Denis Desmond, who is originally from Youghal, now living in the U.K. had a dream.   As a member of the Epping Forest Band it was his boyhood dream to some day come back to his home town and put on a concert in St Mary’s Collegiate Church, where he had played happily with his friends as a child.   Denis himself is a cancer survivor, and his wish was that all proceeds of the concert would be donated to Cancer Research. Denise FitzGerald Reports Photo: Michael Hussey www.youghalonline.com

Denis decided it was time his dream a reality.  After all, the Epping Forest Brass Band have had great critical acclaim in Europe, and his hopes were that it would be an evening of music from many genres.   Thus, contact was made with the Killeagh Choir and Youghal Pipe Band, both of whom were delighted to accept the invitation to play in St Mary’s with the Epping Forest Brass band.

On Saturday last, August 29th,  all three groups of musicians and singers came together in the magnificent St Mary’s Collegiate Church where, to a packed attendance, they brought tears to many an eye with their moving and heart warming performances.

Denis Desmond had a dream, a dream that he made come true, and the fulfilment of that dream brought to the people of Youghal an enchanting evening, never to be forgotten.
Click on image to see the concert in St. Mary’s Collegiate Church Youghal

Youghal Arts Network presented a cheque €1,000 to Temple Street Children’s Hospital charity from monies raised by the successful ‘Shades and Shorts’ event held recently in The Marine Bar, Youghal. Mr. Donacha O’ Cearuill presented the cheque at the Medieval Fun event in Green Park-Youghal.
Photo Michael Hussey www.youghalonline.com

Well done to the Youghal Arts Network and the patrons of the Marine Bar for organising such an innovative fundraising event for the Temple Street Children’s Hospital.

Youghal Branch of the Labour party is relaunching on Monday 7th September at the Quay’s Bar (upstairs in the nightclub) at 7.30pm

Sean Sherlock TD will be chairing the meeting.
New members welcome;
Contact Donie Daly (details below).
Tel:- (086) 8103886
Email:- doniedalyyoughal@gmail.com

Christy Parker reviews the weekly Garda report

Provisional licence holders driving unaccompanied by a fully qualified driver can expect to be prosecuted in the coming weeks, according to Youghal gardai. Sergeant Orla Coughlan told listeners to Community Radio Youghal that young males continue to dominate car accident statistics, adding that the figures would also feature single females. Against that background, she said, students returning to school would be on provisional licences and that the busier roads and shortening days coinciding with this time of year heralded increased danger on the roads. “We will stop unaccompanied drivers,” she stated

Uninsured:

The sergeant stressed that Provisional drivers must display L’ plates and that an accompanying driver should be qualified by at least two years, be below the legal alcohol limit and be drug-free. She said unaccompanied Provisional licence holders are effectively not insured at all as, “it gives the insurers an opt-out clause in the case of an accident.” She also stressed that “the speed limits are not a target” and that learner drivers should not aspire to reach them. Again in reference to the impending winter months, the garda asked that drivers be particularly alert for pedestrians and cyclists who, in turn, should wear reflective clothing.

Drug driving:

Sergeant Coughlan said that the current increase in random breath testing will continue for some time yet. Beyond alcohol detection, they are intended to target criminals generally, she added. The sergeant explained that while breath tests do not detect drug usage, if a garda suspected a driver had used drugs he could demand a blood or urine sample. The minimum disqualification for drink or drug/driving now is one year, raised from three months.

Tyres:

The sergeant drew attention the high rate of un-roadworthy tyres being detected and warned that the winter weather will greatly exacerbate their danger. Non-display of NCT discs has become increasingly prevalent also, she said and gardai will impound such cars. “Proof of having applied for the test should be carried with you,” she added. Impounding is also likely to result where car tax has expired by over two months.

Big increase in shoplifting:

Off the road, the past week had been relatively quiet, Sergeant Coughlan reported, with a number of drug searches unearthing only a few minor infringements. However, shoplifting has increased dramatically. She urged shopkeepers to report suspicious activity and to “follow a customer round the shop” if concerned enough.
The sergeant said that CCTV is very effective both for detection and deterrent and urged shopkeepers to install it. “Even the dummy ones are quite good at dissuading criminals,” she added.

Retired gardai

Sergeant Coughlan concluded her report with several notices:
1) A retirement function for recently retired garda Pat Grace will be held at the Walter Raleigh Hotel on Sunday Sept 13th. The night will include a four-course meal, dj and live band. Tickets, @ €26 are available from Youghal garda station (024) 92200. The sergeant said Garda Pat O’Leary is also retiring but that both men are being replaced. ”We are losing experience but gaining youth,” she promised, in wishing the retired members the very best.

