By Michael Hussey | Photo Michael Hussey (YoughalOnline.com) | Graphics: Kieran McCarthy
The Crib at St. Raphael’s will be open to the public from Christmas Day onwards between 10am and 5pm. Please come along and say a prayer. Fr. Joe McGuane, Chaplain St. Raphael’s Centre will celebrate The Christmas Day Mass at 10am and Christmas Carols will be sung by The St. Raphael’s Staff Choir.

The Crib in St. Raphael’s Church, Youghal, has always been a place to visit for the people of the town and surrounding areas and much work has gone in to the building of this magnificent structure by the staff of St. Raphael’s Centre. Sean Fitzgerald and Gerard Griffin who work at the centre have dedicated many hours on the decorating of The Nativity scene for the adoration of the birth of Jesus by the people of the town.
Youghal people in times past and in particular the residents from Sarsfield Terrace and Raheen Park fondly remember praying at the crib and taken a strand of straw from the Manger as a memento of this most Holiest occasion on the birth of Jesus. Many churches Read more

Santa Claus and his Reindeers were spotted flying over the landmark C.Y.M.S. premises at Market Square in the centre of town. Amazingly YoughalOnline.com photographer captured the event on Santacam.
Ray Phelan, caretaker in the CYMS said he first saw Santa travelling at the speed of light across the River Blackwater passing The Quay’s Bar before turning right over the hall towards the North Pole to pick up Christmas presents for the children of the town and surrounding area. Ray told YoughalOnline.com it proves once and for all that Santa really exists.
Two other members of the Hall, Anthony ‘Banter’ Fouhy and Sean Murphy also saw the spectacular magical event and couldn’t believe their eyes. Mr. Murphy said ‘Santa shouted Ho! Ho! Ho! and then Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer, with his nose shining like a beacon turned up over the Clock Gate then up Main Street and on towards The North Pole’.
CYMS President Mr. William Kelly said ‘All the lads should go to bed early on Christmas Eve to make sure they get their presents from Read more

Gallery 126 is proud to present the work of Diarmuid Byron O’Connor.

Diarmuid will be at the gallery on Saturday afternoon December 20th to talk about his work.The gallery will open on Sunday 21st from 12 to 6pm. We will also stay open until 7.30pm on Monday and Tuesday.We hope you can join us for a seasonal glass.

Diarmuid is an established sculptor best known for his statue of Peter Pan outside Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children in London.

He says of his work:”My inspiration is the human figure and how it works as a universal language. I draw from life but sculpt from memory.

Whilst each piece has its own unique drama they draw upon our common understanding and experience of our own bodies. I sculpt in wax at this scale with my bare hands and a few simple tools harnessing a handmade sensibility. However I imagine each piece ultimately being larger.

I sculpt in wax at this scale with my bare hands and a few simple tools harnessing a handmade sensibility. However I imagine each piece ultimately being larger”.

Born in 1964 in Ayelsbury moved to South London in ‘69.I split my time between London and Ireland where my 3 daughters now live. Although I’m known for creating the Grt Ormond St “Peter Pan and Tinker Bell”. My Personal work is Read more

Photo: Michael Hussey (YoughalOnline.com)
The celebrated Service of Readings and Carols with the Clerks Choral is on Friday 19 December at 8 pm in Saint Mary’s Collegiate Church.

It will feature the well loved congregational carols together with choir items with music from Gregorian Chant and traditional Irish melodies to Britten and Read more

Photo: Michael Hussey (YoughalOnline.com)

Channel South, the latest local television channel to the Munster region is set to feature Youghal,

on its nightly ‘South Tonight’ regional magazine show.’The South Tonight’s show, featuring Youghal, will be presented by Cork based journalist and broadcaster Martina O’Donoghue. Hosting a number of well-known Youghal faces, the show will touch on a wide range of aspects of life in Youghal, paying particular attention to tourism and commercial life in Youghal. Youghal musician Steve Whelan will be one of the guest interviewed on the new show. The Show will first air on 22nd December at 7.00pm and will be screened later that evening at 9.00pm. It will be repeated on the channel right throughout the Christmas period. Aileen Ahern, Tourism Officer for Youghal commented, “This is another great opportunity for Youghal to show the rest of Munster what it has to offer, from a tourism point of view, but also to showcaseYoughal’s commercial rejuvenation in the town centre.” So how do you tune in? Channel South is available on the Chorus network at position 107 on Read more

By Christy Parker
Youghal children can show solidarity with their counterparts in one of the world’s poorest regions in an afternoon of unfettered fun at the League of the Cross hall next Saturday (December 13th). The town’s youngest revellers can eh…, hone their social skills at a disco being run on behalf of street children in Bangladore, Karnataka State, central India.
The event is being organised by local woman Angela O’Brien and arises from her recent visit to the region. “While out there I met a woman called Nirmala who is struggling to run a school and catering centre for poor children, most of whom are from single-parent families,” Angela recalls. “She’s an ex-nun in her 40’s and used her traditional family dowry money to set up the school. She also has one room there in which to live but she gave it up to her elderly father and sleeps outside on the floor. I found her courage, her commitment and her compassion absolutely amazing.”

