Fethard Ladies reach first County Final

Fethard Junior ladies football team members in training for their first ever county final next week L to R: Louise O'Donnell, Bernadette O'Meara, Sandra Spillane and Amy Pollard.

On Saturday 10th October, Fethard’s Junior Ladies football team will contest their first ever county final at 4.45pm in Golden. This will be a historic day for the club and they ask as many people as possible to travel to the match and lend their support on Saturday.

The club would also like to thank their coach, Tommy Sheehan, who has done a tremendous job so far, and to the selectors, Tom McCarthy, Sandra Maher and Maureen McCarthy. We wish them, and the team, the very best of luck in the final.

The club would like to thank Philip Butler, Butler’s Sports Bar, for sponsoring polo shirts for the team and to the Lantern Restaurant for team socks.


Fethard Junior ladies football team members in training for their first ever county final next week L to R: Sandra Maher, Sharon O'Meara, Edel Fitzgerald, Jean Morrissey, Audrey Conway, Fiona Conway, Nora O'Meara and Marie Holohan.


Fethard Junior ladies football team members in training for their first ever county final next week L to R: Kay Spillane, Marion Harrington, Emily Noonan and Sarah Smyth.

Fethard Junior ladies football team members in training for their first ever county final next week L to R: Jennifer Keane, Jennifer Fogarty and Mary Jane Kearney.

Under-13s
Our under-13s are due to play in the county blitz finals on Sunday 11th October at a venue to be decided. All girls will be notified during the week.

Patrician Presentation Secondary School
All past pupils of the above schools are invited to join the recently re-formed Past Pupils Union. Up to the early 1980s the Past Pupils Union flourished and then went into abeyance. Now it has been revived with the objects of funding and registering everybody who has attended the above schools which amalgamated around twenty years ago. We also want to write a history of the schools and to assist in class reunions.

A reunion of the class of 1960 is planned for next year and the Presentation Convent class of ’69 are meeting in a few weeks. Anybody who attended can contact the secretary, Dinny Burke at fethardppppunion@gmail.com We look forward to hearing from you.

Cookery Courses
A fabulous five-week Cookery Course will take place in the Tirry Community Centre, Fethard. Both day and evening courses are available. The first of the evening courses will commence on Tuesday 13th October and will continue on 20th, 27th Oct and 3rd and 10th November from 7pm to 9.30pm. The courses will be facilitated by Catherine Ryan who has a degree in culinary arts and is a qualified professional chef.

Catherine has also qualified as a pastry chef and has completed advanced courses in chocolate work in Paris. Catherine will give demonstrations in a relaxed and entertaining environment and will give plenty of tips on how to cook restaurant style food in the comfort of your own home. There will be plenty of opportunity to taste all dishes and take away new recipe ideas. For more information contact Tel: 087 2672317. Now that the festive season is approaching this is a great opportunity to increase your cooking skills and have an enjoyable evening out.

Fethard Man Exhibits at Granary

Joe Fogarty (left) photographed with his brothers John and Jim (right) at the Granary Gallery in Waterford

On Friday evening last, 2nd October, an art exhibition featuring the works of Drawmhor, an art group based in Tramore, opened at the Granary Gallery in Waterford city. Drawmhor, a small, tightly-knit group of artists, includes Joe Fogarty, a native of Fethard and long-time resident in Tramore, as one of its members. An impressive selection of Joe’s paintings are on view as part of the Granary exhibition.

Joe’s paintings, mainly landscapes, often with human subjects, have an almost photorealistic appearance at first glance. Closer examination, however, reveals a definite individual style which manages to imbue the scenes and subjects depicted with an indefinable sense of allure and mystery.

Having displayed an interest in and a natural flair for drawing during his schooldays circumstances and lack of opportunity during those days decreed that a focus on the artistic would have to simmer in the background for some time.


Pictured at the launch of the Granary Art Exhibition L to R: sisters Anne & Maria Finnegan, artists; James Power, Artistic Director, Stagemad Theatre Company; Mick Flavin, artist; Joe Fogarty, artist.

However, it’s never too late if you have will enough, together with desire and determination. A number of years ago Joe began taking night classes in drawing at WIT. In 2007 he joined the Drawmhor art group in Tramore with whom he studied acrylic painting under the guiding hand of Mick Flavin, founder-member of the group and co-exhibitor at the Granary.


