Fethard Walled Town Medieval Festival 2009



	'Fired by Colour' ceramic exhibition - Saturday 4pm The ceramic group Fired By Colour will be exhibiting in the Town Hall from Saturday 22nd to Wednesday 26th August. The exhibition will show work made at Crampscastle Pottery over the year. Exhibitors include Dóirín Saurus, Sarah Murphy, Liz O'Brien, Elke Wilson, Stella Kenna and Nuala Quirke. The show opens at 4pm on Saturday 22nd August with a harp recital by Steve Haggerty of Kilcash.
	Guided Walk of Fethard - 5pm on Saturday Mary Hanrahan will take you on a tour of Fethard's 'Medieval Trail' starting from outside the Town Hall at 5pm on Saturday 22nd August. Free.
	Launch of Town Wall Conservation & Management Plan - 6.30pm Abymill At 6.30pm on Saturday, a long awaited and important chapter will be written into Fethard history. Following nearly two year’s work and preparation, a ‘Conservation and Management Plan for the Medieval Town Walls of Fethard’ will be launched by John Bradley in The Abymill Theatre. This is a very thorough (and expensive) document commissioned by South Tipperary County Council in partnership with the Heritage Council through the Irish Walled Towns Network (IWTN) and completed by the consultancy firm Oxford Archaeology, from the city of the same name. Their Head of Building Archaeology, Julian Munby will talk at 7pm on the findings and recommendations of the study. This report will now inform all future work on ‘The Wall’ and influence all developments along the line of the best-preserved town walls in the Republic. So it is a very important document indeed. A reception and harp music will greet the people and it is hoped that a large attendance of townspeople will attend to hear at first hand what Mr Munby has to say about their medieval town.
	Paul Brady open air solo concert by Town Wall - Saturday 8pm Paul Brady will visit Fethard on his ‘Travelin’ Light 2009 Tour’ on Saturday 22nd August. This concert will coincide with the Fethard Medieval Walled Town Festival during Heritage Week and will take place by the medieval wall behind McCarthy’s. Paul Brady is touring venues across Ireland and outside the main town gigs which he normally plays. Paul includes a vast repertoire in the show, playing songs from his forty years in the music business, visiting songs from his time with Planxty, The Johnsons, Andy Irvine as well as songs from his numerous solo albums. Support by Tipp FM Premier Star winner Laura Rice, and her friend Jack O'Sullivan. Food and refreshments, as well as other live music will be available on the night of the concert. Tickets are €37 from McCarthy’s in Fethard, Premier Music Store in Clonmel, or online / credit card at www.tickets.ie
	Lee Valley String Band - Sunday 23rd August 3pm to 5pm The renowned 'Lee Valley String Band' from Cork will entertain by the Town Wall from 3pm to 5pm with their particular type of Old Time and Bluegrass music. The current line-up includes original member Chris Twomey autoharp; Mick O'Brien, guitar; Mick Daly, banjo; Kevin Gill, dobro; Hal O'Neill, fiddle (brother of Anne Connolly, Fethard Post Office, and Eoghain O'Neill from Moving Hearts); Brendan Butler, mandolin and Pete Brennan, bass. Chris, Brendan, the two Micks, Kevin and Pete all share vocal duties. The band featured on the Hummingbird / RTE project 'Other Voices 3', on RTE television in April 2005, and in July of that year, they shared the stage of the Cork Opera House with The Blind Boys Of Alabama.
	Festivities by Medieval Town Wall - Sunday from 2pm to 6pm New additions this year will be a roasting pig and flying eagles , to join the Archery, the Re-enactments, the Puppeteer, The Mandala, the Fortune Teller, Herbal Walks, food stalls and craft workers. There should be ‘tests of skill’ for those with a keen eye and fast hands and legs and of course The Lee Valley String Band will fill the Valley with music between 3and 5pm.
	Childrens' Medieval Tapestry Free Workshops As part of this year’s Fethard Walled Town Medieval Festival, Children aged 8 to 14 are welcome to enroll for a series of Workshops, led by artist Pat Looby. This is a textile art project based on medieval tapestries. Children will learn how to draw, paint and sew on to fabric and will create a new Tapestry based on the Medieval features of Fethard. The finished Tapestry will be part of the Fethard Walled Towns Day Festival on 23rd August and will then go on permanent display at the Fethard Youth Centre. The workshops will take place from Monday 17th August to Friday 21st August, from 11am to 1pm and 2pm to 4pm. Booking Essential. Special workshop for 5 to 7 year olds will take place on Monday 17th August from 11am to 12.30pm. The workshops are free and will be held at O'Sullivans, Main Street (formerly Percy Dillon's Chemist Shop). To enroll please call: (052) 6131000.
	Medieval Fancy Dress Parade 2pm - Town Hall to Town Wall This year’s Fethard Medieval Fancy Dress Parade will take place on Sunday 23rd August with lots of prizes to be won. We ask children and parents to make a special effort to dress up in costume and participate in this year’s parade and events by the medieval town wall at The Valley. The Fancy Dress Parade will commence at 2pm from the Town Hall on Sunday 23rd August. The Fethard fancy dress parade was famous all over south Tipperary, and now its back again, but with a medieval twist. Prizes will again be given out to the best Adult and Children entries and those who push the medieval boat out to its colourful limits. The Parade will be led by a ‘cheeky’ Trumpeter and a brace of Wolf hounds, and pride of place this year will go to the children and the Tapestry that is being created by them in the Workshops in the Youth Centre. The Knights, Ladies and Re-enactors will join in, and who knows who or what may turn up on the day.
