Faughs Lotto
Latest News
-
‘Grow Your Own’ summer workshop in Castleblayney
Castleblayney Community Gardens Group will be holding a free ‘Grow Your Own’ summer workshop which will take place this Saturday 14th July from 11.30am to 1.30pm in Eagle Ridge
Community Gardens in Drumillard, Castleblayney.Part 2 of the Workshop will take place on Saturday 28th July with trainer Barry Kavanagh who is an award-winning gardener. Part 3 of the workshop will take place in Íontas in the Autumn when the local produce will be harvested and with some expert help some interesting dishes will be served up for the workshop participants to share.
Anyone who would like to have their own home-grown vegetables from this Autumn to next Spring should come along. Also tips will be provided on caring for existing crops of vegetables and fruit trees during this period of drought.
To book a place on this Saturday’s free gardening workshop call or text 086 8130296 or message Castleblayney Community Gardens on Facebook.
The workshops are part of a ‘Garden to Plate’ project of Castleblayney Community gardens supported by Monaghan County Council Community Development Funding.
-
Huge Celebration of Cultural Diversity within the Community
Huge crowds attended the Cultural Celebration event, which was staged in conjunction with the town’s Muckno Mania Festival, on Sunday last 8th July. The event was organised by the promoters of the ‘A Community Together’ Project, which has as its aim to promote awareness of different cultures and to celebrate diversity.
In all eight different Countries took part in the event, which included Poland, China, Lithuania, Pakistan, Latvia, India, Philippines and Hungary. Each Country was allocated a Gazebo with tables and participants brought along on the day, maps, posters, tourism leaflets, flags, country artefacts such as hand crafts as well as samples of cooked foods typical of their national dish, which they offered to the passing visitor.
The Cultural Celebration was also accompanied by entertainment and spectacle, which included an acrobatic display by the Amani Acrobats who hail from East Africa. The performers who added to the Cultural Celebration included in their act extreme acrobatics contortion, fire limbo, and African dance. Further entertainment was provided by Kearla Beats an Indian Band from Belfast.
Over the course of delivery of the project Castleblayney Community Enterprise will work with hundreds of young people and adults from cross community and ethnic minorities using primarily the medium of art and crafts to overcome religious cultural and ethnic differences. Castleblayney Community Enterprise is partnered with the Blayney Cultural Network Group and Church of Ireland on this project, which is supported by the European Union’s PEACE IV Programme, managed by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB).
The project is unique in that it involved an effective community involvement, which has the capacity and ability to address cultural diversity by working in partnership with the Church of Ireland and the Castleblayney Cultural Network group.
In the coming months further activities and events will be staged under this project which will further the aims of peace, cultural diversity and social integration which will also strengthen the building of positive relations at a local level.
-
Muckno Mania Festival 20th Anniversary
Glorious sunshine, hard-work and community cohesion were the three ingredients of a hugely successful and highly spectacular 20th Muckno Mania Festival, which took place over four days in Castleblayney last weekend.
The festival’s link, impact and integration within the Community was clearly evident from the myriad of participation and involvement throughout the weekend from individuals, local organisations, local authority and local businesses, who clearly displayed an abundance of goodwill towards the festival and the organisers.
Highlights of the Festival weekend included an amazing and colourful street parade on Friday night followed by spectacular fireworks display. Further delights were the highly entertaining return of Stars in Your Eyes on Saturday night and the crowning of Ellen Mulholland as the new Festival Queen, the inclusion of two successful ‘Age Friendly’ events on the programme, the attraction of the forest fairy trail and the turnout at the Faugh’s sports day.
Appearances over the weekend by actor Patrick Bergin, the Shamrock car and a host of visiting street performers, including US based street performer Jamey Mossengren, created plenty of hype and added to the quality of a mostly local based programme, which had as its theme ‘20 Years of Mania.
Throughout the weekend there was an excellent variety of street performers, puppeteers and artists, including Streetwise, Belfast and Street Theatre Ireland performers, McCormick Puppets, and O’Looney Puppets.
The festival atmosphere was also evident through creative and colourful shop window displays and outdoor garden displays and the presence of young buskers on the streets on Saturday. Over the weekend too there was an opportunity for people to also reminisce on previous years with a specially created festival museum, which was open to the public.
The Muckno Mania Festival organisers who comprise mostly of young volunteers wish to acknowledge the support of all the festival sponsors who through their kind generosity have once more made the festival possible. The weekend support and sponsorship from Monaghan County Council, the Municipal District of Carrickmacross/Castleblayney and their staff who helped out over the weekend is also greatly acknowledged at this time.
They are also keen to acknowledge and thank all those who helped and assisted them over the weekend and thus made this a most memorable festival.
Financial support for this year’s festival comes from the following Main Sponsors; Carna Transport, Coleman Tractors and Todays Local, Glencarn Hotel, Monaghan Hire, Monaghan County Council – Arts Partners Scheme, Mc Mahon Supervalu, Monaghan County Council – Carrickmacross/ Castleblayney Municipal District, Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Kingspan, Shane Tyres and Monaghan Sports Partnership through National Recreation Week and National Play Day.
Latest Events
