By Michael Hussey

Declan Hassett

Youghal Library will host a talk by Award Winning Journalist, Declan Hassett at the Library on Thursday the 3rd of April from 1-2pm. His talk is entitled “Fact and Fiction – A Lifetime of Writing” there is no admission charge and all are welcome. The event is being held in association with The Cork Adult Education Council.

Declan Hassett former Arts Editor of the Irish Examiner and has been a journalist for over forty years. He is co-author of Rockies – The History of Blackrock Hurling Club, which won an AIB National Publication of the GAA Centenary Award in 1984. His first book, All Our Yesterdays, was published by Mercier Press in 1998 and was followed by The Way We Were in 1999.

He is regularly featured on Read more

By Michael Hussey | Photo by Michael Hussey (YoughalOnline.com)

Wild Geese Motorcyclists Rev It Up for 10th Annual Charity Run

The Wild Geese Motorbike club is very proud this year to celebrate their 10th anniversary Easter Run for the Irish Guide Dog Association. We have been approached on a few occasions by the organisation and with other commitments were not able to help out. However this year we are delighted to do the run for them and the local hospice.

Irish Guide Dogs for the blind is a registered charity founded in Ireland in 1976. The Irish Guide centre is situated at Model Farm Road Cork. The first guide dogs were trained in Germany to guide former soldiers who had been blinded in the First World War. Guide dog training centres now exist in almost every country in the developed world.

The people who benefit most from having a guide dog are those who are blind or visually impaired who want a dog and can look after them. Guide dogs are provided free of charge. The cost of interviews, residential training, after care service and the maintenance and health care of the dog throughout its life are all met by Read more

By Christy Parker | Photos by Michael Hussey (YoughalOnline.com)

Youghal Cllr Mary – Linehan Foley wants Bus Eireann to abode by an agreement to relocate the Waterford-Cork bus stop from the Fair Field to the back street, near the AIB entrance. In ludicrous fashion, the agreement has seen the site now road marked as a bus stop -amidst advanced plans for a shelter- but not operating as one! Meanwhile the traffic chaos that the new stop was intended to alleviate continues unabated at the Fair Field stop.

The councillor was informed at the March Town Council meeting that Bus Eireann had changed its mind after apparently one complaint that the new location was ‘lonely and desolate.’ Cllr Linehan Foley said she Read more

By Christy Parker | Photos by Michael Hussey (YoughalOnline.com)

Deirdre Clune T.D. and Cllr. Barbara Murray M.C.C.

Youghal Town and Cork County councillor Barbara Murray says she will no longer proffer County Council reports to Youghal Town Council. The Fine Gael representative informed the March Town Council meeting following a barrage of criticism, which she said, was just the latest incident of similar invective every time she brings the County reports to the chamber. “I don’t have to do it and I won’t be subject to this condemnation and humiliation again. I’ll just submit the information direct to journalists as of now,” said an upset Cllr Murray.

The councillor had reported on a motion proposed by Midleton FF Councillor Maurice Aherne that, Cork County Council move immediately to facilitate Youghal library at its purchases premises of Collins shop rather than continue paying “exorbitant rent” for the interim premises at the Rivergate mall in the town centre.

Cllr Murray reported opposing the motion, citing that there is still indication as to when the Read more

By Christy Parker | Photos by Michael Hussey (YoughalOnline.com)

Mary Lou McDonald MEP signs the visitors book at the council chambers with Cllr. Michelle Hennessy and Town Clerk Liam Ryan with (standing) local Sinn Fein members: Sheila Whyte, Mark Morrison, Thelma Reilly, Linda and Mary Anne Regan.

Sinn Fein MEP Mary Lou McDonald ignored the parking space reserved outside the Town Council offices Hall for her Youghal visit and availed of the nearby car park instead. It may have been unintentionally symbolic but Ms. McDonald’s demeanour very much pronounced her a woman of the people as she greeted supporters in casual, chatty style. Not that there were many people about, common or otherwise, with just a handful of constituents accompanying SF Town councillors Sandra McLellan and Michelle Hennessy.

Wrapped in a pitch-black coat offset by a healthy complexion, the articulate Dublin Central politician was on the Cork leg of a nation wide mission to decry the impending Lisbon Treaty on which Ireland is the sole EU country holding a referendum. The EU says it won’t recognise a Read more

by Christy Parker

There’s a Castlemartyr traffic jam
Its thirty-five years old
It moves ten metres every year
And sometimes less, I’m told

It’s choc-a-bloc in gridlock shock
It’s time without a space
Kids have grown to angry men
Without seeing another place

There’s buses, lorries, bikes and cars
A horse-and-cart or two
Ten fire brigades can’t fight this Hades
Nor an ambulance get through

The man attired in the car in front
Is in a worried state
He left his Read more

By Christy Parker | Photos: Michael Hussey (YoughalOnline.com)

Aquatrek’s inaugural Day Skipper (Navigation) theory course received their certificates

Sixteen students from Aquatrek’s inaugural Day Skipper (Navigation) theory course received their certificates at the business’s first Awards Dinner at the Walter Raleigh Hotel last weekend. The sixteen represented the course’s full contingent and ranged from 16 to 70 years.

Wexford’s Justin Slattery, the first Irishman to win the world’s most famous yacht race, the Volvo Ocean Race, in 2005-06, presented the certificates. Revenue from the €30 per head event, plus raffle proceeds for many prizes kindly donated by local businesses, went towards the Lifeboat service and music came courtesy of Martin & Jason.

John Innes who, along with fellow lifeboat crewman John Griffin, established Aquatrek last year, complimented all who undertook the course, which ran twice weekly from Read more

by Christy Parker

Dispute sends top show to Cork this summer

Youghal’s highly acclaimed Dancing Thru the Ages has withdrawn its summer show from the town following a dispute over performance dates. Since its inception four years ago, Dancing Through the Ages has run at the mall Arts Centre on Wednesday and Thursday nights through July and August. This year Ceolta Si (Youghal Comhaltas’s performance group) also applied for use of the venue on the Thursday nights, resulting in a major disagreement. A meeting to attempt mediation was cancelled after Dancing Thru the Ages announced it was moving to the Firkin Crane in Cork.

There was much angst amongst councillors at the March Town Council meeting when the matter was discussed. Cllr Sammy Revins laid the blame at the Read more

By Michael Hussey

A Youghal couple literally ‘tied the knot’ at an alternative wedding ceremony in the ancient Irish tradition of Hand fastening. Surrounded by their immediate family they exchanged rings and vows and were married according to Brehon Law. The wedding was celebrated by Celtic Monk, Dara Molloy who travelled from Inis Mór to perform the ceremony at Richmond House in Cappoquin, on the 29th February – the perfect day to take ‘the leap’.

Mick and Sara Walsh, who already shared the same surname, discovered Dara when seeking to have a ceremony to welcome their daughter Amy to the world and celebrate her birth. Dara provides such a service for people who may not wish to Read more

By Christy Parker

Bord Pleanala has granted planning permission for the first phase of a building project that will see over almost properties being built on 69 acres at Whitebarn. The initial phase will see 298 houses constructed on approximately 36 acres at Upper Cork Hill/Sweetfield. It comprises three detached, 122 semi-detached, 101 terraced and 34 duplex houses plus 34 duplex and four regular apartments. The Bord granted permission having considered one, third-party objection. Work is expected to commence in the coming months.

The massive development is a joint venture between McInerney Construction and landowner Gerry Russell, whose own home, at some stage, will likely be demolished to conform with planning aesthetics. It will stretch from Read more