2) Youghal Community Alert’s monthly meetings will resume on Tuesday September 1st, in the Walter Raleigh Hotel at 8pm.

3) Bereavements and suicide:
A new website, established by the HSE is aimed at all bereavement issues with particular emphasis on suicide and suicide prevention. “It contains a lot of practical information.” said Sergeant Coughlan. The web address is: www.nosp.ie

Things are looking up in Gortroe as roof repairs and other works are all but complete at the community hall. Gortroe Hall Ltd, the company established to satisfy funding acquirement has just received €49,000 grant aid from South and East Cork Area Development Ltd (SECAD). The money is the first instalment of €93,000 allocated by SECAD towards the restoration project, with the remainder imminent once paperwork is completed. “Without SECAD we simply could not have repaired the hall. We are very grateful to them and indeed to all who supported us,” says Gortroe Hall Ltd’s chairman Kieran Mariga. Report:  Christy Parker   Photo: Michael Hussey www.youghalonline.com

The restoration is the latest chapter in a story of tremendous endurance and a commitment to a historic structure by a vibrant, self-assured community. The hall is owned by the Church, and dates back hundreds of years. It’s previous, dilapidated roof was a galvanise structure apparently constructed from huts dismantled at Pilmore during the Famine. Incredibly, it remained in fine fettle until about two years ago when “it began to leak and the hall became quite damp,” explains Kieran.

Church organisations cannot access government funding and so Gortroe Hall Ltd was formed and acquired the structure on a 35-year lease from the Church. The 12-member company approached SECAD with a roof repair problem but negotiations soon revolved round a more complete structural renovation. The subsequent work, undertaken through the summer by Michael Cronin contractors, Ballymadog, has also seen new wiring, lighting, heating windows, doors and disability installed, along with other internal and external modifications.

SECAD, whose Rural Development Programme 2007-2013 has received €8.5m through the European Union and the National Development Plan, funded 75% of the €130,000 total cost. Gortroe Hall Ltd acquired a loan from the Youghal Credit Union and the local community, it’s neighbours and friends actively supported the campaign to meet the repayments and interest charges.

A race night at the Quality Hotel earned a massive €20,000. “The fundraising committee were fantastic. They sold horses months in advance @ €20 each, got sponsorship for races and on the night. People from everywhere rallied to the cause,” Kieran say. Further fundraising and hall rental will, hopefully, meet the outstanding €10,000.

The completed task has not merely renovated a hall but has re-assured a community. The hall is as relevant to Gortroe as the Taj Mahal is to India and has the added attraction that you don’t have to remove your shoes (or wellingtons) to enter it! It has been, still is and is expected always to be, central to community activity. “Everything from celebrations, theatre shows, card nights, a playschool, Christmas parties and so on is held there,” says Kieran, “and communities from as far as Clashmore, Ballymacoda and Inch avail of it.” They’ll be praising it to the new rafters now.

Journalist Christy Parker examines the ‘right of way’ issue at Ardmore’s Cliff House Hotel

Ardmore residents angered over a closed ‘right of way’ at the Cliff House Hotel say they will fight on to have the access re-opened regardless of the conclusion reached in an imminent Ombudsman’s report. The Ombudsman’s decision is expected this month on complaints made by local residents against Waterford County Council’s handling of the issue. “Hopefully the Ombudsman will vindicate our argument but meantime we will continue our campaign to have the right of way re-opened,” said one local last weekend, though declining to be named.

The dispute began in April 2008 when the hotel owners Valshan Ltd, refused to re-open a step way linking a higher road and the road that transcends the hotel car park towards Ardmore cliffs, the village and other amenities. The access, which was closed during development of the €20m hotel, is one of several such ‘right of ways’ linking the two roads.

Locals claim ‘the Steps’, as they are colloquially known, link one public road to another and thus form a traditional right of way that dates back many decades. Some suspect Valshan’s motives arise from an attitude of ‘exclusivity’ that seeks to minimise contact between guests at the luxurious, €200 per night facility and passing locals or hill walkers. Valshan for their part, insist the steps are their property, do not constitute a right of way at all and that they have closed them due to their bad repair.

