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Liberty Square Thurles, Ireland’s Oxford Circus.

The offensive, unpleasant stench of raw sewage, emanated from the manhole covers in lower Liberty Square, Thurles, again yesterday, warning us of possibly some other impending future danger.
Motorists slowly passing through this now drive-through only area, quickly closed their car windows as they queued up in dense traffic to exit.

Local people passing through the Square, will have noted that in the late evenings over the past week; since the Thurles Music Festival, there has been a major effort to wash the dark stains from the pale coloured, Chinese granite stone; sadly to little avail.

The stains despite all efforts still remain, as Thurles.Info had pointed out in their initial planning submission; latter requested by Tipperary Co. Council, from the public, some four years previously; none of which, as expected, was ever read and certainly not heeded.

But now the town centre faces a new more sinister long-term problem, which we invite council officials, to rise up from their paperless desks and observe.

No, the problem is not failing to water the flowers; not the stench of sewage; not the failure to turn off street lighting, burning 24 hours per day. No it is not even the total lockdown of this area as Emergency Services attempt to either pass through or attend to urgent situations within this area as observed yesterday; no it’s chewing gum.

See images hereunder, reminiscent of Oxford Circus tube station, in the West End of London.

Chewing Gum – the new threat on Liberty Square, Thurles.

When Thurles street surfaces was constructed of black tarmac and much wider; to the casual observer, chewing gum went unnoticed.
Today the worst area is around the front of Historic Hayes Hotel, were teenage disco goers congregate on Friday nights. [After all, one must keep ones breath fresh in the event of that inevitable kiss, and with the non availability of suitable litter bins to accommodate ……… well enough said, what is the point, our elected representatives and officials are either totally deaf, or suffering from the Dunning Kruger Effect.]

Has Chewing Gum Ever Been Banned Anywhere?

Answer is yesSingapore – that sovereign diamond shaped island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia, located at the southern tip of the Malaysian peninsula.

Today, Singapore tops the list as the world’s most welcoming city, offering a safe environment to visitors, and it is one place where chewing gum is totally banned.

This ban on chewing gum was first introduced by Mr Harry Lee Kuan Yew, in 1992, adding to their other stiff laws with regard to graffiti, littering, spitting, expelling nasal mucus, jaywalking and urinating anywhere other than in a toilet. It is also against the law to fail to flush a public toilet.

Harry Lee Kuan Yew (LKY), latter a highly regarded Singaporean statesman and barrister, who served as the first Prime Minister of Singapore, between 1959 and 1990; saw the habit of spitting out chewing gum as a filthy, unhealthy habit and suggested that “if people can’t think, because they can’t chew, they should try chewing bananas”.

In Singapore today, the public will face a hefty fine for spitting out chewed gum, with same offence also doubling as “Littering“.

Time to get out the WD-40 Multi-Use and the long handled scrapers before then washing to get rid of the fish oil (WD-40).
It seems our Municipal District Council and Tipperary Co. Council are not finished wasting taxpayers money on our town centre, for the foreseeable future, as businesses vanish from the landscape.

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“An Irish Journey” by Sean O’Faolain in 1940s Thurles, Continued.

Sean O’Faolain

Cork born, John Francis Whelan [1900 -1991] possibly better known by all as Sean O’Faolain was one of the most influential figures in 20th-century Irish culture. A short-story writer of international repute; he was also a leading commentator and critic.

In his book “An Irish Journey” (from the Liffey to the Lee), latter published first in 1940, (Published in America in 1943), he reflects on his visit to Liberty Square, here in Thurles, Co. Tipperary. 

For those who may have missed Part 1 of his story regarding his sojourn in Thurles, Co. Tipperary; same can be read HERE

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PART 2(Final part continues)Sean O’Faolain writes as follows,

“The old man on the bridge remembered all the famous people I associate with Thurles, such as the famous Archbishop Croke, Smith O’Brien and the Fenians, Parnell, John Dillon and especially William O’Brien, that fiery particle from Cork who with Tim Healy was the most gallant and the wildest fighter of the Irish parliamentary party and who alone continued the best traditions (as well as some of the worst) of that party into the modern Sinn Fein revival.

