Graveyard Stories

The ACR Heritage group marked national heritage week by hosting a very entertaining and informative talk on those that are interred in the two old Graveyards in Coachford. The talk, given by local historian, Anthony Greene touched on the once great families in the area from 1600s to the early 20th century. Anthony described how these families were responsible for many of the great houses in the area. He also spoke on the infamous Dr. Crosse and the poisoning of his wife who is interred in the old cemetery in Magourney. The talk in the Church of Ireland graveyard was on the military exploits of the many distinguished army personnel that are interred there. Many of these men had received the Military Cross and other honours fighting for the Empire across the globe. A large crowd was in attendance to hear of the rise and fall of the famous families of the area such as the Pyne, Good, Crook and Godfrey families. They listened with interest to the history of the people who were responsible for the growth of Coachford village and surrounding areas during the last 400 years.

At Your Service in Coachford

Breathnach’s Bar in Coachford was the centre of attention last Monday when the Brennan Brothers from the Park hotel in Kenmare came to officially open the new function room at the pub on Main Street in Coachford. The pub will feature in one of the episodes in the new series ‘At Your Service’. Francis Brennan has been a regular visitor to the business during filming over the last few months advising the owners, Colm and Mary Cronin on the best strategy for developing their business in the growing village of Coachford. The Macroom based owners have been very busy over the last few months preparing for the opening and a large group of supporters were in attendance to be part of the filming of the opening. Aghinagh Comthlas provided the music and the local set dancers put on a wonderful display of Irish dancing in the new room.

Champions League tie for Coachford AFC

Coachford AFC play the first round of the Munster Football Association League Champions Trophy. The local boys will travel to Clonmel to take on the well fancied Tipperary side, Clonmel Town on Sunday at 3.00pm. The competition is open to teams who have won the top honour in their respective leagues in the 2012/13 season. Coachford AFC are the Cork AUL League Champions and will be one of only two teams representing Cork in this unique competition. The Coachford AFC  B team are at home this Saturday when they entertain Ballincollig in Carrigadrohid at 3pm in the league.

Lotto

There was no winner of the €2,000 jackpot in this week’s Lotto. The numbers drawn were 2, 10 and18. The lucky dip winners were Tom O Donovan(€40), Martin O Connell, Eileen Buckley, Olive O Sullivan and Noel Foley (€20 each), Next week’s jackpot is €2200 and the draw will take place in Breathnachs Bar.

Camogie

The very best of luck to the Aghabullogue Senior B Camogie Ladies when they play Glen Rovers on Friday, 30th August in their final game of the round robin competition. The game is fixed for Ballincollig at 7pm

Schools Return after glorious summer

The Coachford Primary and Post Primary schools reopened this week and the students returning had mixed feelings. Some were delighted to go back and meet their friends again after three long summer months while others wanted this year’s glorious summer holiday to last for another few weeks. Over 90 students have enrolled at Coachford Community College this year and they began exploring the school and learning about their teachers last Tuesday. The college has now over 560 pupils and is seen as being one of the best second level schools ion the county. This year’s leaving certificate results were excellent and the vast majority of the pupils have been offered places at third level colleges in Ireland and abroad.

 Thank You       

The organisers of the Coachford Autumn Festival would like to thank everyone who supported the festival this year. Broomhiil Vintage Club chairman, Tadgh Murphy said, “We believe it was our best festival so far. We would like to thank those who attended the events on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We hope that families went home happy from the Festival on Sunday, that the runners and walkers were happy with the run on Friday evening and that those who attended the dog show, open air Ceilí and Bachelor competition were glad they did so.. We will continue to try and improve the festival and continue to try and make it something the whole community can be proud of. To run a festival over three days takes a huge amount of help and involvement from a lot of people. We would like to thank all those who took part in the various events; the bakers, photographers, high nelly cyclists, runners and walkers, Agri Olympians, bachelors, musicians, footballers, babies, mummies and grannies, tractor builders, vehicle owners, model toy display builders ,dog owners, set dancers, egg throwers, and children. We would of course like to especially thank those who helped as stewards, ticket sellers, those who registered the runners, sponsored the festival, put up bachelors, and supported us in any other way. The festival is a huge community effort and only the support of so many in the community makes it possible. We would like to thank Aghabullogue GAA for their superb support and co operation, Padraig Donoghue and Dairygold for the use of their properties. We would also like to thank the residents of the village and surrounding areas for their patience and understanding for any disruption that the festival may have caused. We hope to announce how much money was raised for charity in the next few weeks. We are looking forward to 2014 already and ideas and suggestions on how to improve the festival are always welcome.”