The protestors’ disdain for the proprietors of Cliff House Hotel is matched by their disillusionment with Waterford County Council. Following initial complaints, in April 2008, the Council’s Planning department appointed executive technician David Regan to investigate. Mr. Regan’s report noted that the disputed area had been “permanently fenced off” and that “no exemption exists for works of this nature.” On his recommendation, May 8th 2008, the County Council issued notice to Valshan to restore the access. In response, Valshan claimed, through its architects, Coughlan DeKeyser Associates that their “legal advice is that there is no right of way” and said the steps had been closed “due to being unsafe.”

Enforcement did not proceed and in October 2008, Waterford County Council explained that ‘warning letters are issued when a complaint is received.’ Given that there was a dispute, they now considered it “a matter for the civil courts.”

Matters abated until November 3rd 2008 when 13 sworn Affidavits were handed to Waterford Council, each one arguing through personal experience that the Steps had been, by long tradition, a right of way. Five more were subsequently forwarded. The witnesses include a former proprietor of the original Cliff House hotel, locals and long-term visitors. Mention is made of the Steps’s practical, aesthetic and cultural consideration. Crucially, the complainants included a map, submitted with their planning application (PD 04/1924-site layout) by Coughlan DeKeyser no less, indicating the Steps as a right of way.

Sucked back into the fray, County Council Planner, Brian White, now viewed the matter as “a dispute between Valshan, the community and the Council that could linger and fester.” He believed all “reasonable efforts with the land owner, including 3rd party arbitration if possible,” should be attempted “before referring it to our solicitor.”

Still reluctant to enforce its own order, on November 26th 2008, the County Council wrote to Valshan, reminding them of the stipulation on their own architect’s map, advising again that the Council was “obliged under Roads and Planning Legislation to protect Rights of Way” and requesting “a copy of your legal advice referred to in your correspondence of 27/6/08.” The Council further asked if Valshan proposed to carry out remedial works on the steps and to open same thereafter. Valshan remained unmoved.

On December 15th, Mr. White delivered a verdict of sorts. He informed locals, by letter, that “having examined legal precedence in relation to Right of ways, I regret to inform you that Waterford County Council is not in a position to legally establish that a Right of Way exists in this location” and, “in particular had not carried out maintenance work on the steps in living memory” and therefore could not assuredly claim it existed.

A month later, Mr White elaborated that the steps were substandard, too narrow, did not have a handrail and were not constructed to the standard for public access. This reasoning, some observers noted, could invalidate ‘right of way status pertaining to all step ways in the vicinity.

The Council official’s uncertainty about proving right of way legitimacy centres on a number of details. One reservation arises from an affidavit’s testimony that a previous owner who had developed the car park, “created” the steps as they presently stand from “a slope with a few rough steps.” In Mr. White’s analysis, this constitutes “a clear distinction between a permission granted by the landowner to members of the public to walk on a pathway across private property and the dedication of these pathways to the public at large.”  Perhaps even more profoundly, he finds that the while a right of way by definition “starts and ends in a public place,” it appears that ‘the Steps’ leads (or emanates from) a private car park.

In any case, on January 19th 2009, the residents referred its records on the County Council’s role to the Ombudsman. Nine days later it further reminded him that, despite the absence of Council maintenance on the Steps, “public money” had been used on remedial work in 1999, through the Ardmore Enterprise Co-op, supervised by FAS.

Youghal Town Council has signed a contract with Cobh-based Cornerstone Construction Ltd. to restore the collapsed section of the town walls near Raheen Park. Town Clerk Liam Ryan says the work will commence immediately and “should be completed within two months.”  The company has extensive experience in the area of heritage restoration, including the Crawford Observatory, UCC, Dunboy Castle Hotel, Castletownbere, Castle Hyde House Fermoy (Flatley’s flat!) and Carrig House, Cobh, for which it received an Architectural Excellence Award from Cobh Chamber of Commerce. Report: Christy Parker   Photo: Michael Hussey www.youghalonline.com

The Department of the Environment is effectively funding the project through €120,000 grant aid to Youghal Walled Town’s Network via Heritage Council. The sum will also finance studies into the state and requirements of the town walls generally, which will be undertaken by Absolute Precision Surveying, Glanmire.

The wall initially collapsed in early 2008, followed by further deterioration in recent months. “The second fall was actually a blessing,” says Mr, Ryan, ‘as it removed a bridge over the original collapse that would have proved very difficult and more expensive to negotiate.”

Quayside restoration also commences.

