RTÉ Nationwide visits Lorrha
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RTÉ Nationwide reporter Marian Malone and her husband Matt Kelly interviewing 100-year old Kathleen Houlihan and 90-year old Sheila Dillon on Sunday last. Sheila is Chairperson of the Lorrha Active Retirement group.Image 2 of 4
A group of local musicians from the Lorrha parish came together to perform for the RTÉ Nationwide programme on Sunday last. Seated, from left: James O’Meara, Tony Coen, Pio Ryan, William Holmes, Darren Burke, Anthony Slevin, Mairead Cahalan.Image 3 of 4
Locals from Lorrha attending the recording of a Nationwide programme, which will be aired in May. Front: Sheila Dillon, Ann Corcoran, Dympna Fogarty with her two-year-old grandchild Aoibheann. Back: Marian Quirke, Ann Coughlan, Carmel Sullivan.Image 4 of 4
Chairman of Scéal Patrick Cahalan pictured as he is interviewed by Marian Malone, RTÉ Nationwide reporter. Patrick is holding a drawing of the proposed new extension to the community hall. Photos: Rose mannionThe popular RTÉ Nationwide programme visited Lorrha recently. Nationwide travels to all corners around Ireland to cover interesting stories on many different types of topics from a broad and diverse range of sources and subjects.
And their visit to the region was no different as cameraman and editor, Matt Kelly, and his reporter wife, Marian Malone, focused on all things Lorrha has to offer.
Patrick Cahalan, Chairman of the community-based Scéal shop, was interviewed on what the shop has to offer and outlined plans for the future development of the community hall where the shop is based. This was a timely visit from the Nationwide team as Patrick pointed out that the idea, which was initiated by the Scéal committee, happened some years ago in the hope of attracting some national coverage. He said: “After a number of emails to RTÉ, they eventually came back to us and so here we are today.”
With Scéal embarking on a building project to extend St Ruadhán’s Community Hall, funding has been secured, but fundraising is also taking place.
“We have our Buy a Brick fundraiser, which is going quite well,” explained Patrick. The Scéal Chairman pointed out how the hardworking committee received funding from different sources such as the Department of Community and Rural Affairs, Pobal, Tipperary Co Council and the LEADER group. He added: “The Pobal funding will go towards renovations to the existing hall. We hope to start the extension in June of this year and finish around February 2024 roughly if all goes to plan.”
Patrick mentioned that the Nationwide visit was a big event for Lorrha and indeed for the whole parish, and that later there would be a drone filming the entire village, which would take in the historical sites as well.
Marian Malone, who is a reporter with Nationwide, has over 25-years’ experience working with the programme and was delighted to visit Lorrha. She commented: “We are absolutely thrilled to be in Lorrha and to be able to show off the community and the wonderful people here. On our visit we will be talking and getting a snapshot of the community, the shop, the heritage and all of that, for the programme which will be aired later in May,” she added.
The Scéal shop, which is staffed by local volunteers, opens seven days a week and carries items from groceries to art and craft work to firewood and papers, to mention just some. They also serve teas and coffee.
Located close to the shores of Lough Derg, Lorrha is a small attractive village set in the surrounds of an ancient monastic settlement. Founded by St Ruadhán in the sixth century, Lorrha boasts of many historical sites, such as the Augustinian Abbey, the Dominican Abbey, St Ruadhán’s Abbey and Holy Well. The story of the rich ecclesiastical history of the village, attracts tourists from far and near and hopefully when this Nationwide programme airs, it will attract more many more visitors to Lorrha.