	"The Inquisition" Come to "The Inquisition" stall on Sunday afternoon and test your knowledge on all things historic and general about Fethard. A quiz for adults and a junior version devised for primary school children, with prizes for the most correct answers.
	Live music on The Square from 12 noon to 2pm Sunday Live music on The Square beginning at 12 noon on Sunday. It will not, however, be ‘square’ music as local youth bands, ‘Zero Tolerance’ and ‘Naked Mr America’ (winners of last year’s ‘Battle of the Bands’) will lash it out ‘til 2pm when the Medieval Parade takes off from the Town Hall.
	The Valley — entertainment by 'The Wall' on Sunday 2 to 6pm Then it’s off down to The Valley where a tented village awaits. New additions this year will be a roasting pig and flying eagles, to join the Archery, the Re-enactments, the Puppeteer, The Mandala, the Fortune Teller, Herbal Walks, food stalls and craft workers. There will even be an ‘Inquisition’, where - we are told anyway- you can win a prize as opposed to loose your head.
	Fethard Medieval Walled Town Festival 2009 This is the third year of the festival where South Tipperary County Council, The Heritage Council and the local community have come together to provide a genuine family day out where fun and laughter and chat are the number one priority.
	A surprise There is one further ‘item’ of great interest in transit to Fethard, but until it reaches our shores we can not be sure that it will appear. Suffice is to say that we all could strike gold if and when it does appear. Enough said!
	Join in the Family Shield Workshops As mentioned a few weeks back there will be workshops next week to paint the ‘family shields’ of the descendants of the Norman families that came to Fethard from 1200 onwards. The Irish families — Kennedys, O’Connors, Phelans, Ryans, O’Dwyers, McCarthys, O’Briens, McGraths, Mahers, O’Donnells, O’Neills, etc will have their say next year when banners and flags will be created after their manner. The Irish chiefs and families did not take readily to the introduced Norman heraldic system, although over time most Irish families had a ‘family crest’ attributed to them. Join in the Family Shield Workshops If your family name is: Roche, Cromp, Desmond, Hackett, Wall, Mockler, Stokes, Tobin, Purcell, Butler, Everard, Neville, Shorthall, Prendergast, Walsh, Sinnot, Bermingham, Archdekin, Grant, Bray, Power, Grace, Burke, Hayes, Barrett, Mandeville, Nevin, Condon, Russell, Laffan, Netterville, Burden, Carbery, Stapleton, Dalton, Carew, Maunsell, Devereaux, Archer, Collier, Landy, Fanning, Cantwell, Keating, du Fresne, Tyrell, Cussin, Morris, Scadan — then contact festival@fethard.com or phone (052) 6131000. Leave your Family Name, phone number (mobile is best), when free (day or evening) and then the dates and times of next week’s workshops will be given out, and hopefully all families can be accommodated. There will be no cost involved and the plan is to hang the family shields on the Town Wall for this and future festivals.
	Childrens Colouring Competition for Medieval Festival This drawing by Tom Tierney of thirteenth-century nobility was chosen as this year’s Fethard Town Wall Medieval Festival colouring competition for 6 year olds and over. Information about the clothes in the drawing show — Left: The waist of the noblewoman’s gown has moved to just under the bosom; the skirt has an extremely long train. She wares a steeple hennin (headdress) with a loose veil. Right: The gentleman’s cote, or jacket, is cut short, showing his legs to advantage. Featuring padded and puffed shoulders and slashed hanging sleeves, his cote has a fur-trimmed collar. Around his neck he wears a circlet of fur. The competition rules are as follows: (A) Completed entries must be submitted to the Community Centre, Barrack Street, or Newport’s Newsagency by 4pm on Friday 21st August, 2009; (B) Make sure to put your name, age, address and telephone number on reverse; (C) The use of crayons, markers, colouring pencils and paint is permitted; (D) Prizes will be awarded to 1st, 2nd and 3rd subject to sufficient entries. Judges decision is final. CLICK HERE to Download PDF (A4 size) CLICK HERE to Download JPG (A4 size)
	National Heritage Week Photographic Competition Are you a David Bailey wannabe? Have you got an eagle eye and a steady hand? The National Heritage Week Photo Competition invites you to be part of Heritage Week and to share your best Heritage Week event photos for a chance to win some fantastic prizes! We want you to use your imagination to capture the connection between people, environment and heritage and share your experiences by uploading your Heritage Week event pics to www.pix.ie/go/heritageweek between the 22nd August and 13th September. Download Form So bring your camera to Fethard Medieval Walled Town Festival on 22nd & 23rd August and capture the readymade medieval atmosphere.
	Fethard Public Realm Plan available for download The Public Realm Plan for the Medieval Walled Town of Fethard was commissioned in the summer of 2007 by the Heritage Council and South Tipperary County Council as part of the town's membership of Irish Walled Town Network. The Public Realm Plan proposes 15 specific iniatives of varied scale and remit. Individually each project will improve the quality of the town's publicly accessible environment. Combined, they can bring about a significant transformation with long term social, cultural, environmental and economic benefits for the town and its people. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD PDF OF PLAN (9.5mb)

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