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Mass and 'Reunion Dance' Saturday 21 Jun 2008

  
 

Delighted to report that all dance-tickets have been sold, but  we are sorry if you have been disappointed.

  
 

Saturday Evening is scheduled to be a great coming together of the people of Skeheenarinky School district and family members of past pupils and teachers.  To this end, a Mass has been organized at the school which will be concelebrated by our Parish Priest and School Manager, Fr. Joseph Flynn; the Bishop of Waterford and Lismore, Dr. William Lee; and  Fr. Michael Walsh P.P. of Ballylooby/Duhill, the only pupil from Skeheenarinky National School to be ordained. We expect that there will be a huge attendance at the Mass so do come early.  The museum will be open for some hours before Mass but will be closed while Mass is being celebrated.

A magnificent get-together and reunion is being organized for later in the evening, and there will be plenty of Music, Song and Dance and a drop of 'what you fancy' to lubricate the legs for dancing and to encourage the fine voices of some of the locals.  Please note:  Due to the expected large attendance at the dance, for health and safety reasons, the dance has been rescheduled to Cahir House Hotel.  

DANCE TICKETS SOLD OUT

Transport by bus from Skeheenarinky to and from the venue in Cahir has generously been sponsored by Tim Mackey Coach Hire.

The music for the evening will be provided by the ever popular Dave Mulcahy and his Band.  This will be followed by  Brian Mulcahy DJ. 

  For convenience, Paypal payments go directly to Anniversary Committee Account in our treasurer's name - Susan Walsh. Your tickets will be held by our secretary Helen Brennan.  Helen will be there on the night with your tickets!

     

TICKETS SOLD OUT

TICKETS SOLD OUT
     

Contacts for Saturday evening events and enquiries regarding tickets for the reunion dance:
Helen Brennan 086 822 5999 helenfoxbrennan@gmail.com
Kathleen Hennessy  087 799 5388

 

If calling from outside of Ireland, those numbers are 353 86 822 5999 and 353 87 799 5388

There is already a lot of interest in the Saturday evening get-together, and we strongly advise that you pre-book your tickets with either of the two contact names given above.

Limited Availability on Tickets.  Order now and spend an evening with your former classmates, old friends and new, relatives, long lost cousins, former teachers, etc.  Tickets are just €20 each, including generous finger-food.  Contact Helen or Kathleen now!

 Have you order your book?  We are now taking orders online for Hard Days and Happy Days - The History of Skeheenarinky National School    1858 - 2008.  Books will be available in June 2008.  However, if you pre-order your book, you will be helping towards our publication costs ensure that you have a copy when we run out!!.    Details here.

 

 

  
   Can you name any of the Skeheenarinky people in the photo below? Please let us know if you can!  The picture was taken in 1925 on the occasion of the opening of the Skeheenarinky Hall.   
     

Click on Picture to see a gathering of Skeheenarinky People in 1925 on the main road at the School Cross.

school cross 1925.jpg (168975 bytes) 


Photo kindly on loan from Fr. Michael Walsh P.P. Ballylooby and Duhill whose father, Maurice, is in the picture.

   The single row melodeon was introduced to Ireland in the last quarter of the 19th century. It was imported as a C instrument, but was usually changed to D by the musicians in order to be in tune with session musicians. Compared to the uilleann pipes and violin, it's low price made it a popular instrument in rural households. Along with the concertina, the melodeon has been linked to the decline of the uilleann pipes, but other factors may not have been taken into account. 
Its rise in popularity coincided with the growth of the set dances in the 1880s and 1890s. The melodeon's clear rhythmic qualities found favour among set dancers and its ten keyboard buttons and two bass keys made it an easy instrument to learn. 
A cheap instrument, at the turn of the century it cost 10/s (50p) and a second-hand one sold for 4/s (20p). 
The melodeon was often a gift from emigrant relatives in America. In County Mayo melodeons were also brought home as gifts to younger brothers and sisters by potato pickers working in Lincolnshire.
In some districts neighbours would subscribe to purchase one for dancing and the "joined box" would be left in a local house, out of the reach of children. So popular was the instrument in Ireland at one stage, the German manufacturer Hohner issued a model with the word "Ceili" in large letters on its label.
Like the concertina, the melodeon was a popular instrument among women at a time when "lady" pipers and fiddlers were rare.

This article is from:
http://www.iol.ie/~ronolan/melodeon.html

The picture above is a great piece of Skeheenarinky's social history.  Here was a community which, like other Irish communities, had recently come through the First World War, The War of Independence, and the Irish Civil War, and now, in 1925, they had the energy and confidence in themselves and their future to organise and build a Community Hall.  There can be no doubt that they knew how to enjoy themselves.  This is evident obviously from the fact that they built the hall.  It is also evident from the melodeon and football in the picture.  Perhaps that is the very football that your parents of grandparents played, and the very melodeon to which they danced in their new community hall! We are confident that  the people of Skeheenarinky School District, will do justice to the memory of the people in this photo when they come together to celebrate their inherited culture of education, sport, music, song and dance in June 2008.  

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