International visitors descend on Coachford

Coachford village is awash with color. The flags of the participating countries in the World Feeder Fishing Championships adorn the main Street and Rooves Bridge. Buntings and Banners decorate the village, welcoming the 25 nations to the River Lee and the Inniscarra Reservoir. The teams trained all this week on the river and all are eagerly looking forward to the competition, beginning this Saturday. The village is full of excitement and everyone has got involved. The residents and business owners have pulled out all the stops to welcome the teams and their supporters.

On Thursday July 17th, the official opening of the World Championship takes place in Coachford. The 25 teams, Ireland, Italy, South Africa, Hungary, Austria, England, Netherlands, Germany, Russia, Belarus, Latvia, Slovakia, Sweden, France, Belgium, Spain, Czech Republic, Serbia, Portugal, Denmark, Romania, Moldova, Lithuania, Ukraine and Kazakhstan will gather at the square in the evening and there will be a parade of nations through the village to the GAA complex where the official opening will take place. Unfortunately due to the capacity of the GAA Hall and the number of teams and their support crews entry to the Official opening has to be limited. However everyone is welcome to come along to the ’Parade of Nations’ and enjoy the party atmosphere. There will be live music from the Ballingeary Pipe Band, Face Painting, Balloon Modeler, Sweets and fun to be enjoyed .Children are asked to come along in their favourite jersey to add some color to the event. The Championships will start at 7.00am on Saturday morning and will finish each day at around 4pm. The Closing Ceremony and awarding of medals takes place again in Coachford on Sunday July 20th in the GAA complex. The pubs are laying on music and entertainment all week. Tim Riordan of Natural Gas plays in O’Riordan’s Bar on Thursday night , a traditional Irish session takes place on Friday night and a folk music session is being laid on in the bar for the visitors and locals on Saturday night.

Successful Dam building Exhibition

The exhibition on the ‘Building the Lee Hydroelectric Scheme’ taking place in the Community House in Coachford has been a wonderful success. The exhibition includes articles and photos on the works and construction of the dams, video footage, and audio recordings of interviews with those employed on the hydroelectric scheme. The quality of the old photographs is superb and indeed the quality of the whole exhibition is excellent. The exhibition explains in detail the flooding of the valley, the building of the dams, the new bridges and the new roads in the early 1950s. The members of the Aghabullogue, Coachford Rylane Heritage Committee, who organised the exhibition are on hand to answer any questions and to explain the history and stories behind the photographs and newspaper cuttings. The exhibition continues in the village until Sunday July 20th from 2pm – 8pm daily. Admission is free of charge. Everyone living along the valley should visit this unique exhibition, to learn about, or to remind yourself of this significant event in the recent history of the Lee Valley.

Book online to run 5 Miles

The organisers of the Festival 5 Mile Road Race have again this year made entering very easy. Ciara Murphy, organiser said “ You can now book online at http://www.eventmaster.ie . Entry for the race is only €10 and all the proceeds go to Suicide Aware and local Charities.. The race follows the same route as last year and walkers are more than welcome to take part. We are also encouraging groups of four to get involved and run or walk as a team. You can be a group of friends, team mates or family or any other connection you can think of.” The Coachford Five Mile Road Race begins at 7.30pm with the walkers heading off 30 minutes earlier. Registration is from 6pm at the GAA Hall.

The Master is head of the Class

Retired Principal of Rylane National School, Con Lynch was honoured in Rylane last Friday. Con was honoured by past pupils, fellow teachers and members of the Community. In a beautiful and relaxed function Con was interviewed by Diarmuid Cronin and Michael Kelleher about his life, his early education his battles with the Department of Education and his campaigns for famine relief in Africa. Con spoke lovingly about his past pupils, how important the rural school is to village life and the community and his love of education. Con was praised for his work in developing the school in Rylane and for working tirelessly to improve the conditions in rural schools and for those of teaching Principals. Presentations were made to Con from the Board of Management, past pupils and parents. A beautiful ‘Book of Memories’ was presented to Con in recognition of the huge difference he made to so many lives down through the years in Rylane. The packed hall in Rylane was treated to some wonderful stories and memories from Con and his pupils. After the presentations those present shared their own memories over a cup of tea and enjoyed music and song long into the night.

GAA

The draw for the fourth round of the Intermediate Championships was made last week and the Intermediate Footballers will meet last years County Junior Champions, Mitchelstown in the 4th round of the championship on Sunday July 27th at 4pm in Mallow. The Intermediate Hurlers will face Ballygarvan in their 4th round game. The date, time and venue have yet to be fixed for this tie.

Farmers Market

The Coachford Farmers Market takes place next Saturday, July 19th in the GAA Hall. The Market will have extended hours due to the World Championships . Don’t miss it.