He showed me where the old Market House used to stand in the square with its little tower and it’s frontal terrace, stepped at each side and he talks so well I could see the vast political meetings there, of nights, with the tar-barrels smoking and spluttering in the wind, their flames leaping in the reflecting windows about, the police lined along the opposite walls or grouped in side streets, fingering their carbines or batons in case there should be a clash between rival parties.

The great Archbishop would stand there tall and impressive; with him another big clerical figure – with apparently much more suave and evasive, Canon Cantwell; Dillon slightly stooped; O’Brien bearded like a prophet and Parnell ready to tear the hearts of the crowd with some clinching phrase.

Later, I looked up at Croke’s fine statue in the square and went to the Cathedral (Cathedral of the Assumption, Thurles), to see his bust in its niche – a square jawed firm mouthed man, much what one would expect from his life story, all solid and all of a piece. He was one of the last great nationalist prelates, for the Parnell split struck a deadly blow at a priest in politics, and though the hierarchy has manfully stood by the people several times since then, especially during the Revolution, they almost always act in cautious and deliberate concert and the freelance fighting Bishop has since died out.

The Archbishop Thomas William Croke statue situated on Liberty Square, Thurles, Co. Tipperary.

There is something fabular (having the form of a fable or story) about Croke. He destroyed all his papers after reading Purcell’s “Life of Cardinal Manning and little positive remains.

It is said that he fought at the barricades in Paris in the revolutionary troubles of 1848, [“Springtime of the Peoples”]. One can, after looking at his portraits and reading his life, well believe William O’Brien who vouches for it; see the young priest of twenty-four caught by the excitement of the times, the rattle of Cavignac’s musketry, the flutter of the Red flag, the barricades of furniture, carts, wagons, dead horses, the cries of the demagogues.

There is another like story which maintains that when he was a student either in Paris or in that pleasant college of the little Rue de Irlandais, behind the Pantheon orat Menin, he horrified a class by denying in a syllogism, (Latter a form of reasoning in which a conclusion is drawn from two given or assumed propositions), was expelled, put his pack on his back and tramped across Europe to the Irish college at Rome and was admitted there. (The rector was John Paul Cullen, later Cardinal, a friend of Pope Leo, one of the most influential men in the whole European church, the man who defined for the Catholic world the precise formula of Papal Infallibility.)

I should like to believe the stories, they are such an excellent prologue to a life during which, as curate, professor, college president at Fermoy, chancellor, parish priest, bishop in New Zealand, archbishop of Cashel, he was in every station, the most outspoken, forward driving, irrepressible, warm-hearted, affectable, and sympathetic figure, in the entire history of the Irish episcopacy.

When he was appointed Bishop, it is said that the appointment was most unpopular in his diocese and if I made believe my old man at the bridge, (Barry’s Bridge Thurles), who kept on remembering local lore about him – on his first Sunday he got up in the pulpit and told the people that he knew it, that he now had the post and that he “was, thank God, under no compliment to the priests and people of Tipperary for it”.

He gave dinner in celebration of his appointment. Only one of his opponent’s dared to stay away, a professor in the Diocesan Seminary, father Dan Ryan. The murmur went round the table before the meal ended that Ryan had been suspended, an unheard of punishment for what was merely a social gaffe. But it was true. Croke had suspended him for twenty-four hours, “just to show him who was the boss”.

William Smith O’Brien

He was as generous as he was stern. In the great days of the Irish parliamentary party, William (Smith) O’Brien used to stay at the Palace. One night, after O’Brien had gone to bed the Archbishop paused outside his door and for some idle reason apparently looked at O’Brien’s boots. They were in tatters. He sent out into the town early next morning for a new pair of boots. O’Brien soon afterwards received the cheque for €200.

Those must have been great days and nights in that Palace in Thurles and Croke has always seemed to me an epitome (perfect example) of the Irish priest at his best, sitting there among the Irish political leaders of the day Biggar, Davitt, Parnell, O’Brien and the rest. Outside are the Tipperary farmers and their wives, down from the rich hills, up from the Golden Vale. The great square is dense with chaffers and bargainers by day; by night with crowds waiting to hear him. It is splendid to see his statue today in that same square (Liberty Square, Thurles) with the market surging around it, like a navy moored to his pedestal.

And he was no mere political priest. At the Parnell divorce he took Parnell’s bust, which he had in his hall, and kicked it out of the door, he was heartbroken. “Ireland” he moaned “is no fitting place for any decent man today. The warmth that used to gladden my heart has disappeared. There is nothing to cheer me in church or state”.
He wished even to fly from Thurles and Tipperary and Ireland, back to New Zealand.

