Craftspeople from ten Cork businesses in South Cork, West Cork and Cork City will be representing the county at the Showcase Expo in Dublin this month, meeting thousands of international buyers from across Europe, North America and Asia. Photo: Michael Hussey www.youghalonline.com

Thanks to the support of the Cork County and City Enterprise Boards, Kieran Higgins, Dunbeacon Pottery, Custom Quilting, Julian Smith Ceramics, Bagoose Fleece Clothing, Belinda Northcote Design, Liz Burgess Ceramics, Hilary Nunan, Turner Glass and Martha Cashman Sculptural Ceramics will be exhibiting their creations in the R.D.S. at ‘Area A’, along with over 30 other exhibitors which have been supported by their local Enterprise Board.
An estimated 5,000 buyers from Ireland, Japan, the US, France, Germany and Italy will be attending Showcase over the four days, to see the work of 450 craftspeople.
Speaking ahead of Showcase, Sean O’ Sullivan, the CEO of South Cork Enterprise Board said: “The Cork County and City Enterprise Boards are delighted to be involved
in supporting local gift businesses at Showcase 2010.  Over the years we have been pro-active in supporting this sector following the successful Gift Business Development Programme and more recently BT Cork Design Week.  The Boards in Cork remain committed to supporting the gift sector in 2010.”

The West Cork Enterprise Board is supporting Kieran Higgins, a woodturner from Skibbereen, Helen Ennis from Dunbeacon Pottery in Durrus and Beryl Cadman from Custom Quilting in Castletownbere. The South Cork Enterprise Board is supporting Julian Smith Ceramics from Kinsale, Simone O’ Shaughnessy from Bagoose Fleece Clothing in Passage West, Belinda Northcote Design from Shanagarry, Liz Burgess Ceramics from Belgooly and Hilary Nunan from Minane Bridge. The Cork City Enterprise Board is supporting Eoin Turner from Turner Glass in Blackpool and Martha Cashman Sculptural Ceramics on Upper Blarney Street.
Now in its 34th year, Showcase is Ireland’s creative expo and runs from Sunday January 24th to Wednesday January 27th in the Main Hall of the R.D.S. The initiative provides Irish designer makers, craft enterprises and gift brand manufacturers the opportunity to showcase their products to the world’s buyers. Organised by Showcase Ireland Events Ltd. on behalf of the Crafts Council of Ireland, the event is promoted internationally by Enterprise Ireland and more information is available at www.showcaseireland.com
Further information about the supports on offer to small businesses in Cork is available at www.wceb.ie (West Cork), www.sceb.ie (South Cork) and www.corkceb.ie (Cork City).

FOR ALL MEDIA-RELATED QUESTIONS, PLEASE CONTACT ENGAGE IRELAND:
Sarah Bohan on Tel: 01 8855162 / 087 65 39936 / sbohan@engageireland.com
Serena Bryans on Tel: 01 8855162 / 086 812 4106/ sbryans@engageireland.com

Supported by South Cork Enterprise Board:

