HISTORY HAS NEVER BEEN SO MUCH FUN!

THE 5TH ANNUAL YOUGHAL MEDIEVAL FESTIVAL to be held at St. Mary’s Medieval College Gardens, is expected to draw its biggest-ever attendance this year on Sunday 21st August. Last year over 7,000 visitors flocked through the gates at the one-day Festival, already the largest free event of its kind in Ireland. The event marks ‘The Irish Walled Town’s Network’ annual day of celebrations, and officially kicks off National Heritage Week.

Bringing history to life and allowing people to experience it first hand is the secret of the event Festival Organiser, Catherine Desmond believes.  “The gardens are looking spectacular at the moment and the 13th century town walls provide just a magical backdrop for this celebration of Youghal’s medieval heritage. We are thrilled to once again be in a position to host this event; now in its fifth year and provide free family entertainment.  This year we really do have something for everyone to enjoy.” said Catherine.

Throughout the day, the magnificent 13th Century Town Walls will resound with battle cries. Returning for their third year at the event, are ‘The Freelance Knights of Redemption’, whose combat displays are world renowned, as they are derived from genuine medieval martial arts. The group will also have a large display of weapons and armour including examples of replicas showing weaponry from the Bronze Age through to the last legally worn sword; The Georgian Small Sword.

If you have ever wondered how hogs roasted on open fires might taste, here’s a chance to discover as Cork based group ‘TUATH DE BARRA’ carry out a medieval themed cookery display of the ‘lamb on the spit’.  Archery displays throughout the day are sure to capture the attention of audiences as the famous ‘bow and arrow’ shows one of the many defence systems used in medieval times.  Learn how to make your own Celtic coins and find out about the shift from bartering goods to payment by coins, all at the Medieval Quarter.

New for kids this year is ‘Beatz’; Ireland’s latest percussion craze, which is high energy, mega-fun drumming workshops.  Its’ fun all the way with face-painting, balloon making with Victor, and a maze of giant games such as ‘snakes and ladders’, and ‘connect four’ to take part in.  If all that wasn’t enough, kids can unleash their creative talents by taking part in our interactive arts & crafts workshop where they can make their very own medieval themed hats, castles and shields.

‘Maid Marion’s Food & Craft Fair’ will once again feature a range of top quality food and crafts from throughout locality and the county.

Youghal’s Medieval Festival is organised by Youghal Town Council’s Heritage Municipal Committee and takes place in St. Mary’s College Gardens, Youghal on Sunday August 21st 2011 from 12PM – 6PM.  For further details on the event contact Youghal Municipal Heritage Committee on: 024 – 81814, email, youghalheritage@mail.com, visit www.youghal.ie or www.facebook.com/youghal.ie

Issued by: Youghal Socio-Economic Development Group

Further information contact: Aileen Murray, T: 024-81814 E: tourism@youghal.ie

 

Youghal’s Anthony O’Loughlin from Claycastle Pitch & Putt is National Champion

On the weekend of 23rd/24th of July last, the National Strokeplay Championships took place at the Douglas pitch and putt course in Cork. As always for any of the major competitions, the greens and the course were in top condition.

The Junior and Intermediate finals take place on the Saturday while the Senior players take to the course on the Sunday. The qualifying took place for this tournament back in June and is the one that most players look forward to and value highly. Claycastle had three players qualify for the finals, Anthony O’Loughlin, Paudie O’Sullivan, and Gary O’Sullivan. The qualifying took place at the Rocklodge course in Cork where all three players cruised through to the finals with great scores.

 

Paudie O’Sullivan was the first Claycastle player out on the day and finished with a steady score of 7 under par(101) after 36 holes. Gary O’Sullivan took to the course shortly after and played consistently over the two rounds and finished with a score of 8 under par(100), and merely missed out on the cut by one shot.
Club Secretary Anthony O’Loughlin was the final Claycastle player out on the course; Anthony played consistently and carded 95 for his 36 holes. Anthony safely made it through to the play-off where the top 20 players played in the final round.

At this stage there were few who would have bet against John Crangle from Loughlinstown in Dublin who led going into the final 18 by 3 shots on -16, but there were three players who sat on -13 and who were all in with a chance of the title.
Anthony O’Loughlin paired with Ian Dillon(St. Bridget’s) for the final 18 who had a fantastic start in the play-off sinking birdies on the first three holes to give him a great chance of lifting the title and brought himself closer to the score of John Crangle(Loughlinstown).
Anthony carried on strongly and had the round of the day with a 42 (12 under par) (also equaling the course record of the Douglas course). This was enough for Anthony as he went on to win the National Strokeplay Championships by a margin of three shots.

