Fethard Ladies Football Club

In training for the Fethard Ladies Football 'Parachute Jump' are L to R: Maureen McCarthy, Alice Butler and Caroline Sheehan

Fethard Ladies Football Club is promoting a ‘Parachute Dive’ in the near future. The 10,000 feet jump will take place in Co. Offaly.
Three ladies from the Fethard club are going to participate: Maureen McCarthy, Alice Butler and Caroline Sheehan. The three girls will have sponsorship cards available soon or they can be had from any club officer. This is a great novel way to raise finance for the club so please support us in any way you can.

The club is open to all ages and we are organising a ‘Family Fun Weekend’ from 16th to 18th July, open to all boys, girls and adults. All are welcome. Further details to follow.

We were beaten recently by Clonmel Og in the junior semifinal and we send our best wishes to them in the final. Our under-12 team are playing great at the moment and have now reached the semifinal of the C Group. Well done girls!

Irish Tillage and Land Use Society
The Irish Tillage and Land Use Society Summer Tour came to Fethard last Friday, June 5th. The tour started at 9am in Kellett’s Restaurant, at McCarthy’s Hotel, with a full Irish breakfast for the early travellers. After breakfast the group boarded two buses to go to Bulmer’s Orchard, in Powerstown, Clonmel.

Eoghain Fogarty escorted the group around the orchards and explained the new cropping programme. They are replacing a lot of the old orchards with new ones. The recession is slowing down consumption but they are looking to the future with optimism. The new orchards should increase production from five tonnes to twenty tonnes of apples per acre. However, the guests did not get to sample some of the new pear cider! Jim Power was also on hand to give a talk on the benefits of bees to help pollinate the apples and oil seed rape in the local area. Bees are essential for food production. It was now time to head back to Fethard for lunch. Michael Kearney, head chef at Kellett’s, had everything ready and everyone got very well fed and watered.

After lunch the tour headed to meet up with Joe Holohan and staff at Coolmore Stud. What a pleasure to see the world’s top thoroughbreds in the flesh. The attention to detail and the organisation of the whole complex is second to none. The Coolmore we know today was started by the late Dr. Michael Vincent O’Brien in the mid-seventies. John Stokes, one of the past presidents of the Irish Tillage and Land Use Society, paid tribute to the recently deceased Vincent and recounted the full story of his life. His legacy will last for a long time to come around the Fethard area.


The late Dr. Michael Vincent O'Brien who died on Monday 1st June 2009.

A very enjoyable day was had by all and many thanks to Kellett’s and McCarthy’s Hotel, Bulmers, Jim Power and Coolmore Stud for making it all happen. Keep up the good work! (Noel Delany, Past President, Irish Tillage and Land Use Society)

Fethard Youth Centre volunteers
A meeting for Fethard Youth Cafe volunteers took place on last Thursday night, 4th June, at the Youth Centre with special guest Cora Horgan, CEO of the Tipperary Regional Youth Service. The summer programme was discussed and it was decided to open on both Friday nights and Saturday nights for one month’s trial period and close on Saturday afternoons. It was also decided to defer the official opening until August.

Training for new volunteers and those volunteers with remaining modules to complete will be organised over the next few months.
In attendance were: Cora Horgan, Brud Roche, Joe Kenny, Fiona Cleverley, Monica Hickey, Marie Murphy, Rita Kenny, Paul Shanahan, Edwina Newport and Brian Sheehy.

Ladies Marathon

Group of local ladies who took part in the Mini Marathon in Dublin on Monday 1st June in support of their charities, Missing in Ireland Support Service and the Cochlear Implant Department, Beaumont Hospital. L to R: Pamela Daly, Majella Drea, Maura Ryan, Ann Daly (Manager), Patricia Breen, Lizzie Reddy, Cora Breen and Monica Pollard. Missing from picture is Elaine Daly who was having an early night. Also congratulations to Monica and Patricia on receiving their Diploma from the “Missing in Ireland Support Service”. Well done girls!

Fethard & Killusty Community Lotto
The numbers drawn on 3rd June were 6, 10, 13 and 21. We had no Jackpot winner and five ‘Match 3’ winners who received €30 each:
Brigid Hennessey, Kilvemnon, Mullinahone;
Nicole Moloney, Congress Terrace, Fethard;
Mary Sayers, Crampscastle, Fethard;
Mary McCormack, c/o K. O'Donnell;
Stan Boles, Jossestown, Fethard.

The three following Lucky Dip winners received €50 each:
Gerry Fogarty, Cluain Ard, Fethard;
Michael Meehan, Coolbawn, Fethard;
Karl Cooke, Kilcoole, Co. Wicklow.
Next week’s Jackpot continues at €10,000 and the Jackpot sellers prize is €1000.
You can now also play our lotto online from your own computer by visiting www.fethard.com/lotto.

Parish Masses
Mass will be celebrated at 7.30pm on Wednesday 17th June at Kilmaclugh Graveyard. All are invited to attend.

Visitors to Fethard

Peter and Noreen O'Flynn talking to Michael Kenrick (right) from Burke Street while on a recent visit back to Fethard. (photo supplied by John Kenrick)

Corpus Christi Procession this Sunday
The annual Corpus Christi Procession takes place on this coming Sunday evening, 14th June, at 7pm, commencing from outside Fethard Parish Church and proceeding to the Augustinian Abbey. All are invited to come along.

