Great turnout for Fethard Walled Towns Day
On Sunday last Fethard celebrated its medieval past in beautiful weather as hundreds came along to take part in the many events organised throughout the town as part of National Heritage Week. From early morning there was a great buzz around town with young musicians carrying their equipment into town and committee members adorning the town wall with colourful flags.  Others had started their projects as early as 5am with only the dawn chorus of feathered friends witnessing their efforts.

The day officially kicked off in the Town Hall at 10am with an exhibition of local drawings by transition year students of Patrician Presentation Secondary School. This venue was managed by local artist Pat Looby who also provided a welcome drop-in centre for tea, coffee, cakes and refreshments for workers and visitors alike.

The weather was the key to the success of the event as most of the activities were held outdoors. Thankfully the day was perfect with the sun making one of its rare appearances of the summer. Even the Clashawley river looked its best flowing with a respectable amount of water from all the recent summer rain as opposed to the light trickle we usually see at this time of year.

At 12 noon a large crowd attended Gerard Crotty’s walking tour and talk on Fethard’s heraldic coat of arms. This talk began outside the Town Hall and then moved to the grounds of Holy Trinity Church of Ireland before setting out for the Augustinian Abbey.  The gathering crowd for the parade were then entertained by the town’s up and coming young bands, ‘Zero Tolerance’ and the band formerly known as ‘Rootless’, fronted by what is left of Jack O’Sullivan after his radical haircut.

‘Zero Tolerance’ comprising of Cathal O’Brien (lead vocals and guitar), Garreth Lawrence (guitar and vocals), Tony Myler (guitar and vocals) and Ted Barrett (drums) played a very tight set introducing some new original material.  ‘Rootless +2’ (until they decide on an official name) also played very well-rehearsed original material and had the line up of Jack O’Sullivan (lead vocals and guitar), Lory Kenny (guitar), Ciarán Leahy (bass), Kevin Maher (guitar) and Matt O’Sullivan (drums). Both bands performed exceptionally well, which surprised a lot of parents looking on! We can expect to hear a lot more from these talented lads in the future.

The Medieval Heraldic Parade, with a large number resplendent in Medieval costume, then left the town square, led by the ‘Bronze Age Loughnashade Trumpet’, and made their way down Main Street, along the Valley, and crossing over to the Town Wall at the Millennium Bridge. This site was well decorated with medieval banners hanging from the restored Town Walls and the Solas Art team creating a large shell ‘Mandala’ which formed a colourful work in progress in the centre of the gathering for the afternoon. There were many stalls displaying, medieval instruments, organic foods, arts and crafts. A silversmith plied his trade at another. You could practice your archery skills at another or admire the weapons of yesteryear displayed by medieval re-enactment actor Colm McGrath.  Adults and children were equally amazed at the weight of armour when trying it on for size at the medieval re-enactment stand. One wonders how soldiers could still have enough energy to fight while wearing it! Colm McGrath demonstrated some medieval games, which also proved very popular to all ages throughout the day.

A puppeteer entertained the young and the young at heart in another corner, whilst the Fethard Rugby Club members provided excellent food for all the afternoon in their sunny ‘outdoor restaurant’ on the banks of the Clashawley. Shay Hurley demonstrated the wonders of nature to be seen along the river at his stall.  Music and entertainment was supplied by The Lee Valley String Band from Cork who had both young and old infused with rhythm expressed by uncontrollable movement of body and limbs.

The day’s events officially ended at five o clock, but it took a little longer for the crowd to fade away as the evening was so good. The last of the revellers were seen chilling out to the strains of a German visitor playing the clarinet on the banks of the river as daylight was fading. It was a gentle finish to a perfect day.

All praise is due to the sponsors and organisers of the event. The main sponsors of the event were: The Heritage Council of Ireland, Failte Ireland (who might be happy to know that there were people in attendance from as far away as Columbia, Chile and New Zealand), and South Tipperary County Council. The local organisations involved were, Fethard Historical Society, Fethard & Killusty Community Council, Fethard Rugby Club, and the Fethard Ballroom Committee who supplied the tables and chairs. The day was enhanced by all those who made the effort to dress up and most importantly by all who turned up to make this a very special celebration of the community spirit of the town of Fethard.

Fethard & Killusty Community Lotto Results
The numbers drawn on Wednesday 22nd August were: 3, 6, 13 and 24. There was no Jackpot winners and two Match 3 winners who received €75 each:

Eddie O’Brien, Burke Street, Fethard;
John Sheehan, Killusty, Fethard.