I naturally have a warm corner for Croke; he was a Cork man and they say he never lost his Cork accent and even to the end of his days, ordered his food and other needs from Cork city, rather than give Tipperary, which had not wanted him, the benefit of his custom. A curious thing is that his mother was a Protestant. She remained a Protestant to within a few years, I think only four, of her death.

History, as all over Ireland, is an odd medley in the popular mind of this modern Tipperary – if one may judge by its chance projections in Thurles. They have, for example, lost their old market hall, with its many associations. The one castle which remains is only part of what once stood there.
There were once seven castles in Thurles. In the backyards any good antiquary, like, I imagine, the local Archdeacon Seymour or Dr Callanan, could point you out the remains of the old walls in the town’s backyards. On the other hand on the wall of Hayes hotel there is a neat plaque to commemorate the founding there, of the Gaelic Athletic Association in 1884, with Croke as the first patron. While the modern Gaelic revival having permitted the castles to disappear, records a group of new terrace houses beyond Kickham Street, heroes and heroines nobody can possibly visualise or know anything about – Oisin Terrace, Oscar Terrace, Dalcassian Terrace, Emer Terrace, Banba Terrace and so on.
It is a typical experience of the confused and ambiguous, mingled nature of this modern Ireland to go from that end of the town to the other, to the great Beet Factory, pulsing and hammering away inside its impressive buildings, with its rows and rows of railway sidings and it’s rows and rows of windows shining at night across the Tipperary fields”.

Story Ends

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Covid-19 Cases Reach 6,448 On Island Of Ireland Today.

The Department of Health has confirmed 4,642 new cases of Covid-19 virus, in the past 24 hours, here in the Irish Republic.

There are currently 556 virus patients in our hospitals, up 7 on yesterday’s reported figures.
Of those in our hospitals with the virus, 107 people are in intensive care units (ICU); an increase of 11 on yesterday.

HSE Chief Executive Paul Reid said an immediate reduction in high-risk activities is now needed in order to slow the spread of Covid-19, while the Chief Medical Officer, Dr Tony Holohan, reiterated his call for everyone to reduce significantly their social interaction.
Dr Holohan has confirmed that the current level of transmission in Ireland, currently, is one of the highest over the entire course of this pandemic, showing we have had 40,000 virus cases in the past 14 days; same up over 40% on the previous two weeks.

Hayes Hotel, situated in Liberty Square, Thurles, has unfortunately had to close for the weekend, due to a number of their staff testing positive for Covid-19.

It was extremely disappointing to note yesterday, (whoever is writing this rubbish for him), that Tipperary TD Mr Michael Lowry welcomed, (on his Facebook page), the use of Rapid Antigen testing, almost suggesting same as a solution to this pandemic. While Antigen Testing may, in some cases only, identify the Covid-19 virus, it is in no way a cure for our present serious increasing difficulties.
It should be remembered that it was Mr Lowry and his other unqualified (science-wise) Tipperary politician colleagues (including M. McGrath and J. Cahill), who first had their unmasked faces photographed in Mullinahone, Thurles, putting pressure on the government they supposedly support, to open the hospitality sector; latter decision which is now partially responsible for our deathly woes.

In Northern Ireland a further 1,806 cases of coronavirus were reported on today, up from 1,087 on yesterday.

Also, today, sadly, 3 Covid-19-related deaths have been reported in Northern Ireland.

Please do continue to keep yourself and your family safe by regularly washing your hands; wearing a mask when appropriate and please do cut down on your direct social contacts.

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Thurles – Looking Back.

Up until more recent years the premises operated by Mr William (Billy) Brophy, pictured hereunder in Parnell Street, Thurles, sold ‘Car Accessories’.

Mr Billy Brophy himself operated independently as a very accomplished motor and truck mechanic in Thurles. Back in the 1980’s you could find his shop open very late into the evening, which was much appreciated, particularly on winter evenings, for those in search of a replacement car battery.

W. Brophy’s shop as it stands today, is situated west on Parnell Street, Thurles, Co. Tipperary.
Photo: G.Willoughby

Mr Brophy could accurately diagnose most car engine problems from the often rudimentary descriptions offered by unqualified customer drivers; none of today’s complicated computer diagnostics were needed.

