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.