About Julian Smith Ceramics (www.westcorkcraft.org)
Julian Smith has been working with clay for over twenty years, producing one-off cast and hand-built ceramic pieces, mainly based on figurative forms and Celtic mythology. From his studio in the fishing village of Kinsale, Julian has mastered raku-firing, a 16th century Japanese firing process.  His raku-fired ceramics have rich metallic lustres and crackle glazes, which Julian has become famous for.
About Bagoose Fleece Clothing (www.bagoose.com)
Award-winning designer, Simone O’ Shaughnessy, set up the Bagoose Children’s Clothing Label a decade ago in Passage West.  Designed and manufactured in Ireland using 100% polyester (made from recycled plastic), the clothing is fun, colourful and cosy. The range includes scarves, jackets, blankets and hats in styles and sizes to suit boys and girls.  “Easy wear, Easycare, Everywhere” is the Bagoose motto.
About Belinda Northcote Design (www.belindanorthcote.com)
Precise and detailed, colourful yet timeless, Belinda Northcote specialises in botanical and wildlife paintings, having graduated from the prestigious UK Society of Botanical Artists Diploma Course. Inspired by her surroundings (the picturesque fishing village of Ballycotton),  Belinda’s fine art prints and greeting cards have stunning botanical detail, which include all kinds of ‘creepy crawlies’.
About Liz Burgess Ceramics
Through the medium of clay, Liz translates her thoughts and ideas into raku-fired ceramics, such as figurative torsos, facial masks and ‘Painter’s Palettes’ ceramic bowls. Celebrating the beauty of the human form, Liz’s contemporary ceramic sculptures are complex, textured and vibrantly coloured. Based in Kinsale, Liz will be unveiling ‘Lava Flowers’ at Showcase – these pieces are rich in colour, lustrous and stylish.
About Hilary Nunan
From windy shores and wheat fields to choppy waters and reed beds – Hilary Nunan creates vibrant, textured works of art. An award-winning artist, Hilary draws inspiration from the working fields, hedgerows and coastline surrounding her Ringabella studio. Her striking applied art and craft is traditionally framed, uniquely combining acrylic and natural fibres. Hillary is launching a range of greeting cards shortly.
Supported by Cork City Enterprise Board:
About Turner Glass (www.turnerglass.com)
Working from his glass studio in Cork City, Eoin Turner has gained international attention for his “casually elegant” glassware that includes vases, bowls and candleholders from his ‘Vortex’ collection.  Eoin’s designs are clearly inspired by the sea, given his experiences as a West Cork fisherman and as a painter. Made from cast glass and formed metal, Turner Glass pieces project a subtle, yet ruggedly defined form.

About Martha Cashman Sculptural Ceramics (www.marthacashman.com)
Martha Cashman is an award-winning ceramicist who transforms the most humbling of objects, such as tools and spoons, into symbolic story boards. Using porcelain and bright lustre glazes, Martha crafts framed sculptures, unique porcelain brooches and Christmas Tree Hangings at her Cork city studio.  Having won the Scarva Award, Martha’s work can also be viewed at the Cork Institute of Technology.
Supported by West Cork Enterprise Board:
About Kieran Higgins (www.kieranhiggins.com)
Kieran crafts unique pieces in native hardwood timber and bog woods at his artist studio near Skibbereen in West Cork.  A member of the Irish Woodturners’ Guild, Kieran sculpts, carves and turns wood, highlighting its natural characteristics and defects to retain the wood’s heritage. The colour, grain and imperfection within the wood decides the shape and form of the finished piece.
About Dunbeacon Pottery (www.dunbeaconpottery.com)
For the last 30 years, West Cork’s Dunbeacon Pottery has been famous for its beautiful, yet functional hand-made ceramic tableware. Since taking over ten years ago, Helen Ennis has continued to craft ceramic pieces that capture the essence of Ireland’s Southwest coast. Her latest collection focuses on well-designed and affordable bowls, vases, jugs, mugs, butter dishes and tabletop pottery, all decorated by hand.
About Custom Quilting (www.customquilt.com)
Beryl Cadman is a textile artist and a grandmother, so she fully understands the importance of both beauty and function in children’s bedding. With decades of quilting experience, Beryl makes heirloom -quality quilts and accessories under the ‘Custom Quilting’ brand.  The ‘Bunny Love’ nursery collection of quilts, pillows and nursery accessories are all hand-made, designed to withstand the rigors of everyday life.

The late Michael (Mick) McCarthy speaks a brief history of the Youghal Pipe Band, one of the longest existing pipebands in Ireland founded in 1914 by Danny (Duis) McCarthy.