Education is the only viable alternative to despair and hardship for the children of Bangladore and therein lays the link amongst children everywhere. Nirmala’s charges range from three to 12 years and while not diminishing our own problems, their plight and hers puts Ireland’s struggle with increasing class numbers into a Read more

(Christy Parker) | Photo: Michael Hussey (Youghal Online.com)

Youghal Choral Society will hold its annual Christmas Choral Service on Sunday 14th. December. The traditional service of carols, music and readings will commence at 7.30 pm in the Parish Church.

Host choir, the Youghal Choral Society, will be joined by a plethora of talent from the region, including fellow choristers Cantairi Mhuscrai from Ballincollig and Ballycotton’s Choir Cois Farrraige. A children’s choir and instrumental group comprising members from Read more

By Christy Parker | Photo Michael Hussey (YoughalOnline.com)

The renowned Killeagh Choir will perform Part 1 (Advent and Christmas stories plus the Hallelujah Chorus) of Handel’s Messiah at the local St. John the Baptist Church on Sunday and Monday next (Dec 14/15th). It will be the first group’s first time attempting the complicated work. The concert is being organised by local producer Mary Pedder Daly, who will also conduct the performance.

Killeagh’s 45 strong choir is drawn from across East and West Cork and even into Co. Tipperary. The Messiah will feature Tenor Robert Beare from Bandon, Michael McGowan (Bass, also Bandon), Sopranos Angela Hartnett Davis (Conna), Winnie Daly O’Connor (Killeagh) and altos Theresa O’Sullivan (Whitechurch) and Geraldine Landers (Killeagh)

The Messiah is a presentation of Jesus’ life and its significance, according to Christian doctrine. It’s content is drawn from Old Testament, Prophets’ and Jewish chronicles and much controversy and difficulty surrounded its premiere in Dublin in 1742. Dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Jonathan Swift had temporarily cancelled and insisted it be renamed A Sacred Oratorio, to lessen blasphemous overtones. No such difficulties are predicted for the Killeagh production!

The choir hopes to perform Part 2 (Christ’s Passion, Resurrection, Ascension) at the 170 year-old Church next Easter. Meantime Christmas performances are Read more

Speech by Mayor of Youghal Olly Casey at the civic reception held in The Mall House to honour Youghal native Bree Rosney retired Matron of Youghal Community Hospital and Hospice - Photo: Michael Hussey (YoughalOnline.com)

Councillors, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, it is indeed a signal honour, for my fellow councillors and myself to welcome here tonight Bree Rosney, who for so long has served our community here in Youghal.

I would first like to say that Bree’s entire life is one of dedication and commitment, first to her family and then to the community which she served with excellence down the years.
Bree returned from nursing in England, in the early 1980’s, to look after her family, mother, father, brothers. She did this with unselfish love and dedication, which was to be the hallmark of her service to Youghal Community Hospital.
Bree commenced her career in the hospital as a staff nurse and became Matron after the Nuns left Youghal in 1985, a post she held up to her retirement in this year, 2008.
As matron, Bree soon started to Read more

By Christy Parker
An Bord Pleanala has rejected an appeal by residents in South Main Street, Youghal against the Town Council’s decision to grant extended opening hours to a take-away and restaurant outlet.
Last March, the council granted Supermac’s, a ‘temporary, two-year licence’ to trade until 2 a.m. on regular Fridays and Saturdays and on Sundays preceding Bank Holiday Mondays. Normal trading hours of 10am-12.30 a.m. would persist Sunday-Thursdays.

The Bord altered the decision to cover a one-year term to November 3rd 2009, subject to further planning application being successfully in the interim. The ruling orders that a ‘litter management’ plan be implemented in the immediate vicinity of the premises.
Seventeen objections had been lodged to the application with, according to local resident Harry Morrison, “many more feeling equally aggrieved.” The objectors said they endured sleep-deprivation and a proliferation of extreme anti-social behaviour during a previous period when Supermac’s breached their licensing agreement and traded up to 3.30 am. The application for extended hours followed a warning from the council on that breach of licence. Town councillors unanimously supported the residents but the council Planning Authority ruled otherwise.

In its judgement, the Bord echoed the Council’s aim “to protect the interests of amenities in the area”, adjacent to the Clock Gate. The location already accommodates several pubs, two all-night taxi bases, a nearby nightclub and Read more