Beautiful family histories of ten Tipperary families are told in a new book

Clonmel Applefest’s Families of Clonmel book was launched at a joyful gathering in the Town Hall where Mayor Pat English greeted all the participating families and writers.

Ten families from or who have lived in Clonmel for at least 10 years are included in the book for which nominations were sought. After a lengthy process, a list of ten families was secured and a senior member and their entourage were interviewed for the purpose of gathering stories about what they enjoyed doing when they spend time together, thus exploring landmark events and activities in the life of each family.

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Families were nominated after a lengthy research process to ensure that a wide spectrum of candidates were included, from well-established Clonmel natives to more recently arrived but well-established families.

The families were interviewed in their homes in a cluster of 2 to 3 members with the final photograph by John D. Kelly including a wider multigenerational selection.

This project follows on previous highly successful writing projects in collaboration with a vibrant cohort of locally-based committed community writers who in previous years interviewed and wrote about local artisans, elders, and/or incomers into the area. To continue to draw on a pool of high quality writers, the festival secured the services of Sean O’Connor, an accomplished writer and editor from Nenagh, who acted as writing mentor and edited the book in conjunction with the festival director.

This ambitious project was made possible with a grant from the Arts Council of Ireland and additional support from Tipperary County Council, Age-Friendly Tipperary and The Museum of Hidden Histories.
Families included in the book are: The Burkes, Caseys, Dempseys, Gleesons, Hacketts, Hewitts, McNamara, Molloys, Purcells, and Sheikhs.

All shared their passions and were warmly thanked for their brave participation in the project at a tea party in the Town Hall during which tea and fingers foods by Russell Catering were served, accompanied by music by the Festival’s band in residence Sun Merchant.

Festival Director Theresia Guschlbauer thanked the families for accepting to take part in the project and praised the ten community writers who took on the job of interviewing the families and crafting their stories into a quality essay.

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“This year’s festival theme is ‘The Ties that Bind’ and these stories demonstrate what love, humour and caring means in a very real and meaningful way.”

Copies of the book can be purchased for € 12 at Hickey’s Bakery, the Narrow Space Gallery and Chou’s Cottage.