Photograph: Bridget Delaney

Launch of Cloughjordan Heritage Trail

 

 

Sometimes we can get so used to our surroundings, we don’t even see them any more.

It’s only when we are showing a visitor around our home town or village that we realise just how interesting and historical it really is. With this in mind, the Heritage Group in Cloughjordan has produced a leaflet featuring the Heritage Trail of Cloughjordan, which guides the visitor on a walk around the village, describing all the places of interest in the immediate vicinity and indicating what places of interest lie a kilometre or two further on, outside the village.

 

The homes of the MacDonaghs, the beautiful stained glass windows of SS Michael and John’s Church, the ruins of the old Fever Hospital and the carved milestone on the Templemore Road, are all included.

 

This leaflet is available from the Heritage Centre in Cloughjordan, which was the venue for its official launch recently in the company of many supporters of the centre and people interested in the trail. Martin Butler, a local man now resident in Boston, was asked to do the virtual ribbon-cutting. Martin is the producer of a CD of MacDonagh’s poetry and of traditional music, which was recorded in the US but is available from the centre. The material in the new leaflet was read out and was illustrated with a slide-show featuring contemporary and heritage photographs of the places mentioned.

 

Tom Williams then gave a lovely rendition of 'The Ballad of Thomas MacDonagh', written by Seamus Doran, and told the appreciative audience a few tales – some improbably tall – of his days on the road with the Majorca showband.

 

May Casey had uncovered some old photographs owned by Thomas MacDonagh’s sister, Sister Francesca, of Cloughjordan in the 1930s. It was fascinating to see slides of these photos as Sister Francesca had written the names of the owners or occupants on the actual photographs, so both the material itself, as well as the information it gives, is of historical interest. One can easily imagine her sitting in her lonely convent room, looking with fond memories at pictures of the village and the people she had known in her childhood.

 

Proceedings were opened and closed with his usual aplomb by Jim Casey and the tea and cake, always so generously provided after Heritage Group meetings, was as gorgeously calorific as ever.

 

The Thomas MacDonagh Heritage Centre is open Tuesday - Sunday 12-4 pm with late opening on Friday 4-7pm. For more details, see www.macdonaghheritage.ie