This win has also cemented Anthony a place on the Cork team alongside club teammate Paudie O’Sullivan who has played supurbly this season on the pitch and putt circuit.  Both players will wear the red jersey of Cork in the Munster Inter-County Championships which take place in Bruff County Limerick on the 7th August 2011.
The National Inter-County Championships takes place this year in Dublin at Portmarnock on the 11th September 2011. We wish Anthony and Paudie the very best of luck in the coming weeks representing their county.
This is the first time that a player from Claycastle has won a National title and is a very special time for the club, especially as they celebrate their 25th Anniversary this year.
The club is going from strength to strength and we hope we can have another National champion in the club in the near future.

 

 

Evening Echo Intermediate Football Championship
Youghal 3-08
Glanmire 0-08

By Derek Kiely in Rostellan

YOUGHAL progressed in some style last Saturday in the Evening Echo Intermediate Football Championship with a dominating second half performance in a much deserved victory over Glanmire in Rostellan.

Youghal got the dream start to this match, when Dave O’Mahony who was raining in on the Glanmire goal was tripped in the square by the Glanmire corner back Anthony Garvey in the third minute and referee James Dorgan signalled a penealty.

Paul Moylan stepped up to take the penealty for Youghal, sending Brendan O’Connell the wrong way in the Glanmire goal giving Youghal the early goal advantage.

Youghal playing with the elements in the opening half, struck again on the fifth minute when Ken Dempsey sent over a point from play from 50 meters out.

Then Glanmire got into their stride with three unanswered points in a five minute period all off the boot of James Murphy, one from play and two from placed balls, then Nigel Roche of Youghal had a score from the right wing on the 13th minute to give Youghal the two point advantage.

Glanmire’s Michael Cussen dominated a lot of ball in the opening quarter and was setting up some good attacks, but Glanmire were failing in the shooting department and Youghal who were slightly starved of possession took advantage of a break out of defence on the 17th minute when John Grace scored a beautiful point from play and Youghal had the goal lead again.

Murphy pointed from a free on the 23rd minute for Glanmire, but the last score of the first half came off the boot of Paul Moylan on the 30th minute to send Youghal into the half time break with a three point advantage.

The first half may have been a tight enough affair, but the second half was completely dominated by Youghal.

Moylan pointed from a placed ball on the 34th minute and when the very impressive Nigel Roche pointed from play seconds later Youghal had a five point advantage.

Glanmire simply couldn’t get the ball in the opening quarter of the second half and when Roche picked up the ball 30 meters out on the 37th minute he carved through the Glanmire defence and buried the ball into the top right hand corner of the Glanmire net and as a contest this championship game was over.

Moylan and Roche added further points to give Youghal a ten point advantage with just fifteen minutes remaining.

It took Glanmire 18 minutes to register a score in the second half when Daniel Molden pointed from play.

With a significant breeze at their backs in the second half Glanmire failed to take advantage of the elements and the Youghal full back line of Brendan O’Sullivan, Paul O’Driscoll and Alan Fox were impassable and Glanmire were restricted to long range efforts, with Michael Cussen sending one over on the 50th minute from 50 meters out.

Youghal’s response was impressive as they moved the ball back up the field eventually drawing a foul 13 meters out.

Paul Moylan’s free hit the post and rebounded into his hands, the second time he took the option of shooting for goal and finished in style to give Youghal and eleven point lead on the 55th minute.

Glanmire did get two late consolation points, one from James Murphy and the other from second half substitute Jonathan O’Callaghan, but it was a very impressive display by the Youghal side who coped with everything that Glanmire threw at them and looked controlled throughout the entire 60 minutes.

Scorers for Youghal: P Moylan 2-3, N Roche 1-2, D O’Mahony, K Dempsey and J Grace 0-1 each.

Glanmire: J Murphy 0-5, M Cussen, J O’Callaghan and D Molden 0-1 each.

YOUGHAL: P Mackey; B O’Sullivan, P O’Driscoll, A Fox; Barry Ring (Cpt) J Grace, B Coleman; K Dempsey, D Ring; P Kelly, J O’Mahony, Brendan Ring; N Roche, D O’Mahony, P Moylan.

Subs: J Ormonde for P Moylan (55) S Twomey for B Coleman (56) C Spillane for B O’Sullivan (57)

GLANMIRE: B O’Connell; D O’Regan, K Sheehan, A Garvey; M Connolly, B Murphy, K Mulvihill; T Leahy, M Hopkins; B O’Sullivan, B O’Callaghan, J Murphy; K Kenneally, M Cussen, D Molden.

