Launch of Tom O'Connell book 'A Life's Harvest: Stories from the Homeplace Loraine''

It has been a sad week, with so many deaths among friends and folks I have known for a long time past. The journey to St. Michael’s Cemetery was repeated several times as neighbours and friends paid their final respects. The Irish funeral is one of the great traditions of Irish life and unlike similar occasions on the far side of the Irish Sea it demonstrates strong community bonds which unite us in a common identity. ‘Boy’ Prendergast, Anne Prendergast (no relation) and Sean Loughman left us last week and we walked in the funeral processions to St. Michael’s Cemetery remembering and recalling the different qualities they shared socially and through work with the community at large. The new cemetery at St. Michael’s is fast filling up. It opened in or around 1965 and since then has received the remains of many friends, many school mates and several Taaffe family members. They are all remembered while their generations are still represented amongst the living. In another generation or two the identity of those named on the grave memorials will be lost to memory. Writing as I have been for the last 30 years or so on the forgotten people who once walked the streets of Athy I cannot but realise how fragile is human memory. Many men and women who years ago were so much a part of their local community are no longer remembered. Athy, despite recent giant steps in population growth, is still small enough to sustain a sense of community. I was reminded of this when attending the local Arts Centre during the week. ‘Stories from a Small Town’, based on contributions by Athy and Castledermot folk compiled by author John MacKenna was recorded before an interested audience for later broadcast on KFM. The stories gave a glimpse of past lives as lived in south Kildare and provided an interesting insight into times which have changed so much in the last few decades. On next Saturday 22nd April a book launch will take place in St. Lawrence’s GAA clubhouse at 8pm. Tom O’Connell, a native of south Kildare, has written a book based on his late father’s shared memories captured in recorded interviews in the last year of his long life. ‘A Life’s Harvest – Stories from the Home Place Loraine’ is a personal memory of a life lived in rural Ireland. It’s an oral history of one man’s experiences in the extended south Kildare community where he lived and worked. It’s a fascinating story of farming families and how the ways of the recent past have changed. A farming life is revealed as John Connell’s memories are explored and exposed to give us a deeper understanding of a sense of community. The book will be launched by the local TD and Minister for State Martin Hayden, while the MC on the night will be some fellow by the name of Frank Taaffe. I was very interested to find that Tom O’Connell had included in his book a number of interviews carried out by the late Willie Kelly in the south Kildare area prior to his death in 2002. Willie was a man who sought to record the cultural and social history of the people of his local area and his research has helped in no small way to preserve the rural heritage of south Kildare. It’s a task which has been shared with other relatively recent publications such as Michael Delaney’s ‘The Time of our Lives’, Colm Flynn’s ‘A Tie to the Land’, ‘Kilmead, A Local History’ by Geraldine Deegan and others, ‘The Parish of Narraghmore’ by Fr. J. Young P.P. and ‘Kilmead 1798-1998’. Indeed the venue for the book launch on Saturday has itself been the subject of one of the better GAA club histories published in recent years. Local history is alive and well in the hearts and minds of the people of south Kildare and Tom O’Connell’s first venture into publishing will be a welcome addition to our understanding of rural life as once lived in this part of the green country. Athy’s Art Centre which has become an important part, indeed an essential part of the cultural reawakening of Athy and south Kildare, hosts an interesting talk on Tuesday 25th April. Colm Walsh, the originator of the now famous ‘Made in Athy’ plaque project, will give a talk on Athy’s contribution to the world of music. Under the title ‘The Local Families who changed music forever’, he will relate the stories of four families from Athy who made an important contribution to the development of modern music. Colm’s talk will deal with emigration from Athy in the mid-1950s and the subsequent rise of musicians such as The Stone Roses, the Smiths, the Buzzcocks and many other international music stars. The evening will feature rare interviews, archived performances and many interesting if surprising stories. Athy’s Art Centre is the place to be on Tuesday 25th at 8pm, while St. Lawrences GFC will be focus of our attention on Saturday 22nd, also at 8pm. Both events are free of charge.