Heritage Week in next week 17th to 25th of August 2024
Below is a summary of events at Cashel Library, (adults only).
Please do remember that booking for the above freeevents is essential. Contact Ms Maura Barrett at Tel: 062 63825. You canlocate the Cashel Library building, situated on Friar Street, Lady’s Well, Cashel, Co. Tipperary, HERE. (G487+RX).
Mr MacGowan sadly passed away on November 30th 2023 last, aged 65 years, while being treated in hospital for inflammation of the active tissues of the brain, caused by an infection, (Encephalitis).
His sister, Ms Siobhan McGowan, confirmed the event on her Facebook page, stating that it will be full of “dancing at the crossroads”, with music, refreshments, under a marquee.
At 3:00pm on the day, Ms McGowan will also dedicate “The Broad Majestic Shannon” monument in her brother’s memory.
The Broad Majestic Shannon.
Lyrics: Shane Patrick Lysaght Macgowan.
The last time I saw you was down at the Greeks, There was whiskey on Sunday and tears on our cheeks, You sang me a song that was pure as the breeze, On a road leading up Glenaveigh. I sat for a while at the cross at Finnoe, Where young lovers would meet when the flowers were in bloom, Heard the men coming home from the fair at Shinrone, Their hearts in Tipperary wherever they go, Take my hand and dry your tears, babe, Take my hand, forget your fears, babe, There’s no pain, there’s no more sorrow, They’re all gone, gone in the years, babe. I sat for a while by the gap in the wall, Found a rusty tin can and an old hurley ball, Heard the cards being dealt and the rosary called, And a fiddle playing “Sean Dun Na Ngall”, And the next time I see you we’ll be down at the Greeks, There’ll be whiskey on Sunday and tears on our cheeks, For it’s stupid to laugh and it’s useless to bawl, ‘Bout a rusty tin can and an old hurley ball. Take my hand and dry your tears, babe, Take my hand, forget your fears, babe. There’s no pain, there’s no more sorrow, They’re all gone, gone in the years, babe. So I walked as the day was dawning, Where small birds sang and leaves were falling, Where we once watched the row boats landing, By the broad majestic Shannon.
END.
On the day previous, Saturday August 17th, as part of the Broad Majestic Shannon Festival in Kilbarron Village, there is an afternoon workshop discussing Mr MacGowan lyrics and highlighting the local places featured in his songs.
When Noel Coward tunefully advised Mrs Worthington to never put her daughter on the stage, he might have usefully told my late mother, Bridie, to do likewise with regards her eldest son, Tom.
Despite having a lifelong association with theatre, both amateur and professional, Thespian glory has eluded me. More often than not I have convinced the wide world that ‘Oscar material’, I ain’t.
Yet, despite the wry observation by the late, great Shakespearian actor, Anew McMaster, that Thurles is the “Graveyard of Drama”, (when he found himself playing to an audience of just two or three in Delahunty’s New Cinema many years ago), I am from a theatre-loving Thurles.
This home of the GAA, has produced many playwrights and many top actors and has featured with great honour at many of Ireland’s 36 Drama Festivals annually, including both the All-Ireland Open Drama Festival at Athlone and the All-Ireland Confined Finals in Rossmore, Cork and elsewhere. Top Thurles Thespians include Margaret McCormack Purcell of Littleton, a village once referred to by Lord Haw Haw in his broadcasts from Germany during World War 2, and home town of leading musician, Warrant Officer Larry Slattery, latter first British Prisoner of War captured during that same war. Margaret, a product of the Brendan Smith Theatre Academy, acted with the late great Siobhan McKenna in a professional production of Synge’s “The Playboy of the Western World”. Margaret has produced and acted with both Thurles Drama Group and Holycross/Ballycahill Drama Group in Thurles, latter which hosts the popular annual Tipperary Drama Festival.
My own theatrical debut was at nine years of age, when at the invitation of a magician, I climbed up onto the stage of Delahunty’s Cinema. I was the only brave child to take up the invitation. However, I was no supporting actor for the strangely dressed and quite awesome looking showman. I was all cockiness and cheeky initially on stage until the magician handed me an illuminated skull in a glass jar. It frightened the wits out of me and I jumped off stage having first, cried “Mammy!”. Not the most memorable or indeed edifying of stage debuts. Though the magician mentioned my bravery as the only volunteer that night was to be noted by the heckling and hissing juveniles in the pit. No doubt some of these chappies are making it hot for politicians now.
