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Gortnahoe & Glengoole

Holy Year Cross Pilgrimage on Slievenamon

Rev. Canon Tom Breen, P.P. Fethard & Killusty and Fr. Peter Haughey, Prior Augustinian Abbey Fethard, who concelebrated Mass at the Mountain Wall, Slievenamon, on Sunday 16th August.


Members of the O'Sullivan family make their way towards the Mountain Wall on Slievenamon for the Annual Pilgrimage to the Holy Year Cross. L to R: Dermot O'Sullivan, Ann O'Sullivan, Hugh O'Sullivan, Claire O'Sullivan and Niamh O'Sullivan.


L to R: Davey Woodlock, Fr. Anthony McSweeney and John Phelan


The Sheehy family, Garrinch, pictured on Slievenamon at the Annual Pilgrimage on Sunday 16th August. L to R: Hannah, Brian, Criostóir and Noreen.


Back L to R: Dermot O'Donnell, Catherine O'Donnell, Jim O'Donnell, Kieran O'Donnell, Paul Duggan. Front L to R: Phoebe Duggan, Rose O'Donnell and Andy Duggan.


L to R: Willie O'Meara, Dara O'Meara, Caoimh O'Meara, Anna Walsh, Molly O'Meara, Bernie O'Meara.


Mary Prendergast (nee Meaney) pictured with her uncle, Bill Meaney.


Michelle, Mary and Orla Walsh keep the Tipperary Team in mind on Slievenamon on Sunday last, August 16th.

Legendary Loudest Whisper
Loudest Whisper will make a welcome return visit to Butler's Bar, Fethard, on Friday 28th August, when they play their unique blend of Folk/Rock music.  The band is considered ‘Legendary’ in many quarters and should not to be missed.

Is your bird missing?
A Turquoise/Blue Budgie has been found alive and well in a garden in Fethard.  If you are the owner, please make local enquiries or email fethardnews@gmail.com for further details.

Fethard GAA Club News
Fethard Senior Footballers will contest the South Final for the seventh time in ten years, when they renew their old rivalry with Moyle Rovers, having come through the semi-final in Clonmel on Friday 14th August.  The final score was Fethard 1-13; Cahir 0-12.  Best for Fethard was Cian Maher, Benny Hahessy, Kenneth O’Donnell, Eoin Doyle, John Paul Looby and Brian Coen.  Fethard Team: Paul Fitzgerald, Tommy Gahan, Michael Aherne, Ian Kenrick, Tomás Keane, Damien Byrne, Cian Maher, Benny Hahessy (0-1), Jamie McCormack, Kenneth O’Donnell (0-1), Eoin Doyle, Shane Aylward, John Paul Looby, Jason Nevin (0-1), Brian Coen (0-10; 6f).  Subs used: Michael Dillon, Declan Doyle for Jamie McCormack (injured) and John Fitzgerald.

The Annual Church Gate Collection for the Fethard GAA Club takes place on this coming weekend, August 22nd and 23rd.  We would like to thank all our readers for their continued support to the club.  We would also like to inform that the following competitions, in which Fethard are involved, are still in progress:  Senior Football – South and County; Intermediate Hurling – South Semi-Final; Junior A Football – South Quarter or Semi-Final; Minor B – Hurling.

Golf Classic Winners

Members of the winning team at Fethard Juvenile GAA Golf Classic held on Saturday 15th August. L to R: Brian Higgins, Anne Coen and Shea Coen.

Fethard and Killusty Ladies Football Club
Fethard and Killusty Ladies Football Club would like to inform members that training has resumed for all underage players on Saturday morning at 11am in the GAA Field.
Also, the Under 13 Championship will commence on the 5th of September.

Fethard & Killusty Community Lotto
The numbers drawn on 12th August were 3, 10, 11 and 26.  We had no Jackpot winner and no ‘Match 3’ winners.  Three tickets were drawn to win €50 each:
Nellie Ryan, St. Patrick’s Place;
Catherine Kearney, The Green; and
Peg Gleeson, Coolmore.

