Tag Archives: Clarecastle & Ballyea Heritage & Wildlife Group

THREE Clare events celebrating the county’s heritage have been honoured by the Heritage Council. Ninety events took place in County Clare for National Heritage Week this year, with many outstanding events showcasing the fantastic heritage of County Clare. Three Clare Heritage Week events starred at the National Heritage Awards 2022 which were held recently. Shanakyle Bog Restoration Project, Connecting Communities with Peatland “Walk & Talk on Shanakyle Bog” was awarded the County Clare Heritage Event Award. Shanakyle Bog is located near Parteen. It is approximately 70 acres in extent, of which 30 acres was subject to restoration and rewetting work by Shanakyle Bog Restoration Group in 2021. The bog was managed for domestic turf cutting in the past with peat extraction peaking during the 1940s. Turf cutting has not been practiced in over 40 years on the bog and some sections of the bog regenerated on its own to form active raised bog (ARB) on cutover characterised by Sphagnum lawns …

CLARECASTLE’S Men’s Shed certainly took a punt when it came to their latest project, the results of which they quite literally launched this week. On Wednesday the members of the shed set a 20 foot punt boat out on the water at Clarecastle Quay having lovingly built the vessel over the last couple of months. A complete photographic record of the construction of the boat has been kept by the  Clarecastle & Ballyea Heritage & Wildlife Group. With Eric Shaw of the group saying, “This will be an important archival record”. The Clarecastle Men’s Shed were commissioned to build the punt boat, with a boat of this design not been built in Clarecastle since the 1960s. It is believed the late Tommy Considine was probably the last man to build a punt boat in Clarecastle and two of his boats still survive. One was donated to the Clarecastle & Ballyea Heritage & Wildlife Group in 2018. The Men’s Shed were delighted to get …

THE weather was wet and miserable last Saturday afternoon, but it didn’t stop more than 40 people turning out for a Heritage Week event at Hasting’s Cottage in Shannon. One of the most historic sites in the country’s newest town, Hastings Cottage is where the British Army’s General Lucas was held for part of his time in captivity, during the War of Independence. A group of musicians from the Sixmilebridge Folk Club provided music on the day, it being their first live performance in almost 18 months. Following this there were some short talks on the history of the site and its inhabitants. Hastings Cottage has been in the care of heritage group Dúchas na Sionna for the last ten years and its secretary Olive Carey outlined the progress that is being made in preparation for the complete restoration of the farmhouse barn, as a community, cultural and heritage facility. Cathaoirleach of Clare County Council PJ Ryan spoke at the …

THE Ennistymon Púca may have been hitting the headlines all over the world, but Clarecastle & Ballyea Heritage & Wildlife Group believes it has fished out a magical tale to rival that. The local group has been compiling information about the once famous Mermaid of Newhall Lake, with the aim of bringing the mystical figure back into the public consciousness. As part of this members have gathered stories from various sources over centuries about the mermaid and made them available on the group’s website. There has also been a watercolour painting of the mermaid completed, and local composer Seán Lyons has recorded a song inspired by the legend. Eric Shaw of Clarecastle & Ballyea Heritage & Wildlife Group said, “Reading through the Clare section of the 1937 Schools’ Project now held in Dúchas, there are 92 stories of mermaids and 26 of these relate to our Mermaid of Newhall. “In the 1930s, most school children in Clare knew of the …

THE village of Clarecastle will feature in this Monday’s episode of the popular RTÉ show Nationwide. The RTÉ Nationwide team with Anne Cassin filmed the programme in Clarecastle last November with the Clarecastle & Ballyea Heritage & Wildlife Group and other Clarecastle residents. Among those to feature are Pat Considine, the son of Anthony Considine who was the owner of 1950s cine-film featuring scenes around Clarecastle. Pat gave the Clarecastle & Ballyea Heritage & Wildlife Group access to hundreds of feet of the old cine-film and they found footage of ships being unloaded at Clarecastle Quay and scenes from the annual Regatta in the 1950s. They entered an edited 10 minute film – ‘Clarecastle in the 1950s’ from the Considine cine-films as their event for Heritage Week 2020 and won the Clare award for the film. The film was later featured on the main RTÉ evening news. The Nationwide team followed up on the story and decided to come to …

A LOCAL heritage group have made sure Covid-19 would not extinguish their plans to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the burning of a church in Clarecastle. The Clarecastle & Ballyea Heritage & Wildlife Group had planned on marking the centenary of the attack on St Mary’s Church of Ireland back in April, however the plans had to be put on hold due to the pandemic. The group have now reignited the commemoration, but instead of hosting an event they have produced an information brochure detailing the history of what has been described by local historian Dr Joe Power as a “shocking sectarian incident”. Eric Shaw of the Clarecastle & Ballyea Heritage & Wildlife Group, who compiled the publication told us, “The burning of the church is an event not known to the younger generation here or to newcomers to Clarecastle in more recent times. The burning marked a turbulent time in our local history. Nothing remains of the building. The …

OLD cine-films taken in Clarecastle in the 1950s showing aspects of the village in that era and the unloading of ships at Clarecastle Quay have been discovered and digitised. The film is now set to be released by the Clarecastle & Ballyea Heritage & Wildlife Group on Saturday, August 15 to mark the start of Heritage Weeks 2020. The Clarecastle & Ballyea Heritage & Wildlife Group has amassed a large collection of old photographs over the years. This was done by appealing to the local community through the local press, the press used by the Irish community in England, parish newsletters, open nights where the local community brought in old photos. These images were scanned, with the group not only capturing the picture, but also the story behind the photographs. During one of these sessions the group was told of the existence of reels of old cine-film with images of the village and Quay areas. They approached the owners and …