This interview was recorded in 1996 and features past members Moss Walsh & John O Brien and current members Leanne Murphy & Pearl McCarthy being interviewed by Read more

ONE Event that will not be falling foul of the inclement weather is the forthcoming Munster Snooker Club Championships which take place in the Gleneagle Hotel here in Killarney on the 22nd until the 24th of January. By Derek Kiely in Killarney/ Photo: Michael Hussey www.youghalonline.com

The Gleneagle Hotel/Ladbrokes sponsored event welcomes 24 teams from all six counties of the Province of Munster which includes six Cork teams that are involved in this year’s event.

It has been just over a decade since the Youghal CYMS team amongst scenes of mass celebration with their many travelling supporters saw the East Cork men lift the Munster Snooker Club Championship trophy. In the years that have followed there have been very significant performances from the likes of the Crucible Snooker Club from the North Side of Cork City, Fermoy CYMS and the AOH.

Cork’s representatives this year are the Crucible Club, Fermoy CYMS, the AOH from Morrison’s Island and Youghal CYMS who provide no less than three teams for the Killarney showpiece.

The draw which was held in Fermoy recently has thrown up some really tight groups making it a hard one to call this year.

In Group ‘D’ Fermoy are pooled against the AOH, with Group ‘E’ pitting the Youghal CYMS ‘A’ side against the young guns of the Crucible Snooker Club.

The Crucible will call on the services of top class Irish International Greg Casey and his young team mates who will all play snooker with little or no fear of the lightning fast green baize of the INEC.

Youghal CYMS under the guidance of top Irish International Brendan Cooney have the experience and the ability to win this event, with a nice blend of seasoned campaigners and young talent in their ranks. The AOH Club from Morrison’s Island and the Fermoy CYMS teams are not short of quality in their ranks either, but the draw has put four of the Cork sides into direct opposition proving the point that doing well in Killarney and getting a top five seeding has its benefits.

Tournament Director Connie O’Sullivan told Echo Sport, “The draw this year has thrown up all kinds of possibilities with some of the more established sides looking as strong as ever. The Cork sides are always formidable and bring a lot of passion and pride to Kerry. The current champions the New Institute have lost two players this year to the professional scene, so that can open up a few chances for the other sides and I suppose offer a little opportunity for those brave enough to take it. The Cork snooker scene is in my opinion as competitive as ever and I wouldn’t be completely surprised if one of those well established Cork teams caused a bit of a shock in Killarney”.

The top four teams including the host team the Cue Club from Killarney will make it through to the 2010 All Ireland Championships which take place exactly one week after the Munster Championships also at the Gleneagle Hotel.

The draw for the 2010 Munster Club Snooker Championships:

Group A

New Institute ‘A’ (Tipperary) (1)

Shannon ‘B’ (Clare)

St John’s (Limerick)

Waterford ‘C’

Group B

Waterford ‘A’ (2)

Youghal CYMS ‘B’ (Cork)

Thurles  (Tipperary)

Cue Club ‘A’ (Kerry)

Group C

Waterford ‘B’ (3)

Venetian ‘A’ (Limerick)

New Institute ‘B’ (Tipperary)

Cappoquin ‘A’ (Waterford)

Group D

Fermoy CYMS (Cork) (4)

AOH (Cork)

Shannon ‘A’ (Tipperary)

Carrick-on-Suir (Tipperary)

Group E

Youghal CYMS ‘A’ (Cork) (5)

Crucible (Cork)

Venetian ‘B’ (Limerick)

Masters ‘B’

Group F

Youghal CYMS ‘C’

Cue Club ‘B’ (Kerry)

Venetian ‘C’ (Limerick)

Cappoquin ‘B’ (Waterford)

The competition will run as a Group Stage, round robin event with the top group sides with the exception of Group F will automatically qualifying for the Quarter Finals. The Group runners along with the winners of Group F will play a series of knock out games to fill the remaining three quarter final spots.

The 2010 Ladbrokes Munster Snooker Club Championships starts Friday January the 22nd at 11.00am at the INEC Arena at the Gleneagle Hotel in Killarney and ends on Sunday evening the 24th of January.

