Carlingford Community Newsletter June Edition · Carlingford Community Newsletter Newsletter No 29...

Carlingford Community Newsletter Newsletter No 29 Newsletter Number 1

June 2016 February 2014

Carlingford Community Newsletter

June Edition

Heritage News

Carlingford Heritage Centre has a date for your diary, or more exactly a series of dates. This year's

Summer Concert Series in the Heritage Centre begins at 4.00 p.m. on Sunday 24 July. The concerts

will be led by the hugely talented Zoe Conway from Dundalk, equally remarkable on both fiddle and

classical violin. Concert-goers will know Zoe well of course, not least from the very popular series of

concerts which she and John McIntyre gave here last year. This year Zoe will be joined by guests

including folk singer Mundy, famous for his rendition of Steve Earle's Galway Girl.

Another important date, which has been shrouded in a little more secrecy, is that of US Vice President

Joe Biden's visit to Cooley to rediscover his own family heritage. The name Biden is believed to be

Huguenot with connections to Liverpool, to where we may assume that the family had fled from

persecution in France. The later Cooley connection is to Mr. Biden's great-grandparents, James

Finnegan and Catherine Roche, who left Ireland to escape the Famine and settled in Pennsylvania. The

ancestral honours (sorry, honors) are jealously claimed by Whitestown.

Finally Carlingford Heritage Centre would like to draw your attention to a fascinating new publication

entitled Mapping the Minor Place Names of the Cooley Mountains, which has been produced by Eve

Campbell and Andrew McGuinness with assistance from Siobhan McDermott and Wotjak Dominiak. It

is available for download in PDF on-line. The web address is a bit of a boggle for mere humans so we

recommend that you Google the title. We hope to bring you snippets in future editions of the

Newsletter. Here is a taster regarding the origin of the name Slieve Foye as originally recounted by

local man Micheal MacArdghail to the famous Gaelic scholar, Peadar O'Dubhda in 1914.

‘Fionn after having performed many wonderful things in the neighbourhood ascended the mountain

from whence he fought and killed, with boulders from the mountain, a strange man who challenged

him from Slieve Bawn on the opposite side of the Loch. The exertion of casting the now famous big

cloch more, the shot that killed [t]his man, caused the hero's death. He stretched himself on the

mountain and never stirred more. Even to this day you can be pointed out the profile of the great

giant. Fathach, a giant, is pronounced Feigh locally’.

So there you are!

This newsletter is jointly produced by the

four bodies representing the Carlingford

community, namely:

Carlingford Lough Heritage Trust CLHT

Carlingford & Cooley Tourism Assoc. CCTA

Carlingford Tidy Towns CTT

Carlingford Community Development CCD

(The Foy Centre)



Carlingford’s Great Giant Fionn, lying on the side of Slieve Foy

Carlingford Community Forum

Carlingford Community Forum held its first Public Meeting on Thursday 26th

May 2016. The meeting

was exceptionally well attended, with an estimated audience of up to 100 people. All the Community

interests were well represented at the meeting, which was held in McKevitt’s Village Hotel in

Carlingford.

Notification of the meeting was circulated to Carlingford residents, businesses, community groups and

other interest groups and individuals who were invited to attend and to participate with their views,

comments and suggestions. The Carlingford Community Forum saw this as a unique opportunity for

everybody to participate in the future direction in which Carlingford develops. The Forum also sees

this as an opportunity for all the people who live and work in and around Carlingford and the Cooley

area to take a much more proactive interest in the future direction and development of Carlingford for

the benefit of all who live and work in this most beautiful and historic town on the Cooley Peninsula,

which is now the northern outpost of Failte Ireland’s Ancient East Tourism initiative.

The Forum envisages this as the first step in an ongoing consultative process whose core objective will

be to make Carlingford a better place in which to live, work and raise families and for the many

visitors who visit Carlingford to enjoy a unique experience, the positive memories of which will

hopefully remain with them for the rest of their lives.

When the present amenities and town planning were developed, many of them over 25 years ago,

Carlingford did not have the popularity it now enjoys as a tourist destination. The rise in numbers of

visitors coming to Carlingford has put many pressures on the facilities which currently exist and it is

hoped that the present initiative by the Carlingford Community Forum will produce proposals more

suited to the town’s present and future needs.



The primary reason for this ongoing consultation process is to ensure that the wishes of the whole

Community in Carlingford are listened to, adopted and implemented in all future town development

plans. As the views of all the Community interests are incorporated into the plan which will develop

over the coming months, it will put the Community Forum in a position to achieve the agreed

objectives with the support of the whole Community. It is intended that the Forum will engage with the

Local Authority and other relevant Public bodies in due course to seek their support and agreement

and funding of the ideas put forward on behalf of the local Carlingford Community.

Carlingford & Cooley Tourism Association News

CCTA Membership Renewals

We have been busy gathering renewals for CCTA membership. We are still generating new members for

which we are so grateful, as we cannot survive without all your support. If anyone would like to become a

member you can simply contact the CCTA office and we will be happy to assist you. Or, if you are a

member and have not yet renewed we would really appreciate it if you could do so as soon as possible.