Joey & Leish Fogarty relaxing at the Granary Art Exhibition which included works by their son Joe

Joe’s first exhibition was with the group at the Coastguard Station, Love Lane, Tramore in March/April 2008. He has also exhibited at the Friary Arts Centre, Carrickbeg during the Clancy Festival in June of this year. His paintings are to be found in private collections in Ireland, the UK, Austria and Dubai.

The Granary exhibition was launched on Friday evening by James Power, Artistic Director of Stagemad Theatre Company, who commended the outstanding quality of the works on view. James and Stagemad will be remembered by patrons of the Abymill Theatre, Fethard, for a production there of ‘Are you the wife of Michael Cleary?’ in May of 2006.


Leish & Dilly Fogarty pictured with some of Joe's paintings exhibited on the wall behind.

While the Drawmhor art exhibition is an independent undertaking it will remain in situ for the duration of the Imagine Arts Festival which runs in Waterford from the 22nd to 31st October.

Fethard & Killusty Community Lotto
The numbers drawn on 30th September were 9, 27, 28 and 32. We had no Jackpot winner and two ‘Match 3’ winners who received €75 each:
Jimmy Cooney, c/o Arthur Daly;
Margaret Dunne, Ballycullen.
The three following Lucky Dip winners received €50 each:
Jacqui O'Flynn, Killerk, Fethard;
Jim O'Meara, St. Patricks Place, Fethard;
Nellie Ryan, St. Patricks Place, Fethard.
Next week’s Jackpot continues at €10,000 and the Jackpot sellers prize is €1000.

Rugby Club News
The season is now in full swing with all our teams in competition every weekend.

Our U15s travelled to Tipp town to take on Clanwilliam and came away with a great victory on a score line of 28-18. The try scorers were Cian O'Connell, Kyle Walsh, Tadhg Fogarty and Jimmy Feehan. Jimmy topped of a great performance by converting all tries. Tadhg Fogarty gave an immense tackling display upsetting the Clanwilliam attack time and again. William Morgan and Jack McCarthy were also very impressive throughout. We welcome Keith Brunnock from Cahir to the club, his playing in his first season is already very impressive. The forwards also played very well, particularly in defence as they denied Clan numerous tries on the line.

Coming on the back of a comprehensive win over Cashel last week, this young team is showing great promise and with some further players due back this week, competition for places will be intense as they face their first league game next week-end.

Our U17s played host to Clonmel for their first league game, but as no official ref turned up it was played as a challenge match, with Clonmel edging it by 17-15. The coaches were very pleased with the performance of the Fethard lads, all of who would qualify for the old U16 grade. Frankie Donovan had a great game scoring a try with Keith Guiry scoring the other. Dylan Fitzgerald also played brilliantly throughout and is showing great potential. Shane Power had one of his better games in a Fethard jersey converting a penalty and one of the tries.

Our U19s hosted Clonmel in the first game of the league and both teams played really exciting rugby. The game ended in a draw 22-22. Ben Walsh had an outstanding game at fly-half, distributing well and his kicking game was spot on converting two of the tries and a penalty. The Fethard forwards played exceptionally well against a much bigger pack and forced the Clonmel pack to concede seven penalties. Andrew Kelly seems to be really enjoying his rugby this season. Robert Hall scored the first try for Fethard leaving us a point ahead at half time. Clonmel opened the second half very strong and were rewarded with a well-taken penalty and try giving them a seven point cushion. Fethard upped their performance. Kieran Power intercepted a Clonmel pass to run the length of the field to score a great try, made all the more sweet as Kieran carried a badly bruised knee into the game. Ben converted to draw the game with ten minutes remaining.

Fethard continued to attack and a great forward move released Alan Casey for a try in the corner, the conversion by Ben from the line was of Ronan O'Gara vintage. Fethard looked to have secured maximum points with five minutes remaining on a score of 22-15. Credit this Clonmel side, however, they took possession from a lineout and scored a great try cutting Fethard’s margin to 2 points. The pressure was on the young Clonmel kicker as he lined up the ball literally six inches from the touchline. He split the posts to tie the game.

It was great to see Shane Kavanagh back from a long injury and Jack O'Connell back from his sabbatical. The boys out injured and those yet to return will have to work really hard to win their places on this team.

There was huge sadness in the club as news filtered through of the tragic death of a friend, a fellow 19 year old, a rugby and GAA star, Andrew Walsh. All the players and members wish to express our heart felt sympathy to Andrew's parents, Ann and Michael and to his brothers Paul and David, and to all Andrew’s relatives at this heart breaking news. We will keep ye all in our hearts and our prayers in the fervent hope that ye can somehow get through this awful loss.