The three following Lucky Dip winners received €50 each:
Chris O’Dwyer, Strylea, Fethard;
Phil Tobin, Fr. Tirry Park, Fethard; and
Corina Roe, Monkstown, Dublin.
Next week’s Jackpot continues at €10,000 and the Jackpot sellers prize is €1000.

Home of Holidays

Photographed at McCarthy's Hotel are L to R: Rory O'Connor, home on holidays from San Francisco, Tom Purcell, Vincent Murphy and Fintan Rice.


Photographed at The Castle Inn, Fethard, are L to R: John Ryan, Geraldine White-Pereira, Luke Hackett, George Pereira and Colm Hackett.

Walled Town Festival this weekend
Colourful ‘Family Day’
The Weekend of 22nd and 23rd August sees Medieval Fethard come alive like it never has before.  The organisers have gone again for colour and pageantry and old style treats for all the family.
The main activity will again take place, on Sunday 23rd, down in The Valley in the shadow of the old Town Walls, a medieval urban setting that can not be equalled anywhere else in Ireland.  Visitors are again expected from near and far, and hopefully the gods will once more favour the festival with great weather as in years before.

Saturday for openers

The weekend begins with the opening of ‘Fired by Colour’ ceramic exhibition in the Town Hall showing the work of Dóirín Saurus, Sarah Murphy, Liz O’Brien, Elke Wilson, Stella Kenna and Nuala Quirke, all of Crampscastle Pottery.  The show opens at 4pm on Saturday 22nd August with a harp recital by Steve Haggerty of Kilcash. The exhibition will remain open in the Town Hall from Saturday 22nd August to Wednesday 26th August.
This event will be followed, at 5pm, by a Guided Tour of the Medieval Town for locals and visitors alike, with guide Mary Hanrahan.

Launch of Conservation and Management Plan
At 6.30pm on Saturday, a long awaited and important chapter will be written into Fethard history.  Following nearly two year’s work and preparation, a ‘Conservation and Management Plan for the Medieval Town Walls of Fethard’ will be launched by Cllr John Fahey (Mr. John Bradley had to withdraw due to unforeseen family commitment) in The Abymill Theatre.  This is a very thorough document commissioned by South Tipperary County Council in partnership with the Heritage Council through the Irish Walled Towns Network (IWTN) and completed by the consultancy firm Oxford Archaeology, from the city of the same name.

Their Head of Building Archaeology, Mr. Julian Munby will talk at 7pm on the findings and recommendations of the study.  This report will now inform all future work on ‘The Wall’ and influence all developments along the line of the best-preserved town walls in the Republic.  So it is a very important document indeed.

A reception and harp music will greet the people and it is hoped that a large attendance of townspeople will attend to hear at first hand what Mr Munby has to say about their medieval town.

Festival Sunday
Sunday promises to be a spectacle with more colour being added at every turn - from flags, to family shields, to tapestries, to Norman knights in shining armour and demur Irish ladies in their woollen ‘brats’.
Again, the day opens, at 11.30am, with the ‘Fired by Colour’ ceramic exhibition in The Tholsel (Town Hall), followed by live music in the Square beginning at 12 noon. It will not, however, be ‘square’ music as local youth bands, ‘Zero Tolerance’ and ‘Naked Mr America’ (winners of last year’s ‘Battle of the Bands’) will lash it out ‘til 2pm when the Medieval Parade takes off from the Town Hall.

Medieval Parade
The Fethard fancy dress parade was famous all over south Tipperary, and now its back again, but with a medieval twist.  Prizes will again be given out to the best Adult and Children entries and those who push the medieval boat out to its colourful limits.
The Parade will be led by a ‘cheeky’ Trumpeter and a brace of Wolf hounds, and pride of place this year will go to the children and the Tapestry that is being created by approximately thirty-six of them in the Workshops that are taking place this week. The Knights, Ladies and Re-enactors will join in, and who knows who or what may turn up on the day.