Years later I was asked once again to take to the stage of a Dublin theatre, by a professional producer. I was nineteen years old and thought my play, “The Man of Principle” (or was it “The Plan of Battle”) was a masterpiece which any professional should feel obliged and thrilled to stage for heavens’ sake. So I left it with the producer for a week. When I returned for his comments, he asked me up on stage and handed me the script of “Lady Chatterly” and asked me to read some lines. I think the lines indicated to the pretty young English actress opposite me that we should “go upstairs, darling.”
Well, imagine a harmless young man from the heart of rural Ireland back in the Nineteen Sixties featuring in that scenario? Sure, if they ever found out back home; I’d be read off the altar. So I was no “Lady Chatterly’s Lover” on this occasion.
Far from “Lady Chatterly” you were reared, boy. I laughed out loud and nervously, quite red-faced and embarrassed and as on the previous occasion, aforementioned, also jumped off the stage into the pit.
I declared this time, “It’s easier to write plays than act in them”, much to the amusement, I’m sure, of a puzzled producer who must have thought I was either there for an audition or was a nuisance fantasist. This happening was to be my first and last professional “audition”.
On a stage in Boherlahan I was a Redcoat disguised as a priest in ”The Croppy Boy.” At the decisive moment when I was to draw my wooden sword and arrest the “Croppy Boy”, I stumbled and I stabbed myself. It wasn’t the Croppy Boy who came a cropper on this less than august occasion on which self esteem of yours truly, suffered a gigantic setback.
On a stage in Templemore Town Hall, when musicians failed to turn up for a concert a few of us, in the absence of a script or indeed common sense, put on a play at a moment’s notice (literally), as a large audience, wondered when proceedings would truly get underway. We wrote acted and sang Irish ballads, as we performed in impromptu fashion. All I can remember is uttering the immortal word, ‘Aye’, over and over again at every opportunity and prayed the show would soon end. People laughed all the time, anyway and to this day I am greeted by many in Templemore with that now famous one liner, “Aye”. Not exactly ‘Actors Equity’ glory, but fame of sorts.
Of course I think my acting career really began in the Thurles Boy Scout Troop. In my short- trousered days and wearing my blue cravat, tan and merit badge-covered shirt, to show off to the girls; I wrote what was intended to be a grim tragedy about the goings on in a farmhouse in a storm. You know – ‘The cows mooed’(cue for me to do likewise), the ‘thunder flashed’(Start lighting the match now, Sean) and so on and so on. The idea was to strike immortal terror into the audience of parents, carol singers and fellow scouts in that darkened hall. Alfred Hitchcock was only trotting after us. However, imagine my utter shock and horror when those insensitive and unappreciative souls burst into uproarious and outrageous laughter. It pains me still to recall the utter humiliation of it all. I was too ashamed to show off my merit badges to any young ‘wans’, on that night. In fact my body still quivers and shivers when I observe Christmas carollers, every year, in the town’s Liberty Square, in Thurles.
I do, however, have happier and more sane theatre memories. I recall when a decent wise and multi-talented farmer friend, the late TK Dwyer of Littleton Muintir na Tire, staged my play “Children of the Nation”, which on this occasion brought tears to the eyes of the audience (for the right reasons, I add) at the Tipperary One Act Drama Festival, adjudicated by Niall O’Beachain. Before taking to the stage TK, a playwright /poet also, presented me with a postal order “If we put on anybody else’s play we would have to pay royalties”, he said. Now, there was a wise and thoughtful man, encouraging an aspiring young writer. Treat a young person with dignity and they’ll respond. I like to think I have never forgotten the kindness and example set by that wonderful human being. I served with Thurles Drama Group as their Public Relations Officer once and also with New Malden Theatre Group in Surrey UK and even worked as a stage hand with Wimbledon Theatre in South West London, UK, where of in another era, I met Ralph Reader who wrote the songs for Bud Flanagan and the Crazy Gang.
Nowadays, I still carry on “covering” the Tipperary Drama Festival in Holycross for the “Tipperary Star”. Holycross Drama Festival once hosted my comedy, “Three to Tango”, as did a number of Macra na Feirme groups in Tipperary. Certainly all the world’s a stage and every stage a world of wonder, of laughter and even a few tears. No sir, no business like show business and no people like show people. Break a leg, folks! Not literally, though!
Mid-West region (Tipperary, Limerick and Clare) to host Ireland’s first showcase of indigenous breeds as part of Heritage Week.
Ireland’s first celebration of indigenous animal breeds will take place at Bunratty Castle and Folk Park, Co. Clare, on Sunday August 18th, as part of a wide-ranging programme of National Heritage Week events at the County Clare visitor attraction.
Hosted in association with the Irish Native Rare Breed Society(INRBS), the inaugural event will include livestock displays of native breeds such as Tamworth Pigs and Irish Red Deer, lectures on rare breed conservation, and tastings of products derived from indigenous breeds. Specialists in crafts involving wool, leather and beeswax, also, will provide demonstrations and displays of their finished artworks and garments.
