Category: People

Michael Cremin, Grand Marshall of Bergen County St.Patricks Day Parade

The day was an Irish green, albeit with a little gray, and although it came two weeks later than originally planned — and just more than 10 days after its raison d’etre (due to a horrendous nor’easter storm) — the 29th annual St. Patrick’s Day parade, led by Millstreet native Michael Cremin as Grand Marshall still showed marchers and spectators what it’s like to be Irish, even for just a day.

So, even though Sunday was a bit gray, the green did manage to shine through after all.

Our original article before the parade can be read here
You can read the full article on northjersey.com. Thanks to Joanie for the photos below

[read more …] “Michael Cremin, Grand Marshall of Bergen County St.Patricks Day Parade”

Baby Jacob family express their gratitude on TV3

Baby Jacob was on TV3 news yesterday evening again. This time saying thanks for all the support they have received in the last few weeks.  There were some video clips taken in the square and in O’Leary’s butchers with cameo’s by Ursula Manley and Jerry Pat O’Leary.

You can view the video clip on the TV3 website

There’s also an article on this weeks Cork Independent on how baby Jacob is doing after his recent operation and an update on the forthcoming single release for the Baby Jacob Trust Fund. Here’s an excerpt:

The Project started recording the song ‘Something Inside So Strong’ this week to raise funds for the Baby Jacob Fund. It is hoped the single will be available to purchase and for download by the end of April. Cork woman Ann Murphy has now joined the campaign to raise funds for Jakub through her new business.

[read more …] “Baby Jacob family express their gratitude on TV3”

Eily in Nebraska

YORK — “God and His mother be with you all my friends.”

So Eily Buckley conveys her greetings, in Irish Gaelic, to her listeners during her weekly radio report from Millstreet Town, County Cork, Ireland.

Eily has been in Nebraska since St. Patrick’s Day. She will be in York County a short while longer, before heading to Lincoln next week to celebrate her cousin’s Diamond Jubilee in the priesthood. Father Paddy O’Byrne, now  retired from the Diocese of Lincoln, is the link between Eily and her rural Bradshaw hosts, Elizabeth and Terry King, and Toni and Kent Allen.

When the Kings and Allens wanted to travel to Ireland last year, Fr. O’Byrne pointed them to Eily’s bed and breakfast in Millstreet, a town of about 1,400 people in northwest County Cork. About another 3,000 live in the surrounding countryside.

The Nebraskans soon counted Eily among their friends, and welcomed her when she flew to Nebraska with Fr. O’Byrne.

from the York News Times
[read more …] “Eily in Nebraska”

Cullen to be twinned with Tokyo?

… Tuesday was one hell of a day for Minister Batt O’Keeffe. First, he got promoted in the Cabinet reshuffle. Then he was buttonholed by the irate wife of a snubbed back-bencher. And finally, he attended a dinner organised by the class of 1963 from St Brendan’s College, Killarney.

Some people might remember 1963 as the year JFK was assassinated. But in Batt’s eyes, 1963 will forever be remembered as the year St Brendan’s lost the All-Ireland schools’ final by a point to St Mel’s of Longford.

Despite being the only Corkman on the team, Batt was the captain, displaying early leadership skills.

“I’m in the diocese of Kerry, but from the village of Cullen, which is near Millstreet on the Cork border,” he explains.

“I tried to twin Cullen with Tokyo when I was in Japan last week.”

Tuesday’s knees-up was arranged long ago and it was pure coincidence that it fell on the night of Batt’s promotion. His classmates and team-mates …

this is an extract from an article in todays Irish Times

Millstreet’s Last Old Fashioned Rhymer

I may die as I live without much to my name
To be Millstreet’s last old fashioned rhymer my one claim to minor fame
The word poet never does apply to such as me
The stuff I pen born to mortality.
.
From the countryside by Clara I’ve been too long away
I would feel a stranger in Millstreet today
A stranger in Claraghatlea and Millstreet Town
Where I once did know of some local renown.
[read more …] “Millstreet’s Last Old Fashioned Rhymer”

Labour of Millstreet’s keeper of the archive is never-ending

Somewhere 100 years from now in an office full of yet undreamed of computer gadgetry, a historian will take a break from work, look into the middle distance and marvel at Sean Radley. Sean Radley, probably even as you read this, is busy recording the life and times of an entire community, his beloved home town of Millstreet in north Cork. Thanks to Sean, almost every minute detail of Millstreet life – social, sporting, political, business, religious and much more – has been captured over 30 years, first on cine film, then in photographs, on audio tape, and, more recently again, on video.