Winning Streak

Teresa 'Ronnie' Meagher (right) delighted to hear her name being called out to participate in next week's 'Winning Streak' while watching TV last Saturday night in McCarthy's Hotel. Ronnie is photographed above with Lizzie Burke Purcell and will appear on the TV game show on this coming Saturday night 10th October.

Historical Society Outing
An afternoon tour of Knockelly and Rathkenny will take place next Sunday 11th October. This outing is open and free to all members and would be members. For those wishing to car pool meet outside the Town Hall for 1.30pm, otherwise at Knockelly castle for 2pm.
From Knockelly it is intended that we walk through surrounding farm land of Rathkenny (approx 2 miles) so bring appropriate walking boots and be prepared for whatever the weather brings. The tour will take in a broad range of topics from changes in farming to landscape and the different families associated with the area, finishing last, but definitely not least, in the grounds of the magnificent Knockelly castle.

One request by the tour guide for the day is that everyone brings a small insignificant rag or piece of material with them, all will be explained on the day.

For further information on the above phone Terry on 052 6123402, or Colm on 086 3502360.

Mick Hanly for Fethard


Mick Hanly will play a concert in Fethard to coincide with the release of his new album ‘Mick Hanly Collected’. This new album contains Mick’s better-known songs from the past twenty years, with a few new ones that have never been recorded for release before. Joining Mick for this one off gig will be guitarist Arty McGlynn, who has recently been very high profile in television and film, appearing with the Clancy Brothers in the film ‘The Yellow Bittern’ and with Paul Brady on a BBC special about top Irish songwriters.
Copies of the new album will be available on the night. They play McCarthy’s on Saturday 17th October.

Fethard ICA October meeting
The October meeting of Fethard ICA Guild will take place in the ICA Hall on the13th October at 8pm as usual. Our speaker will be Monica Conway, Clerihan. Monica is a Lymph Drainage Therapist, and we are very grateful to her for fitting the guild into her busy schedule. This will be a very interesting lecture, to which non-members are very welcome to come along and benefit from. The ‘Blue Group’ are in charge of catering on the night.

Married Recently

Married recently in the Church of the Sacred Heart; Killusty; were Marie Holohan; daughter of Michael and Mary Holohan; Killusty; and Gerry Burgess; son of Alice and the late Hugh Burgess; Lisronagh.

Fethard GAA Club News
Last Wednesday the curtain came down on Fethard’s senior club playing year when they were defeated in the Junior A football South semifinal on a scoreline, Fethard 0-10, Carrick Swans 1-11. Best for Fethard were Paul Kenny, Peter Gough, Willie Morrissey and Martin Coen. Team was: Paul Kenny, Ciaran O’Connell, Peter Gough, Philly Croke, Michael Carroll, Alan Phelan, William O’Brien, Miceál Spillane 0-1, PJ Morrissey 0-1, John Leahy, Stephen O’Donnell, Willie Morrissey 0-2, Martin Coen 0-6 (4F), Shane Kenny, Alan Burke. Subs were Johnny Neville and Brendan Brett.

It has been 14 years since we last went a year without winning silverware. We thank all those who gave us enjoyment during the year – officers in charge, mentors, players and supporters. Beg la eile le cunamh de.

Best of luck to the ladies junior football team who compete in their first county final this weekend.

Our Lotto Jackpot €3,400 was not won. The numbers drawn were 7, 15, 16 and 26. We had no match three winner so the following drawn tickets won €30 each: Kay Williams (Killusty, Fethard); Louis & Mary Coen (Killusty, Fethard); Rita Doyle (Woodvale Walk, Fethard); Ann Fleming (Killerk, Fethard); and John Fitzgerald (Kiltinan Fethard). The €50 Lucky Dip was won by Martin Ryan (Lismortagh, Moyglass). We thank Fethard Electrical Wholesalers for supplying the tickets.
The club offers it sincere condolences at this time to the Walsh family (Jossestown) on the death of Andrew who died so tragically over the weekend, having played for a time with the Fethard Club. Go ndeana Dia trocaire orthu.

Fethard Bridge Club
The results of our game on Wednesday 23rd September were:
1st Gross: Rita Kane and Kay St. John;
2nd Gross: Berney Myles and Alice Quinn;
1st Nett: Brigid Gorey and Betty Walsh;
2nd Nett: Frances Burke and Breda Walsh.

