Carlingford Community Newsletter – October 2019 Edition

Carlingford Community Newsletter October 2019 Edition

CRA

Carlingford Residents Association

CCD

Carlingford Community Development

(The Foy Centre)

CTT

Carlingford Tidy Towns

CCTA

Carlingford & Cooley Tourism Assoc.

CLHT

Carlingford Lough Heritage Trust

This newsletter is jointly produced by the five bodies representing the Carlingford community,

namely:

Carlingford Community Forum News

The public consultation reviewing the County Development Plan 2015 to 2021 and preparing the new L.C.D.P. 2021- 2027, takes place in Carlingford Library on Tuesday Oct. 29th from 6 to 8 p.m. For information on making submissions please see the L.C.C. website at https://www.louthcoco.ie/en/publications/development-plans/louth-county-development-plan-

review-2015-2021/

We heartily congratulate Carlingford Tidy Towns Committee on its recent success in the National Competition and also Carlingford Tennis Club on their inauguration of The Joshua Hill Tennis Open.

The next meeting of Carlingford Community Forum with Louth County Council will take place on Wednesday November 13th.

We look forward to a safe and enjoyable Halloween. We appeal to everyone to be mindful of the strategies being put in place by An Garda Síochána and to do everything we can to ensure a safe environment for all.

Heritage News

For your diary

The annual Choral Festival will take place over the weekend of 29th November-1st December. The highlight will be the Cór Chairlinne concert in the Heritage Centre on Saturday 30th at 7pm. For details see https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=Cor%20Chairlinne

The annual flower festival will take place in the Heritage Centre on Thursday 5th December at 8pm. This is an annual fund-raising event for the Children’s Hospital in Crumlin.

Digital D’Arcy

The D’Arcy McGee exhibition, which has long held pride of place in the Station House, is moving to cyberspace and Dundalk. As part of our ongoing collaboration with DkIT, the whole exhibition is to be digitised so that it can be viewed and used anywhere. The actual physical exhibition and all its artefacts are also to get a new home in the DkIT library.

Isolde from Omeath

Tristan and Isolde is held as one of the greatest love stories of all time, made famous by the opera of that name which German composer Richard Wagner wrote in the late 1850s. The story has been known since medieval times and was widely recognised to be of Celtic origin.

However, Carlingford-born historian Fr Lórcan Ó Muirí placed it even closer to home. In a journal article written in 1914 (Journal of the County Louth Archaeological Society, Vol. 3, No. 3 (Dec., 1914), pp. 213-231) he put forward the idea that Isolde was the daughter of a Viking chief from Omeath called Hom, who may have had a settlement somewhere about Narowwater. When we told the creative young people in DkIT about the connection, it fired their imagination and now they are working on a videogame concept. Great love stories never die.

Keeper of the Castle

In the spring of 2020, when our agreement with the Office of Public Works is finalised, the Carlingford Lough Heritage Trust will become the keyholder for Carlingford Castle.

In the Middle Ages a woman who held the keys to a castle was known as a chatelaine, and we think Patricia Morrissey really looks every inch a chatelaine in her medieval costume. The same word was used for the chain belt which the woman wore to carry the heavy keys of the time. We’re on the lookout for one for her.

We are pleased to note that the Office of Public Works has been removing weeds from the walls of the Castle and are now doing the same at the Mint.

The Foy Centre

Our Singing Lessons are in great demand. Please check our Facebook page for enrolment queries.

Classes in Digital Skills Training are ending next Friday, November 2nd. It proved to be a very popular event and we hope to run it again in the future.

The Parish Council wishes to invite everyone to the Presentation Night for Father Brian Mac Raois in the Foy Centre on Friday, November 22nd at 7pm.

Carlingford Craft Fair is being held in the Foy Centre this year. Dates are: 6th to 8th December. The Carlingford Choral Festival takes place from November 29th to December 1st.

A fantastic night is guaranteed at our next Fundraising Event.

Don’t miss our version of The Mr. and Mrs. Show on Friday November 23rd at 7.30pm. We are certain that you will find the couples taking part hilarious!

If there’s anything you would like to see happening in the centre or on the pitch

Please contact 0876331701.

Carlingford Tidy Towns

CTT representatives are delighted to report that they had a great day at the SuperValu Tidy Towns Awards at The Helix in Dublin with over 1,00 volunteers from all over the country in attendance.

Carlingford had an increase of ten overall marks this year and we were delighted to have been awarded a Bronze Medal.

Congratulations to our friends in Blackrock who won the award for Ireland’s Tidiest Small Town

2019.

CTT has sowed grass seed on various bald patches on the green recently to repair wear around the adult exercise machines, and in the vicinity of the new picnic benches.

We have painted another heritage sign in River Lane following the refurbishment of the property it is attached to.

Biodiversity Ireland have split the whole of the Irish Coastline into survey units. Following on from our years of work with Clean Coats and Love Your Lough, CTT agreed to take part in the survey to identify species in our area and the types of pollution prevalent.

So in Unit 8136 – Carlingford Harbour, we conducted a Coastwatch survey on 13th Oct 2019.

Here we have a mussel bed. A sand mason (Lanice), barnicles, shellfish eggs, limpets and Sea Anemone. We also found Dog Whelk, brown, red and green seaweed, crabs and cockles.

We then collected and categorised the litter we found on the shore.

The Coastwatch Europe survey records water inflows, biodiversity of shore life and litter swept up and dumped again by the tide. We got a little muddy but enjoyed recording this information which is to be collated all over Europe.

Not something you will see your Tidy Towns volunteers contemplating. Fortunately, the OPW are the ones conducting this Extreme Gardening on Carlingford Castle.

Other News

A pedestrian crossing and speed bumps are being installed outside St Oliver’s National School in

Carlingford.

CTT plan to conduct a survey in order to ascertain projects that people would like us to undertake within the town environs during 2020.

Remember that despite the weather, CTT still meets every Thursday morning at 1000 to do tasks around the town such as tidying and replanting, litter picking etc. Volunteers very welcome.