Notes to the Paper - 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.

Notes to the Paper - 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!

Foróige success

Well done to the Foróige club on its two performance in the recent ‘Foróige’s Got Talent competition at the community centre. The dance act came together after a lot of practice and the comedy act, a mixture of one-liners and what the members call some ‘random dancing’, came in second place overall in that category. Well done too to the mentors on the night and for their efforts in the past few weeks, and good to hear a fun night was had by all.

Cornerstone Carnival 2011

This year’s Cornerstone Carnival looks almost certain to go ahead on the last weekend of June, as in previous years. The first meeting of the year will be held at 7.00 sharp on Wednesday, February 16^th in the Library. It is absolutely vital that all groups who hope to be involved in the Carnival have someone at this meeting, as it is impossible to avoid clashes of fixtures or to organise a coherent programme of events if clubs, societies or other organisations don’t offer some idea at the planning stage of what they hope to do. So do come along, join in, and maybe help with organising the fun this year. All are welcome.

Notes to the Paper - 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!

Foroige’s Got Talent

After al the great local excitement with Brendan Grace and other events last weekend, this weekend it is the turn of Foroige clubs from all over Waterford to grace the stage at Cappoquin Community Centre. Our club members have been working hard at two short acts, one a dance act and the other a comedy sketch. They and their mentors have given this a good go, and had a laugh in between, so best of luck to them next Friday night.

Notes to the Paper - 28 January 2011

Cappoquin Civic Link Notes

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 GeoPark at Dunhill 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!

Foróige Club

Club members are practicing hard of late in preparation for the county Foróige talent competition which is being held this year at Cappoquin Community Centre on Friday, 4^th February. We plan to enter two five-minute acts, one musical and one comedy, and it is now a question of getting everyone together for some practice, and some extra practice to make it all come together.

Best of luck also to everyone involved in organising the Brendan Grace concert at the Community Centre this Friday night. He will be a hard act to follow but we will do our best the following week…

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.

Playground

With the mid-winter nights well and truly upon us now, we are keeping up our efforts to have lighting and a repaired gate fitted at Cappoquin’s lovely playground as soon as possible. A great job was done by the Co. Council early in 2010 in renovating the facility, and in fairness too the playground users have been equally anxious to keep it in good condition. Hopefully, the small repairs needed will be effected sooner rather than too much later, and out thanks to both the council employees and public representatives who have supported this issue for the town.

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.  Blogs are also online at cappoquinciviclink.blogspot.com and cappoquinheritage.blogspot.com. 

Notes to the Paper - 24 December 2010

With Christmas just around the corner, this week’s round up will be short and sweet. The youth club members went ice skating last Friday night and all came home in one piece after having a great time. Santa is back in Lapland now and asked us to express his thanks to everyone in Cappoquin who came out to see him and especially to Michael and John O’Rourke for their wonderful assistance with lawnmowers and lunch respectively. Santa also said how much he enjoyed the Cinderella Story and the Sale of Work while in town also.

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.

Notes to the Paper - 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

Notes to the Paper - 10 December 2010

This Week’s Picture

Once again, this week’s picture comes from the new publication, ‘Michael Cavanagh: His Life and Selected Works’, now on sale in local shops with all profits going to Bunscoil Gleann Sídheáin. It shows what surely was the biggest industry ever owned by a Cappoquin native. Pictured here is the original headquarters of Hugh Collender’s Billiard Table empire, at 738 Broadway, New York. Collender went with Michael Cavanagh to the USA after the 1849 rebellion and while his friend became a prolific writer, Collender eventually became the most famous manufacturer of billiard and snooker tables in the world, with over forty premises and depots worldwide. Hugh Collender’s company is thriving today, though known now simply as ‘Brunswick’, and Hugh himself is appropriately commemorated on a footpath plaque outside Cappoquin Snooker Club, where else!

Christmas Farmers’ Market

Next Saturday morning, December 11^th we will have this year’s Cappoquin Christmas Farmers’ Market.  As usual, it will be held on the Square starting at 10.30 until 1.00 pm. Almost every town in the country hosts a Farmer’s Market at some stage of the year and thanks to all the local support, the ones in Cappoquin over the past few years have been successful.  An event like this is a good community activity, it is sociable and you will enjoy your visit to the market.

Cappoquin has a lot of local food producers, more than most places of its size. So it is important that they have the opportunity to market their wares in this fashion, in their local town.  There will be a wide range of foods available, including ice cream, bread, cakes, fruit, vegetables, home baking, jams, apple juice, cheeses, and honey.  As it is Christmas, there will also be festive food, Christmas trees and cards.  

We look forward to seeing you next Saturday morning for the Farmers’ Market where you can start the weekend with the spirit of Christmas, on the Square of your local town.

Santa at the Square

With the Farmers’ Market all ready for the off at the Square this Saturday, December 11^th, the word from the North Pole is that Santa hopes to arrive in his horse-drawn sleigh sometime between twelve and twelve-fifteen on the day. Like last year, this is a ‘getting to know you’ visit, a chance for Santa to get reacquainted with the local kids since last year and double check that the list of presents is correct for December 25^th. He hopes to bring special certificates with him like last year, and we are pretty sure there will be some goodies available to everyone, as well as the opportunity for the grown-ups to sample some of the best local produce available at the Market. Maybe Santa will stay around this weekend, probably in disguise, and go and see the marvellous Cinderella pantomime at the Community Centre before coming back to the Sale of Work at Bunscoil Gleann Sídheáin on Sunday. Busy times for a busy man.