The €50 Luck Dip winners were:

Marie Allen, The Green, Fethard;
Dermot Darcy, St. Patricks Place, Fethard;
Aidan Keely, c/o Butlers Bar, Fethard.

Next week’s Jackpot continues at €10,000 and the Jackpot sellers prize is €1000.

Day Care Centre Re-opens
The Fethard & District Day Care Centre and Meals-on-Wheels will resume on Monday 3rd September. For further information contact Day Care Centre at (052) 32917 or the Community Office at (052) 31000.

Community Alert Meeting
A meeting of Community Alert will be held in the Tirry Community Centre on Wednesday next 5th September at 8.30pm. The object of Community Alert is to create a greater awareness and alertness. To function successfully this requires the help and cooperation of everyone living in the community. So please come along on Wednesday night and find out how you can help to make Fethard and its surrounding area a safer place for all of us.

Litter Louts
Last Sunday, the people of Fethard did the town proud with what we all hope will be an annual medieval pageant by the town wall.  Hundreds turned out on one of our first real summer’s days to support the event. It was a joy to behold three generations of many families enjoying the sunshine, the easy strains of the Lee Valley String Band, the parade, the food and the many sideshows by the banks of the river Clashawley. And an hour after the event finished, you would swear that not one person had been by the town wall that day, such was the pristine condition that the organisers had left the site.

Unfortunately, the more regular users of the site are not as caring about their environment. The local cider louts treat the park as a town skip, drinking and being generally obnoxious to passers by and then throwing the empty cans on the grass or in the river, before urinating in the trees, in the river or against the town wall.  Then they stagger home.

A different crowd make the place their own later in the evening. Merely two hours after the pageant was over, the boy racers appeared. They are obviously young and used to their mammies cleaning up after them as they leave the area by the pound in a mess when they throw all the waste from their cars straight out the windows. One ‘Green Party’ member suggested that penalty points be introduced for people who throw litter from their cars. At the rate that this lot litter, they would be off the road in a few hours. Which would stop them littering, driving on the grass and belting out loud music late at night that residents don’t want to hear.  Time to bring in penalty points or bring along the mammies! 

Fethard Juvenile GAA Club News
Our annual Summer Camp was held last week and our younger members of the club had a great time. It was great to see more girls taking part in this year’s camp and some budding talent was definitely obvious amongst some of them. Our thanks to Tipperary goalie, Gerry Kennedy, for making an appearance on the last day of the camp, where some of the children had the opportunity to take shots at him in goal.  Medals were presented to the winners and each child was presented with a certificate of attendance. On the last day a great time was had by all with bouncy castles and a barbecue for those children that attended the camp. Thanks to the parents that helped out on the day.

The under-16s played host to Cahir on Tuesday evening of last week in their championship bid and came away with an extremely convincing win. We wish them luck in their next round.

The under-14s are away to Kilsheelan in the semifinal of their south championship bid and we wish them the very best of luck, this is a team of young men that have it to go all the way. Good luck lads!

Congratulations to Aaron Conran for his outstanding performance on Saturday and Sunday of last weekend. He was representing his county at under-14 level in the Tony Forristal Cup hurling tournament in Waterford and were extremely unlucky not to win after beating Limerick and Dublin to get through to the final. Well done also to Eoin O’Connell on his representation on the under-16 county hurling team. They won it out!

Well done also to the minor hurlers on their south championship victory in Kilsheelan on Sunday evening of last week where they had a very convincing win over Carrick Swans. The very best of luck to the minor footballers who are also through to a south final. Go on Fethard!

Fethard GAA Club
Well done to all involved Minor Hurling B South Final on Sunday last in Kilsheelan when the Friary Town boys turned the tide against the Swans in winning the South Final on a scoreline, Fethard 6-13, Swans 3-11, before a nice attendance.  Fethard showed a first class display of hurling scoring 4-6 in the final 15 minutes, having been behind up to that time.  The credit must go to a significant team performance with shining stars from James Kelly (captain) at full back, Eoin O’Connell and Adrian Lawrence in the half back line, Christopher Sheehan at full forward and centre field, and forwards Alan O’Connor, Declan Doyle, Kieran Ryan, Mathew Fitzgerald, Cathal Gorey and Dean Tobin, all showing there skills amassing an amazing total that could have been more, in winning the Jimmy Fennessy Cup for the first time. They say you must lose a final to win one. This we have done having lost to St Marys in 2006 with our last success at this grade back in 1996 when also beating Carrick Davins in the final. Our previous win in 1987 was over Mullinahone in a replay.  We wish them the best in the county semifinal. The team was: J P McGrath, Gavin Fitzgerald, James Kelly, Kieran O’Connell, Tom O’Connell, Eoin O’Connell, Adrian Lawrence, Dean Tobin 0-3(1f), James O’Keeffe, Alan O’Connor 1-3, Declan Doyle 1-0, Aaron Donovan, Mathew Fitzgerald 1-1, Christopher Sheehan 1-4 (1f), Kieran Ryan 1-2. Subs were: Cathal Gorey (35 min) 1-0, Jonathan Fleming (57 min), Jack O’Sullivan (57 min) and Joe Fogarty (59 min).

