Carlingford COMMUNITY NEWSLETTER no.73 Carlingford COMMUNITY NEWSLETTER
MAY 2020 EDITION
Carlingford Community Newsletter NEWSLETTER NO. 73
This newsletter is jointly produced by the five bodies representing the Carlingford Community, namely:
Carlingford Lough Heritage Trust CLHT
Carlingford & Cooley Tourism Assoc. CCTA
Carlingford Tidy Towns CTT
Carlingford Community Development CCD
(The Foy Centre)
Carlingford Residents Association CRA
Carlingford Community Forum News
Due to the restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 regulations, the forum organisations have not met but the Forum continues to operate using e-mail. Zoom meetings will be held when necessary.
We are anxious to see work resuming on the Town & Village renewal scheme in Strand and Old Quay Lanes and have contacted LCC to move things along. The 2020 Town and Village Renewal Scheme has just been announced and any application from Carlingford will be helped by successful completion of the current project. Clár funding has also been announced this week and there is local interest in making a grant application.
LCC together with OPW will deliver 5 flood relief schemes in County Louth. Locations with the highest number of properties in the affected areas will be dealt with first. The appointment of a design team for the first area has gone to tender. This will be followed in each case by further public consultations before relevant permissions are applied for. Carlingford will be part of the final area to be dealt with.
The Forum would like to hear from any individual or group on the Peninsula interested in renewable energy or biodiversity with a view to forming a Sustainable Energy Community. Perhaps an existing group would like to take on with this project or individuals could come together to engage with the process. The aim for 2020 is to increase the number of sustainable Energy Communities from 300 to 1,500. For further information please contact Carlingford Community Forum at
carlingfordcommunityforum@gmail.com
Wishing everyone a safe, warm and happy June as we gradually emerge from lockdown.
New planting
Carlingford Tidy Towns
Five resident’s groups are taking on projects to plant native trees and wildlife friendly planting. We look forward to seeing these projects develop in the months to come. The groups are as follows.
Clos na Manach-perennial planting in flower beds at entrance to estate
St Oliver’s Park-Bee friendly planting around Cherry trees and Wildflower bed
Abbey Court-Perennial planting in new stone bed
Ghan road. Pier Bank project- Bee friendly planting on pier bank
Chapel Hill- planting of Native trees and Wild flowers
We would like to thank Pobal for the ‘Caring for The Environment’ fund which has made these projects possible. If you would like to set up a Residents Group in the near future please do get in touch so that if we secure any more future funding next year. We can pass this on to your group. You can send a private message to our Facebook page, Carlingford Tidy Towns. Our Volunteers have been busy of late. We have been working in small groups while practicing social distancing. The entire length of the promenade has been weeded manually (no weed killer). The pots on the promenade have been weeded and compost added. The flower beds at D’Arcy Magee Monument and near The Boat House have been enhanced with perennial bee friendly flowers. We picked plants such as Rudbeckia, Saliva Nemorosa, Hardy Geraniums, Catmint Nepeta, Poppys, Lamium Pink Chablis, Red Hot Poker, Helenium, Leucantemum Daisy, Foxgloves, Lupins, Aubrieta, Armenia, Saxifraga, Aquilega, English Lavender, Verbena Bonriensis, Achillea, Bacopa, Nasturshium and Diascas.
We have been going out early on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings in small groups. We do need help with planting, watering and painting. If you can help please phone 0429373686. We are currently planting at the tennis courts. We still have to enhance the planting on The Village Green and The Castle Steps. We have been asked to stall Tidy Towns Project Scheme projects (picnic tables for village green) for now and are waiting to hear back.
Carlingford Lough Heritage Trust
CARLINGFORD’S BEEN HERE BEFORE
There is no direct record of events in Carlingford during the Black Death which ravaged Europe in 1348-49, but we can be pretty sure it was hard hit.