Claycastle pitch and putt club report 17/01/10

All at the club would like to pass on our sincere sympathies to our
secretary Edward Long and his family on the sudden passing of his
father Dan. May he rest in peace. As a mark of respect the league game
due to be played on Sunday last was postponed and will take place at a
later date. The course will also be closed on Tuesday 19th January .

The leagues will commence on Sunday 24th January at 2.30 sharp. The
lowest two nett scores from each team will count to make up the team
total. The full format of the league is up on the notice board.
This years county leagues will see Claycastle entering two teams in
the senior and intermediate section. This is the first year that we
will having a playing interest in the fiercely contested county
league. The senior panel consists of – Martin Keohane (captain),Colin
Sheehan, Edward Long, Gary O’ Sullivan, Anthony O’ Loughlin, John
Sloane, Michael Landers and Paudie O’ Sullivan.
The inter panel consists of- Don Sheehan (captain), Jimmy McCarthy,
Michael Ryall, Johan Brosnan, Seamus Murphy, Jonathan Howley, Ted
Kelly and Brendan McCausley.
Hopefully both teams can perform to a high level and have a good run
in the competition, Best of luck to all the players.

Take two 20-odd year old girls from Waterford City who specialise in hip-hop dancing, and ask them what they’d like to do in the All-Ireland Talent Show. Becky Grice writes

The answers you’d expect to receive might include hip-hop dancing, more hip-hop dancing and, perhaps – this is only a guess – hip-hop dancing.

And you would, for the most part, be right.

What you may not expect is for these two girls to dress as 75 year old women, and then perform songs, dance and skits to the tunes of the Pussycat Dolls, Missy Elliott and Lil Wayne.

Then again, Sinead Gould and Louise Durand aren’t just two hip-hop dancers from Waterford, they are, in fact, the Ghetto Grannies.

What started out as a favour to a friend during a benefit night, to raise funds to send said friend to college in London, has now turned in to a fairly full-time career (one where stockings, hair rollers and a copious amount of red lipstick are all part and parcel of the package).

Earlier this week, the East Cork Journal caught up with Sinead Gould, one half of the Ghetto Grannies, as the duo prepare for their live performance on the All-Ireland Talent Show on February 7th.

‘It really all started out as a bit of a laugh,’ Sinead states on a break between from work, ‘We were asked to MC a benefit night for a friend of  ours and for some reason that neither me nor Louise can remember we said “Why don’t we dress up as grannies to do it?”’

‘We went out to charity shops to pick up outfits and performed that same night. The reaction from the audience was great, and it just went on from there really.’

But weren’t people surprised when you started dressing up as senior citizens?

‘No, not really,’ Sinead laughs, ‘although I’m not sure if that says more about us or our friends and family! The benefit night was done totally last minute, we made up lyrics to some well-known hip-hop songs and did it on the fly.’

As Nanny Ned (Louise plays her counterpart Nanny Nay-Nay), Sinead is a student in Waterford, currently on a TEFL course, while best friend Louise is studying Geography and Economics in UCC.

In between their studies and jobs, the girls don’t find that much time to rehearse but are adament that their performance on February 7th will be something to look forward to.

‘We started hip-hop dancing really, really young,’ Sinead enthuses, ‘We’ve been best friends since we were four years old and, when a dance school opened in Waterford we were there.’

Taking part in – and finally teaching – as part of Bright Beat, the girls got to train children from the age of five all the way up to adults who fancied themselves as the next Pussycat Doll.

‘We’ve always had a taste for dancing and music,’ Sinead continues, ‘I just don’t think either of us ever expected to be dancing like this in cardigans, hair nets and head-scarves!’

To drum up support for the Ghetto Grannies, the girls are holding a fundraising evening in Mason’s Bar in Waterford and will also be performing guest appearances at UCC, WIT and some secondary schools.