Bunratty Castle & Folk Park’s Shinead Moloney pictured with resident Irish Wolfhounds Rian and Míde.
The event will feature speakers from The Rare Breeds Survival Trust(RBST), Farming for Nature(FFN) and the National Parks and Wildlife Service(NPWS), as well as ecologists and people working with the breeds, who will provide different perspectives on breed conservation and the associated area of biodiverse land management.
“One of our primary missions is to increase awareness of native Irish breeds and how they have formed part of our social and cultural history in Ireland down through the centuries,” explained Mr Niall Moloney, Farm Manager at Bunratty Castle & Folk Park. “We are always looking to expand on our collection of native Irish animals from Droimeann cattle to Kerry Bog Ponies and from Irish Wolfhounds to Tamworth pigs, and, in doing so, help to preserve and promote our heritage. Heritage Week provides an ideal opportunity to showcase breeds that are unique to Ireland,” added Mr. Moloney.
Mr Tom Keane of the INRBS commented, “We are excited about partnering with Bunratty for an event that will have a broad focus for people of all ages, whether they are familiar with some or all of the breeds of livestock on display or have little to no knowledge of the breeds. The aim of the event, in addition to the display of livestock and associated crafts involving products derived from the breeds and information provided on the day itself, is to stimulate positive collaborations between the various stakeholders going forward.”
The rare breeds event is included in a comprehensive programme of National Heritage Week (17-25th August) events happening at Bunratty Castle & Folk Park and Craggaunowen where the public is being invited to explore the traditions and practices, knowledge and skills passed down through generations.
At Bunratty, animators will showcase life in times past through storytelling and roleplaying as visitors learn about life as a doctor in early 20th century Ireland, a Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) Policeman, a musician in the 1900s and as a blacksmith. Meanwhile, there will be woodworking demonstrations by TikTok sensation Eoin Reardon, willow weaving and stone masonry workshops, talks on Celtic folklore and mythology, a tour of the 19th century Bunratty House, a traditional thatching demonstration and an introduction to the Regency Plant Collection at the Victorian Walled Garden.
Meanwhile, Craggaunowen will host reenactors and tradespeople from across Clare, who will demonstrate the crafts and traditions of old, including spinning and weaving, blacksmithing, log splitting, bread and butter making, candle making, wool dyeing and bagpipe playing, while stories of mythology and the history of the Ogham stones will be recounted.
Bunratty Heritage Week highlights:
Woodworker Extraordinaire(August 17th, 22nd, 23rd, 24th) – Bunratty’s resident woodworker and TikTok sensation Eoin Reardon(@PintofPlane) demonstrates how he makes an array of wooden items using old traditional methods as he rescued all sorts of items from a currach to a sugan chair.
A Blacksmith’s Life(August 17th, 22nd, 23rd, 24th) – Hear the hammer and anvil at work as Bunratty’s resident blacksmith James O’Connor and delve into the rich history of iron working in the unique setting of the courtyard of Bunratty Castle.
Crochet & Cross Stitching in the 19th Century(August 17-20th) – Bunratty’s resident artisan, Liv will speak about and demonstrate the rich history and intricate beauty of crochet and cross-stitching. She will explain how during famine times, low-income households sold their exquisite shawls, blankets, and lacework to wealthy ladies, blending necessity with artistry.
Willow Weaving(August 17th – 25th inclusive) – Tom Delaney of Ould Crafty will make traditional style baskets and other items from locally sourced willow. Regularly featured on TV, Tom also uses willow to make bird feeders, plant supports, boats and willow houses.
Stone Carving & Masonry(August 22nd & 23rd) – Master Stonemason and conservation worker Dominic Keogh will bring the beauty of carved stone to life by demonstrating how the age-old craft has been passed down through generations, preserving the techniques and traditions that have built some of the country’s most iconic structures.
Celtic Folklore & Mythology(August 19th, 20th & 21st) – Drawing inspiration from Ireland’s rich oral tradition, Balor O’Brien will speak about his life collecting folklore and bringing Ireland’s storied past to life.
Traditional Thatching Demonstration(August 19th to 23rd) – Visitors can watch Bunratty’s resident Thatcher Adrian Garvey at work and hear about the skills and materials required to perform this time-honoured craft.
Tours of Bunratty House(daily) – Meet the caretaker of Bunratty House to hear the history of the family who occupied the Georgian-era house, explore the living quarters, bedrooms, nursery, dining room and more.
