Folk music night to be held in aid of iconic Tipperary landmark

In aid of Copper Steeple restoration Fund, "Folk That" will be playing on Saturday, July 6, in Amby’s, Ballingarry.

Entry fee will be €5, with a raffle on the night.

All money raised will go into the fund.

This comes following the bingo night hosted by Imelda Goldsboro and the Community Centre Committee recently, where over €2,000 was raised for the Steeple project.

The Copper Steeple is Slieveardagh Coalfield’s most prominent landmark, which was built from local stone in 1863 by highly skilled local stone masons Edward and Michael Kenny of Curraheenduff, Coalbrook, known as ‘Kennys the Masons’.

It was planned to be a ventilation shaft for the mines in the townland of Copper, but it was never connected underground to the colliery workings.

Ventilation shafts worked like house chimneys, where a fire would be lit inside the base of the shaft or chimney.

The hot air from the fire would rise, create a draught and result in it drawing up and away the impure air from the working mines below the ground.

There are three more chimneys or ventilation shafts still standing in the Slieveardagh Coalfield: Mardyke, Earlshill and Knockalonga.

Others, which have since been taken down, were at Foilacamin, Newpark and Boulea.