Same shopfront, west on Parnell Street, Thurles, photographed back around 1930.

Today, the shop retains the almost exact exterior it displayed back in the 1930’s when occupied by the Connaughton family, latter who operated a General Grocery establishment.

Note, the same tile protected, easy cleaned areas, positioned under the windows, still remain fully intact protecting the shop front from the constant mire caused by passing traffic, positioned as it is on the edge of a narrow street; the turned wooden glass window frame supports, possibly pitch pine, latter running perpendicular to the ground as you enter through the shop door, and the beautiful stained opalescent iridescent glass, found high up on the main display windows, all evidence of a very early 20th century shop front.

The Connaughton family would later move their premises to the busier central Liberty Square shopping area, across the street from Hayes Hotel, where, alas, today the friendly family business no longer exists.

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Jimmy Fogarty Memorial Plaque Unveiled In Two-Mile-Borris Cemetery, Thurles, Co. Tipperary.

On Friday last, July 9th, 2021 a stone memorial plaque was unveiled in Two-Mile-Borris cemetery, Thurles, Co. Tipperary to the late Mr James (Jimmy) Fogarty (July 20th 1938 – May 15th 2018).

Prior to the unveiling, a memorial Mass was held in the Church of St. James, Two-Mile-Borris, Thurles, latter celebrated by Fr. George Bourke and Fr. Tom Fogarty.

Following the memorial Mass, those in attendance moved to the local cemetery and Mr Gerry Bowe (MC) opened proceedings, stating “Welcome everyone to Two-Mile-Borris Cemetery for this special occasion. I welcome Fr. Tom, Fr. George and a special welcome to the Kelly family, Co. Meath and the Maher family, Co. Kildare and all our guests here today. I will shortly call on Mr Joe Moran to give the oration who will be followed by Mr John Hackett, who will unveil the plaque. Fr. George will then bless the plaque and we will wrap up proceedings with a short prayer and a list of acknowledgements”.

Giving the oration on this memorial occasion, Mr Joe Moran stated: “The Great Liberator Daniel O Connell on his deathbed said as follows: My soul to God, My body to Ireland, My heart to Rome. If I could re-phrase that quotation for Jimmy Fogarty (RIP) it might read as follows: My soul to God, My body to my parents resting place in Loughmore and My life’s work and spirit to the communities of Two Mile Borris, and the parish of Moycarkey-Borris.

Today, his local community in Two-Mile-Borris formally remember Jimmy by placing his memorial stone among these of his local community neighbours and friends. Our sincere thanks to the generosity and vision of our own Reverend Father George Bourke for this well-deserved memorial to Jimmy. We thank everyone that has helped to make today a special remembrance of Jimmy, his cousin Eamon Kelly, his friend John Hackett and everybody here present.

It is my honour and privilege on its unveiling to briefly recall Jimmy’s unique lifetime of service in our community. I begin with Jimmy’s great passion for athletics. In his athletic youth Jimmy represented his club Coolcroo in the black and white singlets and Tipperary in the blue and gold singlets. He regularly competed in nine-mile cross country runs.
The efforts involved in winning races and medals didn’t stop a twenty-year-old Jimmy from taking on the job of secretary for the newly reformed Coolcroo Athletic Club in 1958.

Jimmy excelled as a sports administrator and made a meteoric rise in the athletics world. In 1964 he was elected Secretary of the Tipperary N.A.C.A.I. and only three years later he was Munster Secretary and only two years later in 1969 Jimmy was elected the first National Secretary of the newly established B.L.O.E. Despite the heavy workload of these offices Jimmy remained heavily involved in the promotion of Juvenile Athletics in his local club.

In 1985 Jimmy was one of the prime movers in the unifying of all athletics in the parish under the banner of Moycarkey – Coolcroo and the new Red and Black singlets. Jimmy remained involved in the club throughout the years and appreciated the achievements of all its athletes from The Healy’s in the early years to Tomas Coman in the modern Olympic Games.

When the time came to write the definitive history of athletics in the parish, Jimmy took on the mammoth task of editing the publication. The resulting “Moycarkey Coolcroo 1936-2006, A Tipperary Athletic club” is a testimony to Jimmy’s thorough research and writing skills.