Regency Plant Collection(August 19th to 23rd) – The gardening team in the Regency Walled Garden discuss the processes and care involved in the planting and maintenance of the many heritage and regency plants currently growing in this idyllic setting.
Music in Irish Society(daily) – Bunratty’s resident musicians tell stories about the place and role of music in Irish society.
The Golden Vale Farmhouse(daily at 10.30am & 2.30pm) – The Bean an Tí will recount what life was like living in an early 20th century home with its large kitchen, grand parlour and well-tended garden. She will demonstrate the baking of bread on an open fire, butter churning, doing laundry in an old-style tub, ironing, and the infamous Singer sewing machine.
The life of the Royal Irish Constabulary Policeman(daily) – Bunratty’s resident Royal Irish Constabulary Policeman will reveal riveting tales of a turbulent period in Irish history.
A Doctor’s Life (daily) – Bunratty’s resident doctor will tell visitors all about his profession at the turn of the 20th century.
Craggaunowen Highlights:
Craggaunowen’s resident blacksmith(Uinseann)pictured ahead of Heritage Week 2024.
Medieval Bagpipes (August 17th, 21st, 22nd & 23rd) – Craggaunowen’s resident craftsman and musician Arno will discuss and demonstrate the medieval bagpipes, one of the oldest musical instruments in human history.
Fulacht Fiadh(11am-3pm, August 24th) – Visitors can join in the lighting resident artisans Tony and Sean of the Bronze Age Fulacht Fiadh, an ancient cooking site.
Basket Making(10am & 5pm, August 24th) – Master artisan Michael Foudy will showcase the timeless craft of basket weaving and the intricate art of transforming reeds into stunning traditional baskets.
Origins of Wool Dyeing(August 17-19th & 23rd at 10am) – Annika showcases and discusses the origins and the art of the ancient practice of wool dying.
Legends & Tales(August 22nd & 24th) – Storyteller Tommy Lanigan will bring visitors on a journey through a rich heritage of folklore and myth
Tales of Irish Mythology(10am, August 20th, 21st and 23rd) – Visitors can listen to tales of Ireland that have been preserved in the oral tradition and later transcribed in the manuscripts of early Celtic Christianity.
Ogham Trail(2.30pm, August 20th, 21st and 22nd) – Stefan brings visitors on a trail exploring the ancient Irish writing tradition of Ogham, an Early Iron age Alphabet used primarily to write the early Irish language and later used in the old Irish language.
Log Splitting(August 19th, 20th & 21st) – Discover the ancient art of log splitting, where wood was processed without the use of metal tools. Join Sean at the Crannóg for a hands-on demonstration and experience the first steps of timber processing using traditional beetles and wooden wedges.
Traditional Irish Seanchaí(August 21st & 23rd) – Join Craggaunowen’s Seanchaí for a traditional Irish folklore storytelling session.
Traditional Butter Making(4pm, August 20th, 21st and 22nd) – Geraldine creates real Irish butter using the traditional practice of butter churning.
Food Display and Bread Baking(2.30pm, August 17-19th & 23rd at 10am) – Craggaunowen animators make bread and oat cakes at the ringfort by grinding oats in the tradition way with a smooth rock and a patient hand before baking bread over an open campfire.
Making & Playing Frame Drums(August 17th, 21st, 22nd & 23rd) – Craftworker Arno will demonstrate the art and skill behind creating these musical instruments, from selecting materials to assembly. Arno will showcase various drumming techniques, bringing the drums to life with entrancing rhythms.
The Art of Spinning(11am, August 20th, 21st and 22nd) – Animator Geraldine discusses and performs the ancient Irish craft of wool spinning on a traditional spindle.
Pole Lathe Demonstration(August 20th & 21st) – Witness the ancient skill of timber craftwork on the traditional pole lathe.
Traditional Blacksmithing(August 18-20th) – Craggaunowen’s resident Blacksmith will demonstrate traditional blacksmithing techniques.
Oh, happy carillon and bells of my youth, By the river Suir now sounding! How near and how dear to my heart’s truth In quiet moments never-ending.
By Cathedral bells’ sound, One day I was born, Amid musical sounds of a river That sings in my heart, In moments forlorn, And in my happiest moments ever.
To play and to school, My life was to rule, By the bells and the river determined, By green banks and bridge, By the Ursuline school, My earliest life was thus fashioned.
And, however, how often, I may wander away, Be it near or far over the ocean, I shall hear in my mind, The bells peal and play, Their carols of happy emotion.
Carolling, carolling , carolling ever, Always in tune with the song of the river, Oh, bells of my heart and my home now ringing, Ever and ever sweetly singing.
END
Tom Ryan, “Iona”, Rahealty, Thurles, Co. Tipperary.
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