‘We’re promising something special on the night,’ Sinead raises the game. ‘We pre-record the rapping, dancing and voice-overs and act it out. Rapping is a lot of fun as you can change current music to suit whatever you want to say.’

But are the girls scared of falling into the same trap as another Irish duo recently seen on the X-Factor?

‘We LOVE Jedward,’ is the definitive response, ‘Maybe, if we’re lucky and everyone in the South supports us, we’ll get to sit down with them for a cup of Barry’s tea in the near future!’

The girls first auditioned in September 2009 and can’t believe how time has flown since then, when John Creedon chose the Ghetto Grannies as one of his top 8 to represent the South in the All-Ireland Talent Show, with a top prize of €50,000 at stake.

And for the Ghetto Grannies, €50,000 is a whole lotta hairnets.

The Ghetto Grannies will appear on  the All-Ireland Talent Show on Sunday, February 7thn on RTE One, live from Ardmore Studios, Bray, Co. Wicklow.

Becky Grice
Editor
East Cork Journal

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

The Irish Canon (abridged) 10 plays, 70 characters, 3 actors, 1 hour

BACK WITH A BANG!
The Mall Arts Centre, Youghal – Saturday 30th January at 8.00pm
Tickets on sale – Cree’s Card Shop, North Main Street, tel 024 3606507

Further Info 0833606507

The Irish Canon(abridged) had a hugely successful summer run in the Half Moon Theatre Cork Opera House, Cork Midsummer Festival’s Spiegeltent, and at Spraoi in the Park, Waterford. Now it takes flight to a theatre near you for those of you who missed it!

Three actors hurtle through ten of the most famous Irish plays ever written whipping through over 70 characters in a show that’s crammed with culture, comedy and hilarious hysterics.

In a jam-packed hour, the stage will come alive with Irish figures who have dominated theatrical circles for over a century. Cathleen Ni Houlihan, Christy Mahon, Bessie Burgess, the Bull Maccabe and many more grace the stage in quick succession, running breathlessly through iconic Irish theatre of over one hundred years, unfurling into comic chaos.

Completely and unashamedly abridged, watch The Irish Canon flash before your eyes dragging Irish plays kicking and screaming into the future. This multi-headed parody is filled with oodles of imagination and a knock-about sense of fun, it’s a rip-roaring improvisational hour of theatre!

It’s back, it’s bigger and better than ever and it’s most certainly not to be missed!

“An engaging successful piece of comedy” – Irish Examiner

Rose Russell O’Donovan might be interested in this memoir I wrote for the UCC Medical Alumni Newsletter recently in view of her reminiscences of her experiences in the Cork Polio epidemic she recently published in Youghal Online. A short precis was published in the recent Holly Bough.

Paul O’Brien MB

A MEMOIR OF THE PLAGUE YEAR.
The memories came back when reading Patrick Cockburn’s book

‘The Broken Boy’.Son of the gadfly journalist and scourge of the British Establishment Claude Cockburn, dedicated Communist, editor of ‘The Week’ , godfather of ‘Private Eye’ and a Battalion Commander in the Spanish Civil War, young Patrick was a victim  in the Cork polio epidemic of 1956, one of the last great outbreaks of that enemy of the mostly very young.
Photo: Michael Hussey www.youghalonline.com E mail news@youghalonline.com

His father had brought the family to a house near his mother’s people’s place close to Youghal from England.  Though well aware that the epidemic was raging in Cork that August, Cockburn thought that they would be safe there though he continued to travel through the city on his journeys to and from England.  He seems to have experienced minor symptoms of the disease himself shortly before his two sons became ill.

Now a distinguished journalist in his own right specializing in Middle East affairs, Patrick wrote of his recollections of his illness in a book which also provides insights into the Ascendancy lifestyle lived by his mother’s family.  Both polio and the Ascendancy are now fast fading memories for Irish people. Polio succumbed to advances in Medicine. The Ascendancy class started off their long decline  to oblivion by supporting the Act of Union; subsequently they obstinately continued to back the wrong political horse  in Ireland and now have either fled their country or been married out of existence.  A fine literature riven by a haunting schizoid vein of manque Irishness is their sole if substantial legacy.