The result is an astonishing archive of material – almost 30,000 photographs, over 2,500 audio tapes, 500 video tapes and thousands of…

from the Irish Times – Tue 09 Sep 1997

Baby Jacob on TV3

Baby Jacob and his family were on the TV3 news yesterday (Tuesday) evening, and this morning were on Ireland AM, with Joan O’Mahony of the Baby Jacob Trust fund bringing attention to the efforts to raise money for the operations that he needs in the future.

For the next stage of the treatment, they are heading back to Germany next Sunday so that Jacob can get larger implants into his eye sockets, as his current implants are quickly becoming too small.

Unfortunately, we can’t show you the videos clips directly, but here are the links where you can see the videos

there are also lots of stills from the videos at the bottom of this article

[read more …] “Baby Jacob on TV3”

Baby Jacob – in the Newspapers today

THE parents of a little boy born without eyes have launched a desperate plea to help raise €300,000 for his treatment.

Jacob Nowak suffers from an exceptionally rare condition whereby his eyes never formed in their sockets before his birth.

The condition, anophthalmia, affects fewer than one in 100,000 children but, in Jacob’s case, it left the him without eyeballs or optic nerves.

Jacob, who was born last August, is healthy in every other respect but now faces years of treatment to cope with his condition.

from today’s Irish Independant
also in todays Irish Examiner
and also in the Irish Times

[read more …] “Baby Jacob – in the Newspapers today”

Billy Coleman – Tarmac Titan DVD

Billy Coleman was Irelands most successful rally driver ever. He first came to province in 1969 in rather tatty self-prepared green Mark I Escort (TIU 250) on the Circuit of Ireland when he took special stage time off the works Escort of Rodger Clark which was almost unheard of at the time. Billy was born in 1948 in Millstreet. From an early age he developed an interest in motor cars, confessing for the bug when he sat up on his fathers knee to drive the car when he was five years old. His father owned a garage in Milstreet and was the Ford Main Dealer which helped nurture Billy’s interest in cars.

Billy is famous in rallying circles all over Ireland for his exploits in the 70s and 80s, in Ireland, Britain, and even as far away as Poland, Corsica and Monte Carlo.

A DVD on Billy’s exploits in the Irish Tarmac Championship is available to buy from Murray Motorsport amongst others.

Also added below are loads photos of the cars that he drove.

There is also a great website with loads of info all about  Billy’s racing career.
[read more …] “Billy Coleman – Tarmac Titan DVD”

Phil McCarthy

The eldest daughter of Denis and Elizabeth McCarthy her beauty I recall
When she was young in Pound Hill the fairest one of all
Though the years go by so quickly and fleeting is our prime
The memories of her beauty remain undimmed by time
Tall and blond and young and graceful in my mind she remain
Such lovely mental pictures of Phil to retain
She rests at peace in Dublin well north of Millstreet Town
Far from the streets where with her young friends she often walked up and down
Unaffected by her beauty she was free of conceit
What was a win for Dublin was a loss to Millstreet
She would have been in her sixties as far as I know
One can only hope her end was peaceful and not painful and slow
The years go by so quickly and time does not stand still
May she rest in peace in Dublin far from the Town by Clara Hill.

by Francis Duggan

Cullen Native Grand-Marshall for New Jersey Parade

Michael Cremin formerly of Cullen, but now of Dunmont, New Jersey

Former Cullen man Michael Cremin is to be the Grand – Marshall of the upcoming 29th annual St. Patrick Day’s Parade for North Jersey will be held 2 p.m. Sunday, March 14. An active member of the community, he has been nominated by the Council of Irish Associations of Greater Bergen County. Here is what the article says about him:

———

Michael Cremin of Dumont, the grand marshal, is originally from Cullen, County Cork, Ireland, the son of the late Edmond and Catherine Cremin.

He worked as an apprentice carpenter before he immigrated to America in 1962. He worked for Pan American and later for United Parcel Service.

[read more …] “Cullen Native Grand-Marshall for New Jersey Parade”

Know your Noughties

Well known and well liked Millstreet man John Tarrant, who writes the Millstreet notes on the Corkman every week, is PRO for Millstreet and Duhallow GAA, as well being a high achiever in quiz circles has outdone himself again. This time he been announced as one of the 30 winners of the 2000-2009 Review Quiz which was published on the Irish Independant on December 31st last. We can only assume that he got all the answers correct which is a fair achievement. Well done John.