The Minor B Football South Final is on this Friday evening 31st August in Cahir at 6.30pm when our boys play Ballyporeen. Your support would me much appreciated and we wish the team the very best of luck in their quest for a double win!

The Senior Football South Championship resumes with Fethard playing Cahir on w/e 9th September in the quarterfinal knock out.  The report for the Junior A Football game played on Wednesday we’ll have next week. The Under 21B Hurling match against Cahir is also to be played on w/e 9th September.

Our Lotto Jackpot €6,400 was not won. The numbers drawn were 8, 15, 22 and 24. We had five match three winners of €30 each: John Fitzgerald (Kiltinan), Ger Manton (Main St), Robert O’Riordan (Cloran, Cloneen), Garreth Byrne (Claremore) and Annette O’Meara (Derryluskin). The €50 Lucky Dip was won by Ann Marie Corcoran (Grove Rd). Tickets were kindly supplied by Harrington Developments.

We extend our deepest sympathy to the Maher Family (Ballybough) on the death of Philip. Go ndeana Dia trocaire orthu.

Hurling Tony Forristal Cup
This is a festival of under-14 hurling which has been hosted by County Waterford for the past 25 years and this is the first time that Waterford have ever won the final when they defeated Co. Tipperary on Sunday last. There was a Fethard connection on both teams with Evan Connolly, grandson of Ned and Eileen Garrinch, playing on the winning Waterford team and Aaron Conran from Fethard son of Tina and Franny Conran playing for Co Tipperary.

Rugby Club News
Fethard & District Juvenile Rugby Club would like to thank all those who kindly sponsored tee boxes, the golfers who took part at the event and especially Valerie Connolly and Paul Kavanagh who helped organise our recent Golf Classic at Slievenamon Golf Club last Friday. It was a huge success and raised much-needed funds to continue the running costs of our club. A wonderful day was had by all and cheers to you all.

We would also like to take this opportunity to say Thanks to all those ladies and gents from Fethard Rugby Club who made salads and cakes, cooked on the barbecue, along with helping tirelessly on Sunday at the Fethard Walled Town Festival barbecue throughout the afternoon. It was absolutely brilliant to see everyone pull together to provide a wonderful facility to the community, well done to all concerned.

The 2007-08 season rugby training is to commence on Friday 7th September – under 8s, 10s & 12s will train from 6.45pm to 8pm every Friday evening. Then the Under 14s, 16s & 18s will train on Friday evenings from 8pm to 9pm also starting on 7th September. We look forward to seeing all the youngsters back again and welcome all new faces. We will be holding a registration evening in the next few weeks to help re-register existing players under a new Munster Registration system and register new players. Please be reminded that a picture and copy of birth cert are required for registration along with the relevant fee. Watch this space for information.

Please note that the Fethard & district Juvenile Rugby Club are holding a First Aid course on the weekend of Saturday 1st & Sunday 2nd September in the Tirry Centre Fethard at €80 for the two day course. Please contact Valerie Coleville Connolly on 086 1704874 if you are interested as we have a couple of places left to fill.

Fethard and Killusty Community Games
Well done to all our competitors who competed at the HSE Community Games National Finals over the past two weekends especially to Judo competitors Padraig O’Shea and Gary Bradshaw who both won Silver medals. Certificates were won by both girls and boys volleyball teams. Boys team: Damien Morrissey, Dean Sharpe, Garreth Lawrence, Tony Myler, Andrew Maher, and Darren Thompson. Girls team:  Jane Kenny, Jean Anglim, Sarah O’Meara, Kelly Coady, Gráinne Horan, Kelly Fox, Fiona Crotty, Aisha Tobin  and Kelly Fogarty. A special word of thanks to manager, Damien Byrne, Killusty for all his time and dedication coaching and looking after these teams.

Roisín McDonnell and Laura Rice both competed in Art and Darragh Lynch, Eric Fogarty and Adam were our competitors on the athletic track. Full results from Mosney may be viewed by visiting the community games website at www.communitygames.ie click on your organisation and national news. The County Tipperary page may be viewed by visiting the same site and clicking on Provincial followed by County News.