Here’s a beauty spot with a lot to offer the world
NOBODY will ever tell you the picturesque village of Rockchapel is a big place, it certainly isn’t, but what they will say is that it is a busy place. Indeed, from this secluded spot people from around the world have learned the richness and depth of Irish heritage and even learned ‘ how to defuse a bomb’.
Rockchapel or Séipéal na Carraige which means ‘Chapel on the Rocks’ is a beautifully kept village in North West Cork close to the Kerry and Limerick borders. Rich in history, music, and sport.
The area is cradled all around by the striking Mullaghareirk mountains and the River Feale winds it’s way through the village and surrounds.
There are in excess of 25 active businesses flourishing locally and Rockchapel is home to a fine Community Centre, excellent Sports Grounds, Bruach na Carraige Theatre, St. Peter’s Church, a Funeral Home, Primary School, Post Office, two Shops, two Pubs, and the hugely successful ADA Security Systems premises.
The fine spacious Community Centre at the heart of the village is in constant use all year round. Classes such as Keep Fit, Drama, Underage Football Skills, and Badminton are ongoing. This fine facility is also used for Meetings and Card Plays, and is also capable of hosting large scale events and functions.
Locals play a vital role in the Twomey Remorial weekend, which will be held in June, and events to commemorate the 1916 rising figured prominently last year.
While not being at the heart of any metropolis, pupils at Rockchapel National School have been fortunate to welcome Ita Richardson, associate professor at the Department of Computer Science & Information Systems at University of Limerick, to the school regularly to work with the children in the senior classes on engineering and design projects. The children have also competed in the Intel Mini Scientist Competition.
Outside of school, sport and culture play a huge part in the life of the locality and Rockchapel has been distinguished in both.
And, as for the bomb defusal department, it was Rockchapel brothers Pat and Denis Mulcahy who brought 23,000 strife-torn children from the north of Ireland to the US and helped build lifelong friendships and start a peace process long before the Good Friday Agreement. And that’s not even to mentioned the thousands, at home and abroad, that have learned, and been ebtertained, by the rich flow of culture out of Rockchapel’s Bruach Na Carraige.
And that’s worth remebering in the week that’s in it.