In parallel with Jimmy’s involvement with Athletics administration he became a respected columnist and reporter on athletics in the Tipperary Star, Clonmel Nationalist, Gaelic Weekly and Marathon magazine.

Jimmy bequeathed us a considerable library of quality writing, not just the Moycarkey-Coolcroo book, but also the Moycarkey-Borris GAA Story published in the Mid 1980’s and his own memoir Hillside Views 2011 which sold out in weeks. But you will find Jimmy’s writing in past newspapers, magazines, Athletics reports, Hurling reports, Football reports, Match programmes, Field openings, the Souvenir booklet for the millennium year opening of the memorial wall for the Two Mile Borris All Ireland Winning team of 1900 and many other written sources. Much of Jimmy’s writing can be found under other people’s names as he was an expert Ghost writer for anybody who needed an article or special column.

Jimmy’s path into Journalism and Sports reporting was not accidental but the realization of his true vocation.
After leaving school, where he was an able student, Jimmy came home to the family farm in Skehana. In his memoir Jimmy admits that he wasn’t cut out for farming. He didn’t enjoy harrowing and other such work involving horses.

His real passions for reading, writing, researching and journalism were taking hold. Long before distance and online learning, Jimmy was getting qualifications for journalism via correspondence courses. In 1967 he received a qualification in Free-Lance Journalism from the London College of International Correspondence.

Jimmy’s first break into journalism came via Raymond Smith in the Munster Tribune newspaper in Clonmel. He did reports on local news and Athletics. Soon he was appointed Athletics correspondent for the paper. When that publication folded, Jimmy was recruited to do a weekly column on Athletics for the Tipperary Star and the Clonmel Nationalist. In the late 1960’s Jimmy took up a full-time position as a Journalist in Dublin for a publication called The Gaelic Weekly.

When The Gaelic Weekly ceased publication in 1970 Jimmy returned to match reports with the Tipperary Star and was subsequently appointed full time there. He spent six years full time with the Star covering everything from the Courts, the Council, Sports news etc.

Jimmy could recall many interesting and humorous stories from his career as a journalist in an era of basic technology long before smartphones, WiFi and social media. The value of the advice from a senior. One such story involved Jimmy’s part in a great scoop. A trusted source informed him that prayers had been said in Ballingarry Church over the weekend for John Joe Barry the famous “Ballincurry Hare”. This quickly became a front-page story on the Star and nationally but a phone call from the editor to Jimmy via Corcoran’s Bar informed him that alas it wasn’t true. John Joe was alive and well and was subsequently photographed with Jimmy in the Tipperary Star office. Jimmy resigned from the Star in 1979 to set up his own printing and writing business at home in Skehana Hill.

Jimmy’s first experience in GAA administration was at the age of nineteen when he assumed the positions of Treasurer and PRO in Two Mile Borris GAA. At that time, he was a midfield player in the hurling team and the goalkeeper in the football team.

Jimmy remained involved in the Moycarkey-Borris GAA club over the years and in the 1980’s as his new business grew he gave generously of his time and talents to serve as a key leader in club administration and team management. His writing and printing expertise in a golden era for the club made Skehana Hill the nerve centre of club activity. Jimmy’s know how in combination with his neighbouring close friends Conor Kennedy, Harry Ryan, Liam Hennessy, John Hackett, Gus Ryan, Michael Clohessy and others made a great leadership team.

Jimmy was a trusted and respected judge of hurling and used his abilities as a Selector on various Moycarkey-Borris teams of this era. In 1982 he reached the pinnacle as a selector with Gus Ryan, Sean Barry, Larry Ryan and Paddy Coman, when Moycarkey-Borris won the County and Munster Senior Hurling Championships. Further success as a Selector followed for Jimmy in 1985 when he was a Selector for the club’s second team that won the County Intermediate Hurling Championship.

Jimmy served four years as Secretary in Moycarkey Borris GAA club and several more years as PRO. But he didn’t need any title or defined role to serve the club. The ancillary services and expertise he generously provided for all of us cannot be enumerated. All of us in the Senior and Juvenile club relied on Jimmy for the Secretary’s report, tickets, cards, County Board Draw materials, scripts for speeches, Fund-raising events, Club developments etc.