The custom of carrying the Blessed Sacrament in procession through the town on Corpus Christi Day developed in the early fourteenth century. During the later Middle Ages these processions developed into splendid pageants of devotion and honour to the Blessed Sacrament. They are still publicly held, and often with the ancient splendour, in Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Belgium, Ireland, in the Catholic sections of Germany, Holland, Switzerland, Canada, Hungary, and in the Slavic countries and South America.

Looking Back — Fethard meeting in 1830
(The following article ‘Fethard Meeting’ was published in the Tipperary Free Press dated 7 April 1830, and was one of many Fethard articles researched and supplied by the late Michael Hall, Kyle, who died on 7th June 2008. We remember Michael at this time, the first anniversary of his passing away.)

On Sunday last there was a numerous and respectable meeting of the inhabitants of Fethard, convened for the purpose of taking into consideration the demand for Church Rates now made on that Union, as well a the extraordinary issue of summonses by the Churchwardens, when the resolutions, which appear in our advertising columns, were unanimously adopted; in seconding the first resolution, Dr. Bacon, an old and respectable Protestant Gentleman addressed the meeting in nearly the following words:—

I beg leave to second this resolution — in doing so, I also beg leave to express a few words — I was not aware of the occasion of this meeting of the Parishioners until last night, and therefore being so unprepared, I hope will be a sufficient apology for any feeble remarks I may make.
Having heard that some hundreds of the people of these united Parishes are summoned to attend the Petty Sessions Court of this town on Easter Monday for Church-Rates due — I earnestly hope that the Parishioners will act with prudence and perseverance, and above all, that they will be unanimous in their proceedings, for without unity and concord all will be abortive.

I beg leave to state my suggestions:—
1st, it would be advisable to consult and employ an able Counsellor — for that I think the Petty Sessions or Borough Court can have no control over such proceedings, and more especially a rotten, Borough. (Hear, hear.)

2ndly, the Parishes cannot be made to pay either Tithes or Church rates or any Church tax whatsoever, where there are no Churches only ruined walls, where the ivy and moss are growing, and where the birds make their nests — for I know an instance of this kind to have happened — the Parishioners were cited or summoned to a Bishop's Court for Tithes and Church Cess, and the parties were dismissed because they had no Church in their Parish. I do contend for it that there is no law in being to make a man give his money or rob him of his substance, and to get no value for it.

I pay neither Tithes nor Church taxes, I hope I will never be asked for any; if I should I am determined never to pay any, let the consequence be what it may — (Hear, hear.)

I resemble so far a Quaker, although I am a liberal Protestant — because Tithes and Church Taxes are repugnant to the Gospel of Christ and forbidden in that divine volume.
The other resolutions were then put and carried, and the meeting separated.

Dublin City Ramblers at Lonergans

Photographed at the Dublin City Ramblers at Lonergans last weekend were L to R: John Smullen, Tommy Strappe, Susan Strappe and Marian Smullen.


Photographed at the Dublin City Ramblers at Lonergans last weekend were L to R: Helen Gazely, Prescilla Doyle and Colette Doyle.


Photographed at the Dublin City Ramblers at Lonergans last weekend were: Jennie Walsh, Monica Hickey, Yvonne Clancy, Mary Shanahan, Gráinne Browne and Sinead O'Halloran.


Photographed at the Dublin City Ramblers at Lonergans were L to R: Barbara Gras, Mike Yellap, Bernadette Stocksborough, Mickey Flanagan, Caroline Flanagan and Peter Stocksborough.


John Carroll singing with the Dublin City Ramblers

Fethard GAA Club News
In the Senior Football County Championship on Sunday last, Fethard reached the last eight with an impressive display against old rivals Ardfinnan, played in Cashel. This game put behind some bad recent displays finishing on a scoreline, Fethard 2-13, Ardfinnan 2-5, with Ardfinnan’s two goals coming from Fethard’s mistakes. We now join Moyle Rovers, Killenaule, Galtee Rovers, and the four divisional champions for the quarterfinals.

The divisional championship continues next Sunday 14th June when Fethard play Cahir in Ardfinnan at 6pm. A win here could make things very interesting for the division.

Team and scorers last Sunday were: Paul Fitzgerald, Aiden Lonergan, Mickey Ahearn, Ian Kenrick, Tomás Keane, Damien Byrne, Cian Maher, Jamie McCormack 0-2, Christopher Sheehan, Alan O’Connor, Eoin Doyle 0-1, Benny Hahessy, John Paul Looby 0-3, Aiden Fitzgerald 1-0, Brian Coen 1-7 (4f). Subs were: Jason Nevin for Alan O’Connor, and John Fitzgerald for Aiden Fitzgerald.

We would like to thank all our customers who rejoined the County Board Draw and to our promoters who secured new entrants. We wish all our clients the very best of luck in the draw this Friday night in the Horse & Jockey which was postponed for a week due to local elections.
We had no jackpot winner in our Lotto. The numbers drawn were: 14, 20, 22 and 23. We had no match three winner so the following tickets won €30 each: Paul Fitzgerald (Kiltinan, Fethard), Francis Dillon (Tullamaine, Fethard), Vincent Cummins (Burke Street Fethard), Fitzgerald Family (Kiltinan Fethard), and Noelle Doyle (Woodvale Walk, Fethard). The €50 Lucky Dip went to Mary Coen (Killusty, Fethard).

The numbers drawn last week were 5, 9, 16 and 36. We had one match three winner of €150 to Stephanie Johnson (Main Street, Fethard), and the €50 Lucky Dip going to Nellie Ryan (St. Patricks Place, Fethard). Thanks to AIB Main Street for supplying the tickets.