15TH ANNUAL SEMINAR OF THE KFLHG

15th Annual Seminar of the KFLHG

Mary Mahon

A very successful the 15th Annual Seminar of the KFLHG held in Kilcullen Heritage Centre on Saturday 13th September at 9.30 am.  The theme of the seminar was the Folklore of Co. Kildare – the public part of the event featuring the launch of Kildare Folk Tales by Steve Lally. 

The meeting was opened by James who welcomed Frank O’Rourke, Deputy Mayor of Kildare to the event.  Deputy O’Rourke gave a short talk and explained how impressed he is with the local historical groups who do such good work in their areas.  Frank is from Celbridge and understands all the effort and work involved in historical projects.  He expressed regret that he could not stay long as another appointment was scheduled for him, but he wished the many local historical groups continued success.

James presented him with a signed copy of the book Kildare Footprints – A walking Tour Guide of Kildare by Mario Corrigan and invited the Mayor to take a town walk with Mario. Federation Treasurer, Nessa Dunlea, welcomed the Deputy-Mayor to his new role and to her little spot in Kilcullen.

Next was the ‘Society Speak’ where a member from each local group present gave a short talk on their achievements of the past year and outlined their plans for the coming year. Fifteen of the twenty-one groups in the county were represented and there is hope that a new group will be soon formed in Newtown.

Society Speak was followed by the election of Officers.  The officers are as follows: Chairman, James Durney; Secretary, Ger McCarthy; Treasurer, Nessa Dunlea; PRO,  Mario Corrigan; Committee, Bob Nugent, Raphael Ryan, Nuala Walker, Brian McCabe,  Rita Edwards. Webmaster, Sean Sourke. Mary Murphy was welcomed to the board as Assistant Secretary.

James then took to the floor to give a short introduction on Steve Lally, author of Kildare Folk Tales, who now lives in Co. Down but is originally from Rathcoffey in Co. Kildare.  Steve approached local people for stories and folklore which he put in book format.  Steve, accompanied by Ray Dunne, originally from Athy but now also living in the North, are together known as The Quiet Men and undertake story-telling, acting, musical interludes and recitations with great humour.  As Chairman of KFLHG officially launched Steve’s book Kildare Folk Tales to a large crowd of Federation members and the general public. The Quiet Men then gave an hour-long sterling performance of storytelling, music and recitations.