So, the only thing we can say for certain is that the scene you are looking at here HAS been seen before, except that the boat was probably a dug out canoe, the cameraman (if there had been one) would have been wearing animal skins, and it was at least 8,000 years ago!

Heritage Notes - 24 December 2010

The Cappoquin Christmas Collection set of cards is now in the black as far as costs are concerned and we hope to build on this initiative next year and help people to send just a little bit of home to those who may be far away. May we thank everyone in the place who organised an event or a game, a concert or a market, a carnival or a parade for the marvellous work you are all doing to keep our community going. Our picture this week is from our top-selling Christmas card, a painting by Noel O’Donoghue of a night-time carol scene at the Square. Best wishes to all for Christmas and the New Year

Heritage Notes - 17 December 2010

It's all go at present in the Cornerstone town.

The Farmers' Market brought a lovely buzz to the old town centre on Saturday last, with a great range of local produce on sale and an equally great opportunity for people to meet and chat. Santa surprised us yet again this year, not by arriving (which was expected) but by arriving on a lawnmower-driven sleigh thanks to the genius of chief elf, Michael O'Rourke. Full details next week. Rumour has it that Santa even attended the Saturday night performance of the wonderful Cinderella Story at the Community Centre (in a fairly good disguise), before visiting Bunscoil Gleann Sídheain the following day as well.

In other news, there is still be a place available on the Town Twinning visit to Chanat in mid March - contact Keith Dransfield for details.

We have had one taker on the offer of an allotment near the town so far - Joe Prendergast will gladly deal with any further enquiries on this one.

The Christmas cards are selliing like hot cakes, with Noel O'Donoghue's painting of the Square about as hard to get as one of Willy Wonka's golden tickets at this stage - and just as valuable.

Finally, the Foroige club are off to the ice skating rink this Friday evening, a refixture from the cancelled event two weeks ago - isn't it real irony when a trip to an ice skating rink had to be cancelled before because of...ice!

That's it for now. Christmas round-up next week

The Michael Cavanagh Society

The photograph shows Cavanagh Society members.

Front row from left:Ann Kiely, Imelda Cavanagh, Very Rev. Fr Robert Arthure.

Back row from left: Brendan Kiely, Kevin McCarthy, Tony McCarthy, Tom Cavanagh.

The launch of a new book, “Michael Cavanagh His Life & Selected Works” in the Cappoquin Community Centre’s Cavanagh Hall on Saturday, 27th. November, 2010 was testament to the large number of hardy souls who braved snow and ice to pay tribute to one of the town’s most illustrious sons. No greater contrast could have been had than with that of the gloriously sunny June day in 2001 when Cappoquin was at its most splendid for the unveiling of the Michael Cavanagh Monument at the Square.

However, the bright lights of the Cavanagh Hall, the welcome heat, and the food and hot drinks supplied by Barron’s Bakery and served by Victoria and Elaine quickly dispersed the misfortune of a too-early winter.

Secretary of the Michael Cavanagh Society, Ann Kiely, got proceedings underway and the Society’s President, Tony McCarthy, gave a brief resumé of the work of the Society. He told the audience that the Society was formed to honour Michael Cavanagh (1822-1900) and that it was truly a joint Irish and American organisation, as it drew its membership from both sides of the Atlantic. In its early years it ran a number of literary competitions in both Irish and English and can claim justly to be the cause of several post-primary school students in the West Waterford area writing their first poem or story.

Tony McCarthy went on to explain that in later years the Society decided to tackle the arduous task of compiling and making available a fitting cross-section of Michael Cavanagh’s own work and that the fruits of that endeavour were now to be unveiled. He particularly recommended one of Michael’s prose pieces, the Midnight Mass in Mount Melleray, as being appropriate to the season and a very enjoyable read.

The guest speaker, Very Rev. Father Robert Arthure, A.P., then took the floor. Fr. Arthure is an historian in his own right whose biography of the distinguished 19th. century churchman, Fr. Patrick Fogarty of Lismore, has been particularly well received. (This biography covers the period of the Young Ireland and Fenian Revolutionaries such as Michael Cavanagh, but Fr. Fogarty was a great supporter of Daniel O’Connell and a strong and determined opponent of all physical force movements. His views and that of Michael Cavanagh and his peers would not have coincided!) Fr. Arthure is well-known for being a thought-provoking religious columnist and a man whose sermons always leave an impact on his audience. On this particular night he came to the Cavanagh Hall having celebrated the vigil Mass in St. Mary’s Church, across the road, and had put in a good word for “Hope”, something that it is short supply in the Ireland of 2010.

Fr. Arthure took the audience in the Cavanagh Hall gently through Michael Cavanagh’s life and made the point that though he spent the majority of his life in America, his engagement with his native place and the friends and neighbours of his boyhood and young adulthood never faltered. In the best book-launch tradition, Fr. Arthure interspersed his remarks with the exhortation “to find out what happened next you must buy the book!”. On a more sober note, he referred to Michael Cavanagh’s description of the poor dying people he saw in Lismore, victims of the Famine and a landlord lacking in charity. He went on to recite extracts from some of Michael Cavanagh’s poems and referred to the lighter prose pieces. As he came to the end of his talk he humorously referred to Michael’s story about Petticoat Loose and then reluctantly (well, that is what he said!) mentioned the story about Madra an Droichead and the need for the audience to be careful going home. This infamous Madra used to patrol around the old Wooden Bridge of Cappoquin and made nightly forays into Twig Bog, to an old well, near which now stands the Cavanagh Hall! (Thankfully, as far as we know, everyone got home safely and the possible inspiration for the Hound of the Baskervilles -Arthur Conan Doyle’s mother was Mary Foley of Lismore- chose not to appear.)

Fr. Arthure declared the book launched and the night was brought to a close after Ann Kiely expressed the Society’s sincere gratitude to the many people who had helped in its production.

The Cavanagh family was represented at the occasion by Tommy and Imelda Cavanagh of Fermoy. The American branch, who could not be present on the night, will be able to get a flavour of the event, courtesy of a DVD recording kindly made by Mary McGrath.

About the book itself: it is a handsome, hardcover edition, published by Original Writing of Dublin, with a striking dustcover. It is a substantial volume, running to almost 400 pages and includes several, interesting plates. It is of wide interest and would make a very acceptable gift to anyone with an interest in Irish and local history. It also contains social commentary and some very good yarns! Michael Cavanagh’s writing is firmly in the tradition of the Irish storyteller, not to mention that of the Victorian greats, and his fine sense of humour does not go amiss in these tough times.

The book costs €20 and is available from most shops in Cappoquin, Lismore Heritage Centre shop and from the bookshops and County Museum in Dungarvan. Emailed orders can be taken by Cappoquin Heritage Group via the website www.cappoquin.net . All profits will be given to the primary school in Cappoquin, Bunscoil Gleann Sídheáin.