Oyster Pearl/Oyster Festival 4-8 August

Applications for the Oyster Pearl are coming in fast and we are very excited for this year’s event. Every

year the festival is a huge success and we are expecting that this year’s event will live up to the previous

years. The application process is still open and we are hoping that we receive many more to make this

festival a huge success.

The Oyster Festival will take place over five days and is very family orientated. We are hoping that the

sun comes out for those days and everyone enjoys what Carlingford has to offer. Locals and Tourists are

very welcome to attend and enjoy the fun. More details of the festival will follow next month.

A day out with Megan

The CCTA and Visit Carlingford took our Louth Rose out for a day of fun and sightseeing.



Megan had not visited some of our local attractions before, so it was the perfect time to go exploring

before the big trip down for the Rose of Tralee Festival. Megan turned her hand to shearing a sheep, she

visited the leprechaun cave and even milked a goat. She will have lots to talk about when she takes to the

big stage of Tralee.

The Foy Centre

Cor Chairlinne had a very successful trip to Dervio in Italy. They sang at the festival of music in

Dervio with local choirs and a choir from France. Strong friendships were formed and hopefully they

will all visit Carlingford for our own festival in December.

Cor Chairlinne also performed in St. Michaels church on Friday the17 th June with the church choir,



Le Cheile Youth Choir. This was an evening where we sang beautiful new hymns and was enjoyed by

all present.

The Foy Centre hosted the Cow Crap Grid on last Sunday the 19th June. It poured with rain all day so

most of the events were moved inside.

A great day was had by all and the highlight of course was when the cow did his business at 7.05pm.

The winning ticket went to someone in America who had bought his ticket over the Internet. It was a

great community day and thanks to all who supported us (you know who you are) but especially to

Gary and Cynthia Thornton.

Carlingford Tidy Towns

Thanks to John and Hayden

It takes dedication to keep all the bedding plants alive during a heat wave, bringing barrels of water in a

trailer then watering in the early morning throughout the summer months. Thank you, John and

Hayden, everyone appreciates your efforts.



Painting the Town

We just love the way that so many people are passionate about Carlingford that they have joined with

CTT this summer to paint their properties, walls and gates. The overall effect is truly dramatic and

demonstrates the pride we have in the town. However, don’t let us rest on our laurels – if there’s

something near you that is in need fixing or just a bit of sprucing up, please attend to it, or if you need a

hand – call CTT!

This month we make no apologies for including so many before and after photographs in the newsletter

but we want to show you all the excellent work that has taken place over the last few weeks to smarten up

the town. We hope the new look has a domino effect and that others will be encouraged too.

Firstly, volunteers have painted the railings, gates and barriers outside the school.

There has been a dramatic improvement at the bottom of Back Lane where McKevitt’s have done a

marvelous job repainting their unoccupied premises.



Splendid, photographic reproduction murals have now been installed at the windows. These have been

produced on aluminum which should last 20 years or more.



Higher up in Back Lane, CTT employed the services of David McMasters to paint the collection of walls

and fences there, after first obtaining permission from three different owners.

The water spout in Back Lane has also received a makeover.



Yet more work has been completed in Newry Street up to Castle Hill and from Newry Street out on to

the main road, where wildflowers have also been sown on the verge.

Gates in Dundalk Street have been repainted and/or varnished.



Work is in progress whitewashing the wall opposite St Michael’s Church, with paint and labour being

paid for by the owner.

Now that murals painted by volunteer, Andrea Gomez, have been affixed to window apertures, the

overall effect is quite stunning.

We also noticed that some of the businesses in town have repainted their premises this year.

All in all it amounts to quite a facelift for the town! We offer a big ‘thank you’ to all of the workers

involved, and to all respective property owners for allowing us to bring this about.



We would also like to report that another ‘corner’ has been reinstated by CTT out near the castle

archway.

Three of our volunteers undertook some ‘Tidy Towns by Moonlight’ work last Friday night and planted

flowers around the Welcome to Carlingford signs. We utilised our own homemade compost from the

Wildlife Sanctuary and reused the turf where it had been bare along the roadside. We have also planted

variegated laurel and escolonia behind some of the signs to frame them as requested by our consultant.

Lastly, the area surrounding the plaque commemorating Carlingford’s Tidy Towns win in 1988 has also

been enhanced with an improved floral display.



St Oliver’s National School

Congratulations to St Oliver’s for doing so well in the Grow Awards this year and also for winning the

Best Newcomer Award for the creation of their Medieval Garden under the EcoTribes project.

We have reproduced the pages marking each of these awards so that you may read the detail for

yourselves (although you may need to enlarge the page a little to read it more easily).

The Grow Awards

The Medieval Garden and the presentation award on slate.



Find us on Facebook.com/CarlingfordTidyTowns



Thank you for supporting your community

If you have any ideas or comments please Email them to [email protected]

and I will ensure they are brought to the attention of the appropriate committee.

mailto:[email protected]

Carlingford Community Newsletter June Edition · Carlingford Community Newsletter Newsletter No 29...

Documents

Transcript of Carlingford Community Newsletter June Edition · Carlingford Community Newsletter Newsletter No 29...