In the Spring of 1956 I was relieved and somewhat surprised to pass the dreaded 2nd Medical exams which opened up a long Summer to be lived at will.  In the relaxed atmosphere of the times one could no longer flunk out as there was now no deadline for passing the exams in the Clinical years of the course.  Proof of this was offered by the appearance now and again in College of some legendary ‘chronic meds’,  including a mysterious lady known as ‘The Cuckoo’ due to her habit of showing up from England in Spring with the avowed purpose of sitting Finals but never actually getting around to it.  Her appearance was always taken seriously by the current final year students as it signalled that the time to really get down to serious study had arrived.

As Teaching rounds were held at the various hospitals in the morning followed by formal lectures at UCC in the afternoon a motorized mode of transport was essential, especially if one wanted to stop for lunch downtown while en route from the North Infirmary, where the bedside teaching clinics of the elegant O.T.D. Loughnane in Medicine and the popular and saturnine ‘K Jack’ Kiely in Surgery were eagerly attended .  A quiet pint with a half dozen oysters could be had inexpensively at Hoare’s bar in a laneway near the Examiner Office.  This was felt to be a necessity by some of us to withstand the boredom caused by one of the senior lecturers whose idea of teaching was to read passages out of fairly basic textbooks and indicate where he personally did’nt agree with the author now and again.

To raise the necessary cash to buy wheels I hied off to London to  Wall’s Ice Cream factory, where by working the night shift in the huge storage freezers, one could fairly rapidly acquire significant funds if one did’nt get involved in the perpetual poker games ongoing day and night.  On return I bought the famous Hackett Special,a black sinister-looking mainly Triumph 350 twin motorbike put together by medical student Tom Hackett and Physiology lab technologist Johnny Cagney from the cannibalized remains of two  crashed bikes.  It served  faithfully until one wet day in the County Limerick when it mysteriously caught fire under me as I was blasting along a road near Caherconlish while up in Limerick doing an elective with the respected Dr John Nash ,Physician Superintendent at the Regional Hospital.

When I got back to Cork the polio epidemic was in full swing. Over its course over 500 patients, mostly children , were admitted to hospital within less than four months.  The public health authorities had forecast an increased number of cases of polio that Summer but not an epidemic.  As polio attacks about 100 patients for every one it brings down with visible symptoms  it meant that in Cork with its then population of 75 000 there could have been possibly up to 50 000 affected.  Though the vast majority of these were symptom-free they could have been potential carriers of the virus for a time.  In anticipation of an outbreak the authorities had designated some hospitals as polio reception centres though apparently no attempt was made to import and use the newly released Salk polio vaccine which was soon to obliterate the disease in the Western world.  The old Fever Hospital in Blackpool was recommissioned and the Fever Hospital block in St Finbarres was readied with a respiratory intensive care unit containing various artificial respirators for the most seriously ill patients suffering from respiratory paralysis.

This is where we got involved;  in a prior outbreak in Copenhagen volunteer medical students had been called upon to manually ventilate some patients,either because of a shortage of iron lungs or victims who for one reason or another could not adapt to them.  In St Finbarre’s there was a little girl who fell in to this latter category. A call went out for volunteers to help the overworked nursing staff by working mainly night shifts to manually ventilate her.  Several of the Class who would go on to graduate in 1959/60 came forward.

A rota was organized to cover the required shifts .  Among the volunteers was the late Dr.Noel McCarthy, son of the then Cork County Medical Officer of Health.  Though the public health doctors came in for criticism by Patrick Cockburn, Dr. McCarthy had no hesitation in letting Noel volunteer.  Others were Raymond Hegarty, Jerry O’Connell (RIP), Olive O’Donoghue, Ben Meade (who went back to his digs after one shift only to find his personal belongings neatly piled outside the door with a polite note from the landlady asking him to make himself scarce) and Elizabeth Healy, also asked to vacate her lodgings at short notice.

