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LOCAL NEWS ARCHIVE - DECEMBER 2002
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A large Cornafean contingent were among the capacity audience at the Ulster Scór na nÓg semi-finals in Kileshandra Community Centre on last Friday night. In each of the eight competitions, the Cavan champions competed against their counterparts in counties Monaghan and Fermanagh.
Cornafean were represented in the Novelty Act by Brian Duignan, Killian O’Reilly, Teri Masterson, Karen Harrington, Deirdre Fitzpatrick, Ciaran Coyle, Ronan O hArrachtain and Eimer McNamee, and in the Question Time by Tomas McGlade, Cormac Geoghegan and Patrick King.
Both teams produced wonderful performances on the night and duly qualified for the Ulster Final which will be held in Silverbridge, Co. Armagh on next Saturday night 25th January, starting at 7.00pm.
In the Novelty Act, Cornafean’s hilarious and well-acted sketch proved very popular with the large attendance and their victory came as no surprise when the winners were announced at the end of the night. The Cornafean Question Time team were in top form in the Quiz and finished with a very strong 46 marks after a tough and tightly-contested competition.
We congratulate our local representatives on their success and wish them all the best of luck on next Saturday night. Despite Cornafean’s long record of achievement in these two Scór competitions, it is now 12 years since a Cornafean Question Time team reached an Ulster Scór na nÓg Final and five years since a local Novelty Act reached the same stage.
There will be strong Cavan interest in Saturday night’s final as the county recorded no less than six victories in the eight competitions in last Saturday’s semi-final, making it a very successful evening indeed for Scór in Cavan.
A Bus to the Ulster Scór na nÓg Final in Silverbridge will leave Cornafean at 4.30pm on next Saturday evening. All are welcome to travel.
The Cornafean Walking Club is holding a walk on Sunday 2nd February, starting at 2pm sharp from McSeain's.
Everyone is welcome to join in the fun, and enjoy a good afternoon’s exercise.
The Cornafean Ladies Football Club are holding their AGM on next Saturday evening 25th January in the clubrooms. The meeting starts at 7.00pm. All members, and indeed new members, are welcome to attend.
With the local Scór na nÓg groups still in contention for Ulster honours, preparations are once again underway in the locality for the very popular annual Senior Scór competitions. This year, Cornafean are scheduled to take part in the first round of the competition on Friday 28th February. Everyone interested in taking part in the Dancing competitions this year are asked to be in McSeains on next Sunday at 12.30pm.
The 2003 Annual General Meeting of the Cornafean Community Development Association will be held in McSeains on Wednesday 26th February next.
The popular local history, “All Lovely Kilmore - Its Churches People and Heritage”, written by Wendy Swan, has been recently re-printed and copies are once again available in local outlets. The first edition of this very enjoyable and well-produced book was entirely sold out with a number of days of its launch in December and due to public demand, it was necessary to produce a reprint. Proceeds from the book are in aid of the Children’s Unit at Cavan General Hospital.
Meanwhile, there is still a limited number of copies available of the equally enjoyable book “Drumcor - Its School & Surrounding District", published by the Drumcor Old School Committee. Copies can be obtained from Bernard Martin, Drumora, or any other committee member.
Next Friday night, the Cornafean Quiz and Novelty Act teams are among the eight groups representing Cavan at the Ulster Semi-final of Scór na nÓg 2003, which takes place in Killeshandra Community Centre.
The Cavan representatives in each competition will compete against their counterparts from Fermanagh and Monaghan and the winners will go forward to the Ulster final later this month.
Both the Quiz team and the Novelty Act group have been busy preparing for Friday night's competition in recent weeks and hopefully a large number of local people will turn out on Friday night to give them the support they deserve.
The show starts at 8.00pm sharp.
The Vintage Tractor Club of Cornafean are holding a very important meeting next Friday night, 17th January, in McSeains at 9.00pm sharp. Among the items to be discussed is the matter of insurance. All members are asked to attend and new members are welcome.
A Positive Age Group has recently been formed in Drumcor Community Centre. So far there has been a great response from the senior citizens of the area and hopefully many more will avail of the opportunity to join this very social and entertaining group in the coming weeks. Meetings are held every Tuesday afternoon at 3.00pm in the Community Centre and everyone is welcome to attend.
Those with an interest in local history will look forward to a rare treat next Saturday night, 18th January when the TG4 station will screen an interesting historical documentary with a strong local connection. The documentary, entitled “Na Gaeil Phrotastúnaigh - No Rootless Colonists” looks back at the role of the 16th and 17th century Planter community in Ireland in the preservation and promotion of Irish language and culture.
A particularly interesting part of the story concerns the work of Bishop William Bedell, the highly renowned Bishop of Kilmore, whose love for the Irish language was legendary. Bishop Bedell served as Bishop of Kilmore from 1629 until his death in 1642 and during this time he supervised the mammoth task of translating the Old Testament into the Irish language, in an effort to bring the scriptures to the native Gaelic-speaking population.
The programme starts at 8.55pm on next Saturday night on TG4.
On St Stephen’s Day, the Vintage Tractor Club of Cornafean held a very successful Tractor Run, where local classic tractor enthusiasts drove their tractors in a convoy throughout the Cornafean locality and surrounding areas. Early in the day, the people of Ballinagh and Crossdoney enjoyed a pleasant surprise when the tractor convoy passed through. Later in the day, the entourage gathered at the Charity Football Match in Cornafean Park. Led by the well-known piper Sean Kelly, the tractor owners paraded around the running track encircling the pitch, in front of the large attendance.
Each of the participating tractor owners is to be complimented on the first-class condition of their tractors, many of which have been carefully and lovingly restored in recent months. Throughout the day, there was only one minor breakdown recorded and this interruption was quickly sorted out with the minimum of fuss. The committee are planning a number of outings in the New Year and these will be eagerly awaited. .
The annual Cornafean GAA Club dance attracted a capacity attendance to McSeain’s on New Year’s Eve. Many of those in attendance were home from Dublin or abroad for the festive season. As in previous years, the function was enjoyed by one and all.
On St Stephen’s Day, the Cornafean footballers emerged from their winter hibernation to participate in the club’s annual charity football match in Pairc Naoimh Fionnain. This year’s event was a special one as for the first time, members of the new Ladies Football team took part. A large attendance turned out to support the event, on a very mild and pleasant day. The quality of football was quite good considering the time of year and the “man in the middle”, referee Ned Kilkenny impressed most of all, showing once again that he has a very promising career ahead of him “with the whistle”.
This year the charity match was held to raise funds for the local Autism & Downs Syndrome charities and a very impressive collection of well over €800 was raised on the day. Congratulations to everyone who contributed to this success.
The local Walking Club held a very enjoyable and well-supported walk on the quiet country roads of the locality on St. Stephen’s Day. The weather conditions were ideal for the event and a number of marked routes were comprehensively signposted, offering both short and long route options for the walkers. While some of the novice participants opted for the shorter and less demanding routes, quite a number completed the longer routes, taking advantage of an ideal opportunity for some rare Christmas exercise and fresh air.The event proved so enjoyable that a large contingent repeated the walk on the following day and indeed walkers were very much in evidence on many local roads throughout the Christmas break, at least until the return of harsher, colder weather last weekend.
