Rare heritage items to go on publicdisplay
A Jack B Yeats watercolour of a Riverstown contemporary, a baptismal robe from Lissadell House and examples of the old Sligo pound notes are just some of the rarities about to go on display this month in Riverstown.
The unique artefacts will be showcased to the public for the very first time at the Bicentenary celebrations of Taunagh Church in the village from 17 th-19 th August.
The Jack Yeats watercolour is of local barrister John Francis Taylor who was a member of the Contemporary Club in Dublin in the late 19 th century - fellow members included Douglas Hyde and WB Yeats.
His descendant and namesake John Taylor (pictured right, holding the original journal marking the 1818 consecration of the church) bought the artwork at this years big Yeats auction at Sothebys of London.
“It’s a gem. I paid too much for it!” he told this newspaper.
John is an avid memorabilia collector and is sharing the Taunagh collection with the public over the three day festival.
It is commemorating the consecration of the church on the 23rd August 1818. It replaced the old church up at Taunagh which is now in ruins and date back to 1333.
The celebration will include a walk from old Taunagh Church to the present church by local children, a festival of flowers and crafts, a display of over 500 books on Sligo (most first editions and signed), over 200 books on the Yeats family, some of which are even signed by WB Yeats.
Other watercolours and etching paintings by Jack Yeats will be on display, alongside over 1,500 postcards of county Sligo, old programmes of Sligo GAA, Sligo Rovers, horse racing and other Sligo sports.
Other people have donated Sligo jury delph and silver, Sligo posters, old coins and pound notes unique to Sligo.
One of the antique gems that will be seen is a pre-Famine Penny Black stamp dating to 1840.
A special display of historical outfits includes the officers uniform of Sir Henry Gore-Booth from Lissadell and Countess Markievicz’s Irish Military uniform.
On the Saturday night 18th August there will be a ticket only James Kilbane Concert. On the Sunday afternoon a Thanksgiving Church will be held at 4pm led by Bishop Glenfield.
“Within the nearby Cooper Memorial Hall we hope to put on a memorabilia selection, supported by the Sligo Leader partnership, which have given us a grant towards making a display unit for displaying our memorabilia,” said John.
“There’s about fifty Church of Ireland families attend that church. It’s a church we’re proud of because many of our families attended it for hundreds of years, including our own. The COI families in Riverstown come from a mainly farming background, some in business but the majority were farmers.
“It just gives us a chance to showcase what we have locally in terms of heritage. We have never showcased ourselves before so this is a once off. We might do it again in 200 years time, you never know!” he said.