Another volunteer was my friend the late John Joe Kelly who was on holidays from TCD at the time; John Joe was the only one of us to come down with symptoms of the disease but luckily it was not the paralytic variant. Other volunteers  included John A. Kelly whose father UCC graduate Surgeon Lieutenant Kelly had been lost at sea in WW II when the hospital ship ‘Ceramic’ was torpedoed. Prominent UCC graduate  Michael B. O’Sullivan, who would go on to become Director of Laboratories at the Mayo Clinic, was also one of the youthful group of idealists..

We were given a crash course on how to manually ventilate the little girl whose name was Margot via a bag was connected to a tracheostomy .We  did alternating two-hour stints of regularly compressing it, interrupted only by aspirating secretions when necessary .I still recall the subdued lighting of the special unit with the silence regularly broken by the hiss of the iron lungs . Margot would gaze at us steadily as we kept her going; she had incredible fortitude and did eventually recover enough function as to manage largely breathing on her own.  Later while doing clinics at the  Orthopaedic Hospital in Gurranebraher she greeted us from the rehab Unit where she then was. One of the patients in an iron lung was Michael who hailed from Waterford; he had developed the habit of attempting to cough to attract the attention of the nurse looking after him  for fear she might nod off.  Raymond Hegarty remembers manually ventilating a little girl with a sad and tragic history.  Her mother had sent her to relatives in Skibbereen to avoid the epidemic; there she cut herself while tree climbing and developed tetanus; now she was in the unit suffering from respiratory paralysis and also being bagged.  Sadly she died.

Towards the end of September our services were no longer needed and without fuss or fanfare we slipped quietly in to the routine life of the medical student.Dr.Saunders, City MOH and Professor of Public Health at the time,did offer a few gruff word of thanks to the volunteers as a group at the first lecture he gave us that Fall. Indeed far from getting us any special treatment academically there was the distinct impression that he had failed one of the volunteers in the Public Health exam the next Summer.  By that time deemed faulty knowledge of more pressing Public Health subjects such as Salmonella outbreaks caused by imported Chinese frozen egg  ,the dimensions of septic systems, and the Loch Maree disaster cancelled out any brownie points that might have been gained by volunteering for frontline duty in the polio epidemic.

While Patrick Cockburn was critical of the Cork medical establishment’s handling of the crisis the truth is the epidemic was well managed once it broke out; however an inexplicable oversight was the failure to organize the rapid introduction of mass vaccination once it was recognized that an outbreak was likely that Summer.  Such a course of action was adopted in an outbreak in Chicago that began some weeks before the first cases showed up in Cork .

Doctors and nurses went about their duties with dedication. Though we volunteers had no knowledge of medical administrative and management matters I can recall no instance of panic.  Names that come back to me are the unflappable Dr Kathleen O’Callaghan, Sister Stanislaus who ran the Unit with quiet efficiency and nurses like Nancy Riordan and Kathleen Stoker as well as many others we did’nt come in contact with and so unknown to me who went about the duties of going out in ambulances for affected and infective victims, and faithfully nursing them through their illness. Looking back through a veil of over 50 years I  recognize the heroism of these dedicated professionals so matter of factly taken for granted at the time.  For those I have’nt mentioned I must plead the incomplete memory bank of half a century.

Dr Stanley Leeson, a member of the Class of ’59 and  Cardiovascular Anesthesiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston , tells me that it was experiences gained in epidemics such as those in Cork and Copenhagen that gave rise to the introduction of controlled ventilation  during routine anaesthesia.

Ironically it appears that the conditions that facilitated the epidemic were due to improvements in hygienic conditions in the City and not the opposite as many residents believed at the time.  Many of the affected children came from new suburbs expressly built to eliminate old slum areas.   The newer cleaner environments paradoxically gave rise to a new generation raised without the immunity they might have acquired under the old living conditions.