The winners are published on todays Irish Independant

Conchubar O hEalaithe

2005 Conchubar Ó h'ÉalaitheA member of the Irish Workers Party and a Socialist and a true Republican
And he loved Ireland and the Irish Language Neil Healy was a very special man
A family person and a quiet achiever he was one worthy of far greater note
I’d like to write a poem in his honour were I born with the genius of a poet.
.
One who did speak the Irish Language fluently not many like him that seems sad to say
In the changing face of twenty first century Ireland in the ever changing World of today
A loyal supporter of Joe Sherlock of the Workers Party to the colours he believed in he was true
To many one who did choose to be different for that alone great credit is his due.
.
People like he was make a case for re-incarnation I’m only saying how it does seem to me
He did love places distant from Duhallow old towns in France in Celtic Brittany
His passing a huge loss to Celtic Culture he is one who will be hard to replace
In Millstreet he will always be remembered where his will live as a remembered face.
.
He always stood for what he did believe in one who was as honest as the word can be
And ’tis sad to think that on the streets of Millstreet he is one that in the flesh we never more will see
But the World was better for him living in it of him that would be a fair thing to say
Conchubar O hEalaithe is one well worth remembering and good memories of him will live for many a day.

by Francis Duggan

http://poemhunter.com/best-poems/francis-duggan/conchubar-o-healaithe/

Mick Kelleher’s Heart

He works hard and he has drunk many a beer
And he has lived in Australia for many a year
As good a person as one could wish to meet
But Mick Kelleher’s heart it is still in Millstreet.
.
In Claraghatlea in Millstreet he first saw light of day
And he often recalls old friends and places far away
Where the old Finnow river it babbles on down
To the mighty Blackwater close to Millstreet Town.
.
He talks of Claraghatlea, Inchaleigh and Claramore
So many miles inland from Hibernia’s shore
But distant from Duhallow he may live out his life
With his children and grandchildren and Rosemary his wife.
.
What is a great loss to Ireland is surely Australia’s gain
But loyal to Duhallow Mick Kelleher remain
And though here he may live out his last night and day
His heart is by Clara Mountain far away.

by Francis Duggan

The Pride of Rathcoole Annmarie

A beautiful young woman with blue eyes and shoulder length wavy hair of brown
She lives between Banteer Village and Millstreet Town
The Pride of Rathcoole Annmarie
One who does sing so beautifully.
.
She is surely a princess of song
One could listen to her all night long
Her voice so soulful, melodious and clear
More of her doubtless we will hear.
.
Annmarie O Riordan remember her name
For her’s will be more than a Duhallow wide fame
With youth and beauty and a great voice and time on her side
She could become famed Worldwide.
.
The gift of song is a marvellous thing
The songstress who does love to sing
And she is not yet in her prime
She will only get better with time.
.
How could one with her but not feel impressed
To possess such a singing voice she is truly blessed
In her fan club she now does have me
Go sing it again Annmarie.

by Francis Duggan
Visit Annmarie’s website

Breeda Broderick

She was Breda O Connor before becoming Pat Broderick’s wife
In Millstreet she raised her children and lived there for the most of her life
But a heart that was full of kindness sad to say forever still
And she will be missed by many in the Town by Clara Hill,
In Millstreet in Duhallow the changes happening fast
And memories of times gone by are all that seem to last
Yet in memory she has not died as she was she does remain
And in our mental pictures of her she looks well and young again
I last saw Breda Broderick years ago and far away
In the West End of Millstreet Town on a cold November day
A harsh wind blew from Clara Hill quite cold enough to snow
But as ever she was happy she possessed the inner glow
In the minds of those who knew her she’s still living and she hasn’t aged a day
‘Tis only her mortal remains in the Millstreet graveyard lay.

