Day: May 28, 2024

Dia is Mhuire dióbh go léir a cairde and welcome to my Report.

My last report in the month of May. And looking back it wasn’t a bad one. We got a fair mix of sun and rain and now that we are into the last quarter they tell us it will be rain all the way to the end, so we wait with baited breath.  I bet we’ll get a few sunny spots too.

 This week sees yet another mighty International Equestrian event coming to Millstreet. The Bloodstock of the globe and their owners will thunder into town during the week and perform  at the Green Glens on Friday and Saturday and the following two days, eventing  over the lavish planes of Drishane.  The great thing is that admittance is free all the way so people of all ages, creed and colour will get an opportunity to view it . The first International Horse Show was held in 1979.  Millstreet was a very different place back then. A humble hamlet, trying to hold on to the few good shops and stores which were winding down from a few successful years. Our town was ripe for change, for improvement, for new thinking and on it came with the Duggan Family. When you live long enough you get to see a lot and you remember a lot.  You tend to appreciate the changes for the better that took place in the town that you love so well. Only driving into the car park in the West End gives me a lift. Because in my young days all that place was a wilderness. Big black iron gates and just inside, a black-clad little woman  still there from the days when the person in the gate lodge had to be on the alert to open the gates the minute the lord and lady or whoever needed to go through. Nobody only those who saw it then and sees it now can appreciate the wonderful changes and improvements that have come to reality since then. The wide open entrance, the spacious carpark, the Community Hall, The youth Centre, the public toilets, even the funeral home,  the creche, the majestic Carnegie Hall, all done up, our beautiful Town Park, I love them all, because I knew the place when they were not there. No public toilet in the town can you imagine and I can well remember the fight we had to get it installed. I am the last surviving founder member of the Community Council, which was formed in 1977 and  I’m proud to say that I’ve been there and worked for it all in whatever way I could, because I wanted better for my town. And we did get great work  done, needing endless fundraising and pleading with our public servants and Govern departments.  If they  were all listed it would make interesting reading I’m sure.

[read more …] “Eily’s Report – 28th May”