On Wednesday 30th September we played for the Free Sub Gross and the results were:
1st Gross: Berney Myles and Alice Quinn (winners of Free Sub);
2nd Gross: Rita Kane and Kay St. John;
1st Nett: Carmel Condon and Brendan Kenny;
2nd Nett: Nell Broderick and David O’Meara.

On Wednesday 21st October we play for Hallowe’en prizes.
Anyone looking for a partner contact Berney Myles at 6132038

Fethard Athletic Club Notes

Fethard Athletic Club team photographed at the Tipperary AAI even-age cross country championships at Mary Willies on Sunday 4th October. L to R: Eoin Healy, Alex Davis, Louis Rice, Pat Heffernan, David Heffernan Rachel Prout, Mark Heffernan (front), Lyuba Novitova, Hannah Harbich and Miceál McCormack.

On Sunday last, 4th October, the club had a group of athletes in action at the Tipperary AAI Even-Age Cross County Championships beside the Dublin Road near Mary Willies organised by Moyne AC.
Young Mark Heffernan was our first athlete out, in a large field boys under 12. He finished in a top 20 position. Next up was his older brother David who was running one year up in the under 14 championship. Here again we had an excellent performance by David taking 15th position in a huge field of athletes.

Then it was the turn of our under 18 girls team to take part in the 3000m County championship. Local girl Rachel Prout of Derryluskin was joined by Lyuba Novitova and Berliner Hannah Harbich making up the trio. Hannah had the honour of leading the team home in gold medal position. Well done girls!

Our final race saw Louis Rice (Brookhill) captain his team of Eoin Healy (The Green) and Alex Davis (Colman Cross) to lead his team to gold medal victory in the under 18 boys championship. Louis finished a creditable fourth in this exiting race.

We have been training in the Community field for the past three weeks on Monday and Thursday nights from 7.30pm to 8.45pm and this will continue until the end of the summer. New members always welcome to come training Monday and Thursday nights, and our former runners, twice as welcome. All you need is a pair of runners and togs.

Missing from last Sunday’s event were Adam O'Donnell, Johnny Fleming, Kevin Hayes, Anne Schlueter and Aisling O'Dwyer. Hopefully, we will have a full contingent for the Tipperary uneven age group cross-county next Sunday near the same venue on the Dublin Road. We also welcome Derek Zulu from Rosegreen who is competing with us. Plans are in hand to run a cross county under lights in the next three weeks. More later.

Last Sunday was the 40th anniversary of our first championship win in the country in 1969, when, out in Delanys, we won the individual and county first team under 16 with the team of Thomas McCarthy, David Morrissey (P), Michael Kenrick, Tony Hanrahan and Noel Sharpe.

Fethard Macra
Fethard Macra will hold a table quiz in Butlers Bar, Main Street, Fethard this Friday, 9th October at 9.30pm. This is in aid of MS Ireland. Spot prizes on the night. The next meeting of Fethard Macra will take place on 16th October at 9pm in Butlers Bar in Fethard. We will be organising details for the forthcoming soccer league. For further information contact Michael at 087 9019443 or email Fethardmacra@gmail.com or on Bebo ‘FethardM’ also check out our page on Facebook. Further information can also be found on www.southtippmacra.com or http://fethardmacra.blogspot.com

Fashion Show in Cloneen
Slievenamon Musical Society will hold their annual Fashion Show in Cloneen Hall on Friday 9th October. This promises to be a great night out with a cheese and wine reception at 7.30 to kick the night off. The show itself will start at 8pm featuring fashion from shops such as Irene's, Ria's, Connolly Man, Now, Wurlitzer, Marks and Spencer's, Please Mum, OC, Nest and hats from Matthew Power in Callan. There will be plenty of local models from the area and a few celebrities too! Tickets are available on the door on the night and cost €15 for adults and €10 for children.

Tragic accident in Galway
The town of Fethard was stunned on Sunday, 4th October, when they heard of the tragic death of 19-year-old pedestrian, Andrew Walsh, Jossestown, who was struck and killed by a car outside Galway city. Andrew and his older brother Paul were in Galway to attend a 21st birthday party on Saturday night at Barna Golf Club, about five miles west of Galway city.

Our sincere sympathy to Andrew’s parents, Ann and Michael, their sons Paul and David and the extended O’Riordan and Walsh families at this very sad and heartbreaking time. Interment took place in Calvary Cemetery.

Fethard News Items for Nationalist
Please submit all news items for the Fethard Page on The Nationalist to news@fethard.com or by hand to Joe Kenny, Rocklow Road, Fethard. To ensure inclusion, please have notes supplied before Monday morning.