by Francis Duggan

Peg Coleman

2013-01-13 Millstreet Mastero - Peg Coleman

She was mother of Billy and John Coleman two Millstreet sportsmen of sporting renown
And wife of Paddy of the Coleman Brothers reputable business men of Millstreet Town
A family woman devoted to her husband and children in life her friends in numbers they did grow
Peg Coleman will be missed by all who knew her and by her many friends in Minor Row,
She lived to be a good age in her nineties in nine decades there’s many a night and day
Amongst the dead of Millstreet Town and Parish Peg Coleman now at peace forever lay
A good person she deserves to be remembered memories of her will outlive this simple rhyme
When I was a boy she was a mature woman and that is going back many years in time
Most of the adults of my childhood are now deceased and our biological clocks on our lives tick away
It would be great if we could live forever but for all of us a final night and day
Yes it would be nice if we could live forever but only Nature lives forever more
Peg Coleman she did live to be a great age for a decade of years at least with four score
To live that long in itself an achievement but she did live quite a successful life
A good mother to her sons John and Billy and to Paddy Coleman a devoted wife.

by Francis Duggan

Eily broadcasts her 1,000th report

A LADY at the heart and soul of all current affairs in Millstreet celebrated a very important milestone in her career on Tuesday as regional reporter for C103 Radio Station when she visited the studio in Mallow and read report No 1,000 live on air.

Eily Buckley was warmly welcomed by presenters Patricia Messenger and John Paul McNamara, who she speaks to regularly in her weekly link up with the station. Eily’s colleagues from LTV2 local television Sean Radley and cameraman William Fitzgerald were also on hand to record this historic occasion.

The regional reports, broadcast weekly from several locations around the county, are a vital link for listeners, and people like Eily are invaluable, said presenter Patricia Messenger.

Read the rest of this front page article  on the Corkman this week!

Niamh Kavanagh Eurovision 2010

Niamh Kavanagh - Eurosong 2010!from one of our readers:

Hi, just want to let the people of Millstreet know that Eurovision winner 1993, Niamh Kavanagh has made it to the last 5 in the Eurosong qualifiers this year. Eurovision this year will be held in Oslo. The Eurosong is on March the 5th and it would be great to have the people of Millstreet rooting for their own winner by voting for her on the night!! She has set up a page on facebook for updates- ‘Niamh Kavanagh Eurosong 2010‘

Regional Report 1000 at C103

Pictured at the C103 Studio in Mallow celebrating Eily Buckley’s Regional Report No. 1,000. Seated from left: Eily Buckley and Patricia Messenger. At back from left: Seán Radley, William Fitzgerald (LTV2), Geraldine Dunne (Eily’s daughter) and John Paul of C103. LTV2 Programme 156 on this Thursday at 10.00pm will include a feature on this historic occasion. (Picture by Sheila Fitzgerald)

Mary Brigid Ring

The gift of memory is a marvellous thing
I still remember Mary Brigid Ring
In all weather sunny, windy, wet and cold and cool
From Coolinarne she cycled to and from the Millstreet Secondary Convent School.
.
A few years older than me far as I know
Her wavy hair dark as wing of a crow
She had great warmth in her cheerful hello
I am going back some fifty years ago. [read more …] “Mary Brigid Ring”

Kathleen Corcoran And Peter Dineen

Two good people who in Millstreet Parish will never more be seen
But amongst friends and families and those who knew them memories of them evergreen
Kathleen Corcoran a good woman who lived in Dooneen
And a quiet man from Cloghoula likeable Peter Dineen.
.
In their Townlands by Millstreet Town they had lived for many years
And doubtless their funeral services did give rise to parting tears
For death is very final that does seem sad to say
And by Cashman’s Hill in St Mary’s their remains forever lay.
.
They are only dead physically in spirit they remain
And in our mental pictures we do see them again
From Cloghoula and from Dooneen they may well be gone
But in the minds of friends and families and those who knew them they are living on.
.
What can anyone ask of any human being only to live as their best
And what it takes to live as a good person Kathleen and Peter passed that test
One can only hope their departure from life was a painless release
And by Cashman’s Hill forever their remains rest in peace.

by Francis Duggan

Going to Haiti to help

A KISKEAM builder and a Millstreet butcher are planning to make a return trip to Haiti in April to help with the relief effort in the earthquake-stricken country.

John F O’Connor from Kiskeam and Jerry O’Leary from Millstreet were in Haiti last October when they took part in the Haven house building project. Both Duhallow men have also been to South Africa on a number of occasions with the Niall Mellon Trust.

The two men, who would have met many times on the playing field, were greatly taken aback when the horror of the earthquake unfolded. They now want to return to Haiti in April to help by providing much needed housing.

They are now working to raise funds for their relief effort and to kick start the fund-raising they will be holding a number of events in the next two months and would greatly appreciate any help from the community.