The Valley Festival

Then it’s off down Main Street, turning left along the Clashawley and into The Valley where a tented village awaits.  New additions this year will be a roasting pig and flying eagles, to join the Archery, the re-enactments, the Puppeteer, The Mandala, the Fortune Teller, Herbal Walks, food stalls and craft workers. There will even be an ‘Inquisition’, where - we are told anyway - you can win a prize as opposed to loose your head.  And there should be ‘tests of skill’ for those with a keen eye and fast hands and legs and of course The Lee Valley String band will fill the Valley with music between 3 and 5pm.

Family Shields and Flags
As mentioned a few weeks back workshops are being held this week to paint the family shields of the descendants of the Norman families that came to Fethard from 1200 onwards.  The Irish families- the Kennedys, O’Connors, Phelans, Ryans, O’Dwyers, McCarthys, O’Briens, McGraths, Mahers, O’Donnells, O’Neills, etc, will have their say next year when banners and flags will be created after their manner. The Irish chiefs and families did not take that readily to the introduced Norman heraldic system, although over time most Irish families had a ‘family crest’ attributed to them.

So if your family name is: Roche, Cromp, Desmond, Hackett, Wall, Mockler, Stokes, Tobin, Purcell, Butler, Everard, Neville, Shorthall, Prendergast, Walsh, Sinnot, Bermingham, Archdekin, Grant, Bray, Power, Grace, Burke, Hayes, Barrett, Mandeville, Nevin, Condon, Russell, Laffan, Netterville, Burden, Carbery, Stapleton, Dalton, Carew, Maunsell, Devereaux, Archer, Collier, Landy, Fanning, Cantwell, Keating, du Fresne, Tyrell, Cussin, Morris, Scadan — then please contact us at festival@fethard.com or phone (052) 6131000, there might still be time left to get involved and have your family represented.  There is no cost involved and the plan is to hang the shields on the Town Wall for this and future festivals.

Fethard Medieval Walled Town Festival 2009
This is the third year of the festival where South Tipperary County Council, The Heritage Council and the local community have come together to provide a genuine family day out where fun and laughter and chat are the number one priority.

Childrens’ Medieval Tapestry Free Workshop
As part of this year’s Fethard Walled Town Medieval Festival, Children aged 8 to 14 are welcome to enroll for a series of Workshops, led by artist Pat Looby. This is a textile art project based on medieval tapestries. Children will learn how to draw, paint and sew on to fabric and will create a new Tapestry based on the Medieval features of Fethard.

The finished Tapestry will be part of the Fethard Walled Towns Day Festival on 23rd August and will then go on permanent display at the Fethard Youth Centre.

The workshops will take place from Monday 17th August to Friday 21st August, from 11am to 1pm and 2pm to 4pm. Booking Essential. Special workshop for 5 to 7 year olds will take place on Monday 17th August from 11am to 12.30pm. The workshops are free and will be held at O'Sullivan's Main Street (formerly Dillons' Chemist). To enroll please call: (052) 6131000.

Childrens Colouring Competition for Medieval Festival


This drawing by Tom Tierney of thirteenth-century nobility was chosen as this year’s Fethard Town Wall Medieval Festival colouring competition for 6 year olds and over.
Information about the clothes in the drawing show — Left: The waist of the noblewoman’s gown has moved to just under the bosom; the skirt has an extremely long train. She wares a steeple hennin (headdress) with a loose veil. Right: The gentleman’s cote, or jacket, is cut short, showing his legs to advantage. Featuring padded and puffed shoulders and slashed hanging sleeves, his cote has a fur-trimmed collar. Around his neck he wears a circlet of fur.

The competition rules are as follows:
(A) Completed entries must be submitted to the Community Centre, Barrack Street, or Newport’s Newsagency by 4pm on Friday 21st August, 2009; (B) Make sure to put your name, age, address and telephone number on reverse; (C) The use of crayons, markers, colouring pencils and paint is permitted; (D) Prizes will be awarded to 1st, 2nd and 3rd subject to sufficient entries. Judges decision is final.
Copies of the image (A4 size) can be downloaded from or available from Newport’s Newsagency and the Tirry Community Centre.