Cork Nights: An A to Z of Cork by Youghal native Tom FitzGerald
Triskel Arts Centre, Cork
Thurs 21st Jan :: 8pm :: Jurys Western Road :: FREE

Triskel Arts Centre begins the new year with a series of “Cork nights” featuring Cork writers. Copies of books by these authors will be for sale on night but events are FREE.

“An A to Z of Cork”

A number of Cork figures will select their favourite gems from Tom FitzGerald’s wonderfully entertaining and informative story of Cork. These include Councillor Kieran McCarthy, Poet Gerry Murphy, Cork City Librarian Liam Ronayne, Irish Examiner’s Marc O’Sullivan, Cork Evening Echo Editor Maurice Gubbins. Aidan Stanley from RTE will be MC for the evening.

The publisher is Youghal native Tom FitzGerald. “The first book in this series was “An A to Z of Youghal”, says FitzGerald. “That book was very well received in Youghal by advertisers, book-sellers and readers. The people of Youghal proved to be very enthusiastic and supportive for what was a new format in local history books. Now, there are several other titles in production, including another Youghal book.  “An A to Z of Cork” was published last December 2009.

As with the Youghal book, the content is presented alphabetically as a series of stand-alone items that readers can dip into. Each item deals with an aspect of the city’s history or one of its remarkable people who have made history, either at home or abroad.

Ballycotton RNLI lifeboat launched to French fishing vessel seeking medical assistance for one of its crewmembers

A 24 metre French fishing vessel contacted the coast guard seeking medical assistance for one of its crewmembers.  Ballycotton RNLI lifeboat was requested to launch and rendezvoused with the fishing vessel 4 miles south of Ballycotton at 03:20.

The fishing vessel was escorted into the calmer waters of Ballycotton bay.  A lifeboat crewmember was placed aboard the fishing vessel to assess the situation and assist in the transfer of the casualty to the Ballycotton lifeboat.  He was landed ashore at Ballycotton pier at 04:00 where an ambulance was waiting to removed him to hospital.

Sat, Jan 16, 2010 at 3:59 AM

Youghal based actress Jessica Regan is appearing as PC Justine Gould in “Silent Witness” tonight on BBC1 at 9pm ( Thursday 14th January 2010 and Friday 15th January 2010). Silent Witness is the acclaimed BBC thriller series, focusing on a team of forensic experts and their investigations into various crimes. By Michael Hussey www.youghalonline.com

Jessica has just returned to London after spending the Christmas holidays here in Youghal with her mother, Maria Moynihan, friends and family. Most recently Jessica was featured in the comedy series No Signal repeated on F/X channel last Autumn. In 2009 Regan tread the boards in Liverpool in Bridget O’ Connor’s dark comedy “The Flags” .She also featured in the RTE award winning radio play, “The Cider Queens” scripted by Elizabeth Moynihan. Jessica is a graduate of RADA and King’s College, London. She gave an outstanding performance in the play “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman at the Mall Arts Centre, Youghal, back in 2004.

The 2-part episode entitled ‘Voids’ is directed by Irish film director Thaddeus O’Sullivan (Ordinary Decent Criminals-Nothing Personal)

Silent Witness: Voids (1)

Harry and Nikki find themselves on opposite sides to each other on a high profile case, and try not to let their opposition be anything but professional and not leak into their personal lives. However, they are both determined to prove themselves, but discover how evidence can often have two different interpretations. The case involves Tom Flannery, whose wife died as a result of a fall from a stair life. Harry discovers that his first wife also died from the same thing, and he is determined to prove the man’s guilt, while Nikki believes the police investigation was not as if should be, but her determination may only lead to further tragedy.

Director: Thaddeus O’Sullivan
Producer: Ruth Kenley-Letts
Scriptwriter: Ed Whitmore