The council has also entered contract for restoration work at the Pier Head and Greens Quay. The project will address the problem of water infiltrating the structures. “They are not actually dangerous at present but could become so unless treated,” says the Town Clerk. The work is being financed by €400,000 from the Department of Transport –a considerable acquirement in these belt-fastening days.
The project, being undertaken by L &M Keating Ltd., Co Clare and is scheduled to begin in the first week of September. It will also include road re-surfacing at Greens Quay. Thank God!

Youghal’s Deirdre McCarthy goes  ‘Off the Rails’  – but in a good way! She will be appearing on the first programme of the Autumn/Winter series of Off the Rails on September 30th next and she is confident that this is not the end but rather the beginning. Report Becky Grice

Off the Rails, the popular RTE show, is all about making someone look and feel their best. Deirdre McCarthy from Youghal decided to apply for the programme and she succeeded. Why? What is it about Deirdre that makes her special?

Deirdre McCarthy is the 27 year old daughter of Maurice and Mary McCarthy of Knockaverry, Youghal. Deirdre is the sister of Maurice, Stephen and Frances. She is the loving, single mother of her nine year old son, Robert. She is a neighbour, she is a colleague and she is a friend to many. In fact, Deirdre was something to everyone and nothing to herself.
Several months ago, Deirdre took a long, hard look at her life and found she had no time to devote to doing the things that other 27 year olds do. The pressures of her job did not allow her spend enough time with her son, doing the things moms and sons do together. . She was at a crossroads in her life. And so, she took a very drastic decision. Because she loved working in Tesco Youghal, enjoyed meeting with people, and got on well with her colleagues, she did not want to leave their employ. However, she met with her Supervisors and requested a shift from her Manager’s job, to a relatively easier, non pressure job with Tesco Youghal, working normal daily hours. She got it.

So started the beginning of the changes in Deirdre’s life.

One day shortly afterwards, an email arrived in her inbox giving all the information about Off the Rails and attaching an application form. Deirdre told the East Cork Journal that normally she would just delete it but, this was a new Deirdre, determined to make something of herself. She applied, filled the application form, pressed send, and then deleted the entire thing. Imagine her surprise a week later when she received a telephone call to come to RTE in Dublin for an interview, which she attended. A week later she was called again, this time to meet with the Presenters of the show – and was told she was successful. She was going to be on Off the Rails!

This started a whirlwind of activity in the life of Deirdre McCarthy. From hearing that her wardrobe was ‘an orphanage of clothes’ to being totally made over (they cut her long hair up into a short, smart, modern bob which looks stunning on her) to trips to various boutiques and shops in Dublin for a complete new wardrobe of clothes, body and wardrobe analysis, photo shoots, lunches, taxi trips – in fact, the entire shebang. And she loved every minute of it. Except, perhaps, the day the film crew arrived at her home in Youghal, took one look at the contents of her wardrobe, and swept the entire lot out!

On Friday last, August 21st the film crew arrived at Tesco Youghal and high was the excitement. Deirdre McCarthy looked a million dollars as she posed and enjoyed the attention, photo reveal and well wishes of her colleagues and friends. She cried when she was greeted by her family , closest friends and the television presenters and crew with whom she had grown quite close over the filming period. Her entire appearance was changed (but not her good looks), and the outfit she wore of red and purple together, was certainly one which she would never have even looked at before. She will be appearing on the first programme of the Autumn/Winter series of Off the Rails on September 30th next and she is confident that this is not the end but rather the beginning.

Deirdre McCarthy is on a personal journey, and wants time to reflect on her life to date. When most girls in their late teens, early twenties were clubbing, travelling abroad in groups, meeting boyfriends and generally living the life of young girls, Deirdre was loving and looking after her young son, Robert, whom she adores. She would love, now, to be able to do some of things she never had the opportunity to do, and one of her greatest ambitions is to return to education and, hopefully, concentrate on working with people with special needs. Six months ago, she confided, she would never have had the confidence in herself to do anything about it but now she is determined, she is anxious to move on, and she is looking forward to achieving it.
When asked the age old question “Where do you see yourself in five years time” she quickly and seriously replied “Supermodel and seven feet tall!! “(Deirdre is a petite 5‘2”, but the East Cork Journal has no doubt that, other than the 7ft tall business, she now has the courage, the confidence and the ability to achieve anything she wants to).

Deirdre McCarthy of Youghal has taken a giant step forward. She has most certainly come down “Off the Rails”.

Becky Grice
Editor
East Cork Journal

Tel. (021) 4638 022
Fax. (021) 4638 927
Email: editor@eastcorkjournal.ie