Looking back over October 2021 in Tipperary - Visitors to Cashel cemetery harassed, intimidated

October 7, 2021

Our lead story on the front page of October 7 informed readers that grieving families in Tipperary’s main towns would face paying council burial fees upfront before their loved ones’ funerals if a stand-off between Tipperary County Council and undertakers over controversial legal agreements wasn’t resolved.
Funeral directors in Tipperary Town and Cashel are outraged at a county council ultimatum they had received directing them that interment fees must be paid before funerals if the undertakers didn’t enter into a formal legal agreement with the local authority in relation to their payment, wrote Aileen Hahessy.

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Carrick-on-Suir became a movie set for a period of three days for the shooting of a short film about a teenage direct provision centre resident’s experience of an Irish town.
A 20-strong film crew and cast of six actors came to the town in September to shoot scenes for Water Under the Bridge, written and directed by Rehan Ali.
Rehan, who spent 10 years living in Carrick-on-Suir’s Bridgewater House Direct Provision Centre, said he wanted to shoot the film in Carrick-on-Suir as this was where he developed his love of film making.
The UCC neuroscience graduate, who was born in Pakistan, said he was so excited to be able to come back to Carrick-on-Suir to shoot the film.
Peter Obidiran, who grew up in Carrick-on-Suir and like Rehan had personal experience of direct provision, played the lead role of Bilal in Water Under the Bridge.
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October 14, 2021

A group of Carrick-on-Suir families who were desperately searching for primary school places for their young children with autism launched a campaign to secure a special education unit at one of the primary schools in their town.
The Carrick-on-Suir Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Unit Campaign had been set up after a young mother, Taylor Franey, posted a message on Facebook outlining her worry and frustration at the difficulties she was facing sourcing a primary school place for her three-year-old daughter Georgia, wrote Aileen Hahesy.

Carrick-on-Suir ASD Unit campaigners from left: Danielle Cleary and her son Mayson Ryan, Fiona Russell and her daughter Ava Jaupaj, older sister to Ella who has autism; Laura Waters with her daughter Grace Walsh, Taylor Franey with her daughter Georgia Dowley, early years educator Breda Tobin with her son Sean and daughters Aoife and Julie. Pic Anne Marie Magorrian.

Taylor’s plea for help struck a chord with other families in the same situation. Within a few hours of her post an action group of parents was formed in the town and it immediately swung into action contacting local primary schools and lobbying politicians.
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Visitors to St Cormac’s Cemetery in Cashel were being harassed and intimidated on a regular basis it was stated at the October monthly meeting of Tipperary County Council.
At the meeting members of the Council outlined instances of the abuse people were enduring. They were discussing putting draft burial by-laws out to public consultation.
Cllr Roger Kennedy said a family whose loved one was buried in St Cormac’s were forced to exhume the remains because of the intimidation they suffered while visiting the graveyard.
He said visitors to the graves were being intimidated, they were unable to attend to the graves and flowers and other items were regularly removed from the graves.

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October 21, 2021

South Tipperary was turning green last October when a local environmental group stepped forward to donate 1,000 trees to primary and secondary schools in the area.
The incredibly generous environmental project was being undertaken by Crannach, a group that was set up to help save the trees in Clonmel town centre that were in danger of being removed to facilitate an urban design project.
Pupils in almost fifty schools throughout south Tipperary were to begin welcoming the trees being delivered to their schools.

Camida, a Clonmel-based company founded in 1988 by David Anchell, was paying for the trees at cost price from Clonmel Garden Centre, Glenconnor House.
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There was great sadness last October throughout south Tipperary with news that former RTÉ cameraman Donal Wylde had passed away. Originally from Ennis in county Clare, Donal had lived in Clonmel for many years.
He worked as a photographer with The Nationalist newspaper in Clonmel before joining RTÉ where he became a renowned lighting cameraman, a role he filled until his retirement.
Donal died in Tipperary University Hospital mourned by his wife Jean and daughters Sinead, Niamh and Aideen.
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A young Clonmel woman, Aoife Hanrahan, made history in Paris last October when winning Ireland’s first-ever women’s medal at the European Freestyle Kayak Championships, creating for herself the huge honour of being the first Irish woman to stand on a podium at an International Canoe Federation event.
25-year-old Aoife, a full-time Royal College of Surgeons pharmacy student, won the bronze medal behind Poland’s multiple ICF medalist Zofia Tula (silver) and former two-time junior world champion Ottilie Robinson-Shaw, from Britain (gold).
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October 28, 2021

In late October 2021 Tipperary University Hospital was under serious pressure due to a surge in patients with Covid-19 and other respiratory illnesses, prompting the hospital to open 15 extra beds and its manager to appeal to the public not to let down their guard with infection prevention measures, wrote Aileen Hahesy on our front page.
The Clonmel hospital’s general manager Maria Barry urged Tipperary people to “double down” on their efforts to prevent the spread of Covid-19 as the hospital faced another winter of intense pressure.
The number of Covid-19 patients in TUH had steadily risen over the previous fortnight.
Ms Barry appealed to the Tipperary people to seek treatment at their GP where possible and only present at TUH if they have a real emergency or illness.
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Out amongst the local community on his visit to Sologhead on October 17, 2021, An Taoiseach Micheál Martin TD talking to Noelle Ryan, Russellstown with her husband John in background in blue jumper, and two attentive young people her granddaughter Ellie along with neighbour Colin Leahy and many others.

An Taoiseach Micheál Martin TD paid a courtesy visit to the Sologhead Cross Memorial site on Sunday, October 17 having earlier attended Mass in Kilfeacle and gave the oration at the annual Republican commemoration in Kilfeacle Cemetery.
On his way to Sologhead from Kilfeacle he stopped at the site of the Sologheadbeg ambush where he was well briefed on its place in Irish history and the contribution it made in the Ireland we know today.
Micheál Martin, it was reported by Thomas Fitzgerald, was the first serving Taoiseach to visit Sologhead.

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Also in late October 2021 Tipperary County Council was seeking the public’s views on a proposal to transform Carrick-on-Suir’s former post office building on Main Street into a digital hub of offices for enterprises and remote workers.
The council published a public notice announcing its plan to change the use of 43 Main Street that has lain vacant since the town’s post office moved out of the premises in 2011.

If planning permission and funding was secured, the former post office building would become the town’s second digital hub providing office spaces with high speed internet for start up and small enterprises, remote workers and larger businesses wishing to set up outreach offices in the town.