Jimmy’s was an open house. He didn’t operate regular opening or closing hours and people needing writing and printing were always welcome. He could read our awful handwriting, inoffensively correct our spelling, improve our punctuation and give us sound advice. He often worked late into the night to get urgent work ready for us. He was an invaluable resource for the Mid Board, it’s Chairmen and Secretaries.
Jimmy was never critical of individual players and with his journalistic eye always looked at the big picture in analysing a game.

A quiet man, Jimmy was humble, self-effacing and avoided the spotlight. A trusted friend and neighbour, Jimmy led a decent and balanced life, always finding the time to listen, the time to smile, the time to remember, the time to pray, the time to read and the time to travel.
Our community has been very fortunate to have Jimmy in our midst, a gifted person who generously shared his many gifts with us.

His memorial stone acknowledges our appreciation of Jimmy Fogarty, our esteemed scribe, friend and neighbour.
Nì bheidh a leithèad ann arīs.”

The plaque was then unveiled by Mr John Hackett and the plaque and cemetery was blessed by Fr. George Bourke.

Mr Bowe (MC) then invited Mr Eamon Kelly to speak on behalf of the extended members of the Fogarty family in attendance.

Mr Kelly stated, “Joan & I would like to thank you all for coming here today despite Covid-19’s best efforts to thwart this memorable unveiling. I would like to fully associate with all of the previous speakers’ comments. We would like to thank Fr. George for first mooting the idea of a plaque and John & Gerry & Enda for their help in seeing it through to finality. Thank you, Tracy & Eamon, for the use of the flags, a lovely touch. And to James a job well done with the plaque, thank you all very very much.

Besides Athletics & GAA Jimmy had many other loves in his life, two of which I will briefly mention.

One was his love of journalism and this is just one job reference I found in his not so very organised printing room. It reads:

To whom it concerns,
Jimmy Fogarty has worked for the Tipperary Star in a number of capacities from 1960 to the present day. In all that time he has always been a most efficient and diligent worker and an employee of the highest integrity. I have no hesitation in recommending him to any employer and would go so far as to say that the employer who secures his services is a very lucky man or woman.
It was signed by Michael Dundon (Editor) Tipperary Star newspaper in April 1989.

That reference truly reflects the esteem with which Jimmy was held in his place of work.

Another love of his life was family. Last week I sent a message to our son Luke in Sydney about the erection of Jimmy’s plaque and this is the reply I received.

“So much about Jim I will never forget, my first hurley, my first Tipperary hurling kit, my first time staying in Two Mile Borris, Jim buying breakfast for me in Bewley’s on Grafton Street; the “yeh yeh yeh yeh yeh” in mid conversations; But the biggest thing I remember about Jim was the unconditional morals he had and his first moral was always family first”.

Neal’s memories are of being brought to Semple Stadium for a Munster Final and being treated to lunch in Hayes Hotel, the original home of the GAA.

That reflects Jimmy’s influence on two young men over 40 years his junior.
It’s wonderful for all of us to be able to remember Jimmy every time we visit this cemetery and for those who visit and maybe have never heard of Jimmy Fogarty it will encourage some curiosity as to who he was and what he stood for.
Ni bheidh a leithéad ann arís.
Go raibh maith agaibh go léir.”

Before closing the proceedings, Mr Bowe thanked Fr. George Bourke and Fr. Tom Fogarty for celebrating the Mass, together with sacristan, Ms Kitty Kelly. He further thanked the Kelly and Maher family members for their attendance, Fr. George Bourke for his kind sponsorship of the plaque and James Slattery, Monumental Works, Thurles for mounting the plaque on the wall. He thanked Mr Joe Moran and Mr John Hackett for performing their duties on the day, and Mr Noel Maher for recording the event; Mr Eamon Darmody for erecting the flags in the Cemetery and to Ms Tracey Darmody, ‘Scallywags Play School’ for sponsoring the flags at the GAA monument in the village.

Mr Bowe thanked his committee members, John and Liam Hackett, Enda Bourke, Tracey and Eamon Darmody, Fr. George Bourke and Eamon Kelly for their advice and contribution to the day’s events.

Before inviting those in attendance to ‘Bannons’ for refreshments, he thanked Billy and Veronica Lanigan for their hospitality and finally the late Jimmy Fogarty himself for his association with Moycarkey Coolcroo Athletic Club and Moycarkey Borris GAA club, who continue to make a huge contribution to sport within in the parish.

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