With Peter Dineen
A busy year with many highlights in Coachford
IT was a busy year for Coachford and a year that saw thousands of new visitors to the river, thousands of euros raised for charities and thousands of reasons why Coachford is a village for the future, the past and the present.
There were many highlights for the area in 2017 with the World Youth Angling Championships coming to the River Lee and the Greenway last August. This was the second time in three years that the world descended on Coachford and once again the Community came out in their droves to welcome the teams from Europe and beyond.
Many of the locals helped out with stewarding, entertaining and catering for the huge crowds and there are rumours another World Fishing Championship earmarked for the river in the coming years. We live in a wonderful community.
Staying on the river, the National Rowing Centre was busier than ever in 2017 with the fabulous World Champion rowers continuing to train on the river. It too will be the centre for a major international competition in 2018 when the European Junior Rowing Championships will take place there in July.
Storm Ophelia brought destruction and disruption to Coachford as it did to many other areas. Large parts of the community were without electricity and water for days but what surfaced was a great community spirit.
Neighbours and friends rallied around to clean up fallen trees, offer help of water and cooking facilities to those who had none and farmers shared generators.
Local businesses like O’Donovan’s Engineering and Griffins Garden Centre put their generated powered facilities at the disposal of their neighbourhoods. Lynch’s Hardware kept their lights on at night so people in the village weren’t left in complete darkness.
It was heartening to see how so many people came to help each other. We live in a wonderful community.
2017 began with Rooves Bridge closing for some minor repairs; however, the bridge itself remains in an appalling condition and everyone hopes that the council will address the terrible and unsafe surface on this very busy river Lee crossing.
The council also began repairs to the footpaths around the village and this was very welcome. The Community are hoping that this work will be completed in early 2017 and the forgotten village may feature in the minds of our councillors a bit more in 2018.
The recycling bins continue to be a major source of littering and the Coachford Tidy Towns were kept busy all year making sure that the rubbish that was left there was cleaned up. Irish Water is to begin work on the new Sewage Scheme in 2018.
The Greenway was the real success story of 2017. The investment by Cork County Council and the ESB enabled major refurbishment and repairs work to be carried and the riverside walk is continuing to grow in popularity. The people involved in the Inniscarra Lake Tourism Development Committee have done unbelievable work in making this amenity such a huge success not only for the people who use it every day to stay healthy but for ensuring that it attracts hundreds of overseas visitors to the lee Valley Area every year to fish.
Their work was honoured recently when they were awarded the Sporting award at the Ambassador of Cork awards.
Another success story was the Coachford Family Festival. The annual event moved their traditional date from August to July and it worked a treat for them.
Held this year in glorious sunshine, the five day event provided loads of family fun and festivities. The highlights were the Children’s Disco, the Wife Carrying race, Road Bowling and the wonderful Lip Sync Competition which was won by Peter Dineen who lip Synced Adele’s hit ‘Hello’ perfectly and was without doubt the runaway winner. The Festival raised over €15,000 for charity. We live in a wonderful community.
2017 also saw the long awaited sale of Breathnach’s Bar in the heart of the village and hopes are that it will reopen for business in early 2018.
O’Donovan Engineering and Griffins Garden Centre picked up major awards in 2017. O’Donovan’s Engineering, now one of the area’s major employers, were crowned Cork Agribusiness of the year while Margaret Griffin picked up a Cork County Council Community Award.
Coachford Foróige continued to go from strength to strength. It was a tremendous year for this very young club. Éabha Donovan and Abbie Healy represented the club at the National Talent finals and came away as champions. They were brilliant.
Club member Lizzie Harrison got all the way to the All Ireland Finals in the Aldi Foróige baking competition, winning the District, County and Munster competitions on her way.
The club were also nominated for a Citizenship award for their work in raising awareness for homeless people through their sponsored Sleep Out and although they didn’t win they had a great day at the national finals.
We live in a wonderful community.
Coachford College enjoyed another hugely successful year. It was a sad year also as they said goodbye to their excellent Principal, Mr. Pat O’Connor who held the post for 33 years.
The college was full of activities all year long and once again turned out some tremendous results in the Junior and Leaving Certificate exams.
The School is set to continue to grow in 2018 and the new Principal, Ms. Áine Ní Fhaoláin is continuing the good work of her predecessor.
The village and surrounding areas came out in support of Ava Barry in March and demonstrations were held in Aghabullogue, Coachford, Rylane and Dripsey.
The Coachford Community Association launched their 50/50 raffle and it has proved to be a major success. The Association along with the Coachford Tidy Towns has once again made the village look very festive this year with the installation of the Christmas Lights. They were also very busy with landscaping projects and helping out with the World Fishing Championships in August.
Coachford Players performed in the All Ireland One Act festival Circuit in March but unfortunately failed to advance to the finals. However, they enjoyed a brilliant run of one act plays in the Lee Valley Golf and Country Club in April.
This was a new venture for the group and one that will be repeated. They finished the year with a very successful Musical which brought the Wizard of Oz to Coachford.
Broomhill Vintage club had an extremely busy 2017. The Ladies and men’s Tractor Building teams have been all over Cork and Munster doing building demonstrations for charity, they took part in the Macroom St. Patrick’s Day Parade for the very first time and they held a very successful Vintage run in April and Honda 50 Run in October.
In sport the year started with Aghabullogue Junior hurlers celebrating the 25th anniversary of their 1991 county win but unfortunately that was as close as any adult team got to a hurling trophy this year.
The footballers faired a little better picking up the Division 3 intermediate league title.
It was a better year for the underage teams and in particular the football teams with the Under 16s winning the County A title and the East Region League trophy. The Under 12s won the double, capturing both the Football and hurling titles and the Under 14s and U16 hurling side capturing their East Region titles.
The Camogie club had a great year bringing home three trophies.
Coachford AFC had another great year with the Under 15s winning their league title.
Stephanie Cotter continues to light up Athletics with her brilliant performances at home and abroad winning College and National Championships. Stephanie was also the recipient of a Cork City Spots award in May.