The plague was primarily bubonic – spread by bites from the famous fleas on black rats – but there was a secondary and ultimately more lethal pneumonic route for person-to-person infection which closely mirrors our current pandemic. The major difference was the mortality rate: the Black Death carried off at least half the population of Europe, and a rather higher proportion in coastal towns like Carlingford.
Much of what we know of the plague in Ireland comes from the writings of Franciscan friar John Glyn of Kilkenny, who himself became a victim. It first appeared in Howth and Dalkey in late July or early August 1348 and quickly spread to Dublin and Drogheda. It devastated the East Coast ports, so much that there was a shortage of sailors for many years afterwards. It was more severe in the Pale, killing a higher proportion of English settlers who had established themselves in walled towns and agricultural villages, probably with high rat populations; the Irish lived scattered in individual pastoral farming households. It was most severe of all in communities with monastic settlements: the Franciscan priory in Drogheda lost 25 of its members in a short time.
Carlingford, while not really in the Pale proper, was an English town in Ireland and it ticked all the plague boxes. A ’Murage Charter’ of 1326 was the signal to begin building its walls, it had a busy port and since 1305 a priory. The rental income for the town was worth more than £26 in 1333 but in 1369 when recovery was well under way it was still worth only £20, indicating loss of population.
We know from the dendrochronological record – the historical science of tree rings – that oak forests, which had been in decline in Leinster, re-established themselves strongly in the second half of the fourteenth century as agricultural land was abandoned due to post-plague labour shortages. We should remember that major pandemics always have social, economic and political consequences. After 1350 the Pale, once almost the whole of Leinster, shrank to a 30-mile wide coastal strip from Dundalk to Dublin as the Irish strongly reasserted themselves and for some years threatened the very existence of the English colony.
Carlingford Lough Heritage Trust
Here is one for you to enjoy which was written recently for www.Pandemic.ie by Patricia -Anne Moore from Belfast.
We’ll never have this time again
To clear and cull
To prep and plant
To wait and watch
To hear and feel.
We’ll never have this time again
To listen and think
To trust ourselves
To be in touch
To want so much.
We’ll never have this time again
To do no harm
To confront change
To turn the page
To grieve, to heal.
We’ll never have this time again.
Calling all poets in North Louth to write for the Cooley Covid -19 Poetry Collective
What about creating a Cooley Poetry Collective at this time whereby you can send a poem to us at:
info@carlingfordheritagecentre.com
It does not have to be a poem about this period but rather inspired by the time you have to write now.
We will publish the poems on our Facebook page and then when we can gather again, we will hold a Poetry Day where all poets will be invited to come and read their poem. Those judged to be the best will be entitled to attend a poetry workshop organised by Carlingford Heritage Centre.
So, pen your poem and send it to us by 30 June at: info@carlingfordheritagecentre.com
Carlingford Castle Opening Update
CLHT are waiting for OPW to make a final visit to the Castle after which they should be in a position to hand over the keys to us. We have advised the OPW that we are ready to open with COVID-19 protocols in place. Open air tourism sites may open now if they are COVID safe. CLHT are looking forward to offering tours as soon as possible as we know the Castle will be an exciting addition to the attractions of Carlingford for visitors.
We would like to recruit some more guides for the tour programme so if you have an interest in the history of Carlingford and have some experience of public speaking and working with groups, contact Linda Stevens, Community Heritage Manager , enquiries@carlingfordheritagecentre.com Tel 086 8241514
CCTA
Carlingford Cooley Tourist Association
A lot of the restaurants and pubs in the town who serve food are now working on a takeaway basis. Their menu selections can be found on Facebook
A number of public houses in the town are serving poured served drinks on a takeaway basis. Drinks must be consumed at least 100 metres away from the establishment and not consumed on the Street.
Carlingford Community Development
(The Foy Centre)
All Activities at the Foy Centre have ceased and we expect this to be
the case until restrictions are lifted. If there’s anything you would like to do to assist going forward
Please contact 087 633 1701.
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