Subs: J O’Callaghan for M Hopkins (46) D O’Brien for B O’Callaghan (55)

Referee: James Dorgan (Nemo Rangers)

It was a busy week for supporters of Ballycotton RNLI lifeboat.  The fundraising events started on Wednesday, 27 July, at East Cork Golf Club where their annual golf classic was held.  37 teams took part and the 2011 winning team from East Cork Oil consisted of three generations of the one family.  On Friday night a table quiz was held at the Schooner Bar, Ballycotton.  15 teams took part and competition was stiff.  It took a couple of tie breakers to decide who the winners and runners up were.

Saturday morning saw children gather at Ballinamona strand to build sandcastles and 15 teams, made up of families and friends, gathered at the RNLI lifeboat house in Ballycotton that afternoon to take part in a treasure hunt around the small fishing village.  On Saturday night qualifiers took part in the final of the inter-pub karaoke competition that ran throughout the summer.  The winner was Eveanna Kearney who was representing Tosh Cahill’s Bar in Cloyne, with Keith (Socky) Cullen a close runner up representing the Long Point in Whitegate.  A good night was had by all.

On bank holiday Sunday afternoon various fundraising activities were organised on the pier.  There were food stalls, a magic show that kept the young visitors enthralled and fun races on the Conger strand.  Ballycotton RNLI lifeboat gave a demonstration of how to recover a person from the water and were closely watched by on-lookers from the pier wall.  At 4pm a group of young dancers performed their routine to the enjoyment of the onlookers.  The afternoon finished off with fun and games and a wet t-shirt competition.  This was highly entertaining and kept the large crowd until 7pm.

The RNLI lifeboat service is manned by volunteers and is a charitable service.  Their lifeboats and equipment are constantly being upgraded and are crewed by highly trained personnel who train on a continuous basis.  As a charity the RNLI depends on fundraising events for a major part of their funding.  The fundraising effort by the volunteers throughout this bank holiday weekend was a great success but could not have been possible without the help of their generous sponsors and supporters.  To all those who took part in any small way and to all those who gave their support, Ballycotton RNLI lifeboat offers their heartfelt thanks.

Click on image to enlarge

THE HSE spent more than €1.43 million on 24-hour security and a private room to keep just one patient suffering from potentially lethal TB in hospital for two years against their will.

Documents obtained by the Irish Examiner under the Freedom of Information Act confirm the significant cost — which is the equivalent of €2,050 every day — occurred between late 2008 and November 2010.

The 680-day expense relates to a TB patient in his 30s who was held in isolation at a Galway University Hospital facility under section 38 of the 1947 Health Act — a law which its detractors claim is unconstitutional.

This rarely used section of the act, and the 1953 Health Amendment Act, allows for a patient to be held in isolation without their consent if they are believed to be infected with a dangerous or virulent disease that could endanger other people.

The €1.43m cost included €389,211 for 24-hour security cover to protect the person and ensure he did not leave before treatment was concluded.

A further €1m was also spent on a private isolated room in the hospital to guarantee that no other patient could be contaminated.

The man is understood to have been homeless, and had previously left the facility despite pleas from doctors. When he returned, he was forcibly restrained at the hospital.

A HSE spokesperson said the expense was accrued because the patient had “respiratory TB” and, as such, “isolation was necessary as a safeguard against the spread of infection”.

She added that the illness “could not be effectively isolated at home”.

While no patient anywhere in the country is currently being held either with permission or against their will under this act, the legislation has been enacted in a number of cases in the past.

The most recent case, which was revealed by the Irish Examiner in 2008, related to a patient held at the Mercy University Hospital in Cork between November 2007 and the middle of 2010.

A South African mother of two, who had a young child with an Irish man, was believed to be suffering from a multi-drug resistant strain of TB but was refusing to undergo tests.

Her mother took a High Court case against the HSE in relation to her detainment in December 2008, with her then solicitor Rachel O’Toole and senior counsel Marjorie Farrelly arguing that the legislation was unconstitutional.

Judge John Edwards ultimately ruled in favour of the HSE on the grounds that the public’s right to safety overrules the individual’s right to liberty.

The detention legislation can only be acted upon with the strict written permission of the Department of Health’s chief medical officer and the health minister of the time.

The South African woman who was the subject of the High Court case died last summer, after agreeing to undergo treatment, almost three years after she was detained.

 

Tuesday, August 02, 2011 -  By Fiachra Ó Cionnaith
Read more: www.examiner.ie