This week’s round-up begins in the pages of the Dungarvan Leader, which reports on the launch of a book written by a well-known local couple about a saint born six miles outside Dungarvan in 637 AD…
On Friday last in Dungarvan, Tom and Carmel Keith launched their book which details the life of Saint Cathal, also known as Cataldo and Cathaldus who was born in Canty in the townsland of Cappagh almost 1600 years ago, whose ministry took him all the way to the Holy Land and the southern Italian city of Taranto, where he served as Bishop.
Cathal, whose feast day is on the 10th of May is celebrated in both Taranto and his West Waterford birthplace and this page-long piece in the Leader notes that he was “always destined to become an important figure in European Christianity as the various miraculous happenings at his birth suggested. These included bringing his mother back to life after she had died in giving birth to him and a new star also appeared in the sky at his birth”.
At the launch, MC Michael Stack said that the story of Cathal has been “passed down by word of mouth through the generations thought not many people outside Canty and its environs knew of Cathal, his story or his achievements. Twenty-five years ago a committee, mostly from the townland of Canty was formed. The mission of this committee was to revive the memory and story of Cathal and have his story reach a wider audience.”
And in terms of spreading that story, both the Leader and Dungarvan Observer report on the feast day celebrations every year so both local papers have done their bit in keeping the name of Cathal relevant and known locally 16 centuries on from his birth.
Tom and Carmel are very well-considered and popular Dungarvan residents and both started primary school on the same day in their native Cahir in County Tipperary. Tom has published 12 books prior to this project while Carmel has published three - but this is their first joint venture. The book is priced €1o and is available from Albert McGrath, David Walsh, Shalloes, St Mary’s Parish Office and Lismore Heritage Centre – so best of luck to Tom and Carmel, who’ve got the hard work done now!
And just to note there’s also an extensive spread of the book launch by Paul Mooney in this week’s Dungarvan Observer.
Turning now to this week’s Munster Express, where Jamie O’Keeffe doffs his cap to a man well-known to WLR listeners back in the day…
This is one of several well-considered pieces (as is the case each week) in Jamie’s sports column, ‘The Bully Acre’, with this week’s main item focusing on Paul Collins, who spent six years at WLR, having also put in a stint with The Munster before the turn of the century.
Jamie notes Paul’s eternal gratitude to WLR Managing Director Des Whelan for sending Paul on the assignment of a lifetime: spending a month in the United States to cover the Men’s World Cup in 1994.
Of course, 'PC' is well known the country over the 22 years he spent on the Today FM airwaves, a great deal of which he spent on a similar time slot to this show, navigating Ian Dempsey through the sporting headlines.
In 2007, Paul founded a company named Ballywire Media, which is now his full-time gig and he has made a huge success of it. Jamie writes that Paul has “assembled a crack team around him to produce razor-sharp journalism-backed video and livestreaming services”.
And Paul’s company were among the winners in this year’s Irish Enterprise Awards, which underlined how worthwhile a punt he took when setting up Ballywire.
Jamie tells us that “This is a man who practically lived in the boot of his (own) car as he headed off to MC events all over the country in his spare time, cultivating a valued client base and building the wherewithal needed to developing Ballywire into a thriving business. If he ever writes a book, it’ll be a blast.” So fair play to Paul, who remains one of the most popular Tipperary men inside the Déise boundary!
And finally, this week’s Waterford News & Star reports on a new Waterford-based musical which has been influenced by the acclaimed Mount Sion Choir…
Darragh Murphy has all the details on this new show which he tells us represents a “modern Irish story of hope and togetherness and how the power of music can change your life”.
The show has been written by Tramore native Patrick O’Sullivan with lyrics by Steven Markwick.
Patrick has been a UK resident for over 20 years and is steeped in the world of theatre – he’s currently a member of the executive team which runs the Mayflower Theatre in Southampton, the third largest regional theatre in the UK.
Patrick told Darragh that he’d been awestruck, as so many of us locally and nationally have been by the choir’s remarkable impact. So on August 31st, the musical in its current state of development, featuring 10 songs, will be showcased at the Theatre Royal “to garner feedback in the hope of further developing it into a fully realised and funded musical”.
Patrick said the musical is "inspired by the story of the Mount Sion choir, it’s not a biopic. It’s more looking at their story, their location (and) what happened to them. We’re not just telling their story, we’re using artistic licence, using the inspiration of their story to tell a new story.”
Patrick believes everyone will connect “to the characters because they are down to earth, Waterford, salt of the earth characters. People will recognise their own mothers, their dads, their brothers, and their sisters on the stage, I really think they will.”
Tickets for the showcase are available at theatreroyal.ie and it’s fantastic to see a new musical being devised by a Waterford-born talent, which I know would bring to mind the late Bryan Flynn to mind for many people tuning in this morning so the very best of luck to Patrick O’Sullivan in getting this idea off the page and onto the Theatre Royal stage!
All these stories were written by living, breathing journalists with minds of their own. Newspapers need to invest in their staff as opposed to taking any steps to replace them by creating mechanised, soul-free, clickbait-driven copy.
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