Sausages, Santa and Songs

Coachford celebrated the coming of Christmas in style on Sunday evening.  A huge crowd of all ages turned out to see the beautiful and unusual Coachford Christmas lights. The lights in the village were switched on by Han Cooney, one of the oldest and dearest residents of the village. The lights all around the village were superb this year and the organising committee spent the money donated by the public and the generous contribution of €500 received from Broomhill Vintage Club wisely. The addition of the Christmas Market this year was a huge success. Knitwear, crafts and Cakes, fudge, Chocolate brownies and preserves were for sale and over €300 was raised by Pauline Cooney for Cork Penny Dinner s with the sale of her decadent selection of cakes.. O’Callaghan’s Bar provided the gorgeous Mulled wine and O’ Riordan’s Bar laid on some lovely hot sausages. Children’s faces were painted, Santa met some awe struck kids and Gorgeous carols and Christmas songs were sung with gusto by the Coachford Children’s Choir. Martha McCaffery of Coachford Tidy Towns said, “the village looks great with all the additional lights and the gorgeous Christmas Tree. So many people have helped to bring this to this stage and we are so fortunate to have such a great community spirit in the area.”

Autumn Festival benefits Christmas

Broomhill Vintage club have made a huge contribution of €500 to help decorate the village this Christmas. Club PRO Kieran McCarthy said, “ We are delighted to be in a position to donate this money to the village. We realise that the lights are expensive and we hope that our donation will go some way in enhancing the festive spirit in Coachford.”   Broomhill Vintage Club have now donated over €5,000 to local charities and €8,000 overall this year from the proceeds of the autumn Festival.

Coachford is open for Christmas

Everyone in the village is preparing for Christmas .  The Church is open to all and everyone is welcome to discover the real reason we celebrate Christmas. The Crib will be in place over the next few days and the choirs are busy rehearsing for the ceremonies. The shops are stocked up with everything you could need for Christmas and the new year and gifts galore are available to buy. The pubs have music laid on for the entire holiday season and there promises to be a wonderful atmosphere in all four of them. Everything from petrol vouchers to massages can be bought for your nearest and dearest. Dare to be different this year and keep your business in the village.

All Ireland Champions to receive their trophies

The Broomhill Tractor Builders from Coachford Co. Cork who won the All Ireland Ferguson 20 Tractor Building title for the third time will be presented with their trophies on Friday December 13^th in O’Riordan’s Bar at 7.30pm. The competition held at the national Ploughing Championships saw the team of John Joe Dennehy, Greg Cronin, Danny Martin and Bobby Roche beat off strong opposition from Donegal , Galway, Cavan  and Sligo teams to win the title for the third time in five years.  The lads built the tractor from scratch in a time of 7 minutes and 37 seconds.  Team manager and club chairperson, Tadgh Murphy said,” We were delighted to win and receiving the trophies before Christmas is a lovely early present. We are already planning for the defence of our title for 2014 and will start back in training in January.”

Christmas Market.

The Annual Coachford local Christmas Market takes place this Saturday December 14^th from 10.30am. It promises to be jam packed with beautiful food, Christmas Cakes, Books, Cheese, Jams, Cranberries, Vegetables, Knitwear, Sweets, Jewelry, cards and other crafts.Santa Claus will be in attendance to meet all the children and to find out what they want for Christmas. The wining drawings and paintings from the art competition run in Coachford National School over the last few weeks will be on display. It promises to be a great event so whatever else you do this weekend, don’t miss this market.

GIY

Coachford GIY group will meet on Monday December 16th in Hogan’s Bar  at8.00pm. Come along and give and get advice on what can be done in the garden over the winter.

Footballers fall at Final hurdle

The Aghabullogue intermediate Footballers lost the county final on Sunday to a very strong and experienced Grenagh side. The Aghabullogue lads were always chasing the game which was played out in front of a huge vocal and colourful group of supporters from the parish. John Barry Murphy, Chairman of Aghabullogue GAA said “ The boys gave us a great season, They worked so hard all day and all year. We are very proud of them. They were well coached by Cathal and the lads and we are already looking forward to seeing who we will get drawn against in football and hurling when the draws takes place next Saturday evening”. At half time in Sunday’s game the Under 12s from both clubs entertained the crowd and the boys in green and white won this tie.  

World Championships destined for Coachford.

The World Feeder Fishing Championships 2014 has finally been sanctioned forInniscarra Lake, Coachford and will be held on the 19^th & 20^th July 2014.

After 20 months of extremely hard work the Inniscarra Lake Tourism Development Ltd finally got a letter of offer for their development grant in November from Avondhu Blackwater Partnership so they can now develop a 2.8km stretch of shoreline on the lake near Rooves Bridge as a Multi-Purpose Amenity and which will also enable the National Coarse Fishing Federation of Ireland (NCFFI) to host the World Feeder Fishing Championships 2014. Work is expected to start on site in early January 2014 and will take approximately 12 weeks to complete.

Chairman of the group, Matt Sheehan said “We believe that this development is the single biggest investment into the future of the area in years. The economic benefit to Coachford and the region of this World championship alone is estimated at €2 million. We are delighted that we can now start work and that the funding for the project has come through.”

The eyes of the angling world are now firmly on Coachford and many Countries are already booking their accommodation and making plans to get to the region next July. In fact some of them have already been scouting the area during the year and more will visit prior the event itself.

The tourism potential from this World Championship alone could be a huge boost for the area where up to 25 Countries as far away as South Africa and Russia will participate with at least eight persons with each County for this one event. The event will be covered by a number of TV stations as well as print and online media and the beauty of the Lee Valley region could be seen by thousands of potential visitors. This part of County Cork will be showcased to the world of angling next year and everyone should get involved to do their utmost to deliver a fantastic event for all the visitors.

Deirdre O’Donovan, Chairperson of the Community Council said “This is really great news and we are looking forward to seeing the completed project. This development will be a shot in the arm for all the communities along the river and we hope that it will bring huge numbers of people to the area who want to fish the river, stay locally and spend locally. I want to congratulate the committee on getting the championships to the area. They worked hard, believed in what they were doing and never gave up on it. ”