THE 23rd Annual Kickham Country Weekend will be held in Mullinahone this weekend.
The heritage and history event grew out of the week of centenary celebrations which took place in Mullinahone in 1982 to commemorate the death of Charles J. Kickham in 1882.
It has stood the test of time - a tribute indeed to the loyalty of its supporters and the foresight of its organisers. There is inbuilt in all of us some sense of history and where we came from and this is one of the reasons that the Kickham weekend has remained alive.

Kickham was a complex, talented character with many facets like a diamond and each facet of his character has in turn intrigued not only the people of Tipperary but also of Ireland.
In his own day and up to the birth of the Irish nation he was a Fenian and a revolutionary.
From 1920 onwards to the 1950s he was the great writer of the novel Knocknagow or The Homes of Tipperary, an idyllic portrait of rural life in Ireland in the 19th century.
In more recent years since Tipperary returned from the famine years in hurling in 1987 he is known as the composer of the song Slievenamon which bellows out from the Tipperary terraces in victory or defeat.

Wherever two or three from Tipperary are gathered especially at late hours the strains and words of Slievenamon are liable to surface. Those are the legacies of CJ Kickham whose first biographer was the Callan native, James Maher.

The Kickham weekend will be officially opened on Friday at 7.30pm by Dr Dermot Clifford, Archbishop of Cashel and Emily.

A lecture on The Leahy Family Engineers will follow. This lecture on a famous Cashel and Emly family will be delivered by Mr Brendan O’Donohue MRIA.

On Saturday at 1.30pm there is a bus tour of the historic sites of Galmoy conducted by Dr Patrick Vaughan.

That night in the Knocknagow Centre there is another lecture this time with a Kilkenny theme The Life and Work of Canon William Carrigan.

This lecture will be given by Rev Fergus O’Farrell a native of Johnstown, Co Kilkenny. Rev Fergus has written a history of The Fenians Hurling Club, Johnstown, and Kilmanagh Creamery.

He lectured in St Kierans and is now CC of Dunamaggin as well as being a lecturer in the Mater Dei Institute. Last Mass in St Michael’s Church on Sunday will be the anniversary Mass of Charles Kickham and his first biographer James Maher.
The Mass will be followed by a wreath laying and the oration will be delivered by Senator Des Hannafin.

We are back to Tipperary again. The final event of the weekend will be the poetry reading and music in the walled garden of historic Killaghy Castle, weather permitting. We hope that the weather is akin to that enjoyed by the area last Sunday. The guest poet is Patrick Moran of Templetuohy. This event will ring down the curtain on yet another weekend of heritage and history in the historic valley near Slievenamon.

Break in the Clouds -
Some of the hurling gloom which had settled locally after the loss in Croke Park the previous Sunday was lifted in Clonmel on Saturday evening.
The county players lined out with Mullinahone on Saturday evening in Clonmel and had a major influence on the game which Mullinahone won rather easily.

Paul Kelly was in sparkling shooting form at midfield while Eoin drilled two frees to the Galtee net. At the other end, Paul Curran helped John Leahy to keep a clean sheet for the second game in a row. Pat Croke scored two goals and Niall Curran also scored well at centre forward.

On the debit side we conceded a big number of points, many from silly frees. This win sees us qualify for the knockout stages of the county championship having topped our group. In the last 16 we have been joined by other group winners Kilruane McDonaghs and Roscrea and either Kildangan / Boherlahan or Knockavilla Kickhams.

In the first knockout round each of the four group winners will play either Toomevara, Moneygall, Loughmore or the Combo. If the county executive goes for a guarded draw we are likely to play one of the North Tipperary teams, Moneygall or Toomevara.
The winners of these four ties will then play a divisional loser Nenagh, Cashel or the mid and South losers but that is too far into the future to be speculating. Our biggest worry is that our defence is rather untested since the Ballingarry game.

Our newer defenders haven’t been seen under pressure and some of our experienced ones haven’t yet struck former form. Since the departure of Eddie Carey I wonder how our midfield will do if we are faced with two good hurlers who are prepared to scrap for possession around the middle of the field.

Perhaps we should make an early Holycross novena so that 3/4 good hurlers will drop from the sky to spice up the competition for places in the first fifteen.

Local Lotto -
Winning numbers drawn in the local lotto last week were 5, 13, 14 and 19. There was no jackpot winner but three matched three numbers and shared e150. Our congratulations to Colin and Bridget, C & J Crosse and Margaret Dunne. The jackpot next Monday night could be in excess of e3,000 to be exact e3,100. Remember if you are not in then you can’t win.

Eileen Kickham -
The death took place recently in a Dublin nursing home of Eileen Kickham formerly of Ballydavid. Eileen who remained unmarried, was in her 101st year when she died. She must have been the oldest member of Mullinahone’s diaspora.

She was born in Mullinahone, the daughter of Nicholas Kickham, who owned a saw mill and furniture factory in what is now Kelly’s Lane.

When this business in Mullinahone ceased the family moved to a farm in Ballydavid, which was run by her brother Jack Kickham, a Tipperary footballer on Bloody Sunday in Croke Park.

Eileen became a nurse and moved to Dublin. She is fondly remembered as being a very nice lady by some of the older residents of the area. Kickham farm is now Donal Ryan’s. The Kickham family graves are in Kilvemnon. May the soul of Eileen Kickham rest in peace.

New Service -
John Quirke has opened a new service in the parish. John has opened a new auctioneers and estate agents office on the Callan Road, beside the Furniture Warehouse.
John who qualified recently, will be offering as his core business house sales and lettings, antique furniture and collectables auctions, commercial lettings, property advice and valuations. We wish John every success.

Minor Footballers -
Hard luck to the minor footballers. On Sunday they put up a good show in the South Tipperary minor ‘B’ final against favourites St Patrick Gaels.

This was a combination team drawn from the parishes of Drangan / Cloneen and Grangemockler / Ballyneale. Earlier in the league section of the competition Mullinahone had been well beaten by the combination. On Sunday Mullinahone remained in the game until injury time and were on top during parts of the second half even though playing a man short.
The loss of this player caused a weakness in the Mullinahone attack and limited the options of the team’s management.

We must congratulate manager Kyran Vaughan and his selectors Bill Tobin and Kevin O’Meara on getting the team so far. Many of the team are young and the team could be a stronger force next year. While many of the team put in a great effort there were some highly visible weak links. Our defence took the honours with Joe O’Meara at centre back and John Murphy at full back being very prominent.

The captain Michael O’Brien also showed up well while the Quirke brothers tried hard. Edward Phelan and Brian Forristal also played their parts. At midfield Shane O’Brien faded somewhat when his partner Ned Tobin departed.

Up front, Donal Cody, showed up well and scored his side’s only goal. Kevin Walzer was busy and took his frees well. Niall O’Brien chipped in with a number of points and Enda McEnery was very unlucky with a rocket of a shot early in the second half. Perhaps Enda could have been moved outfield earlier in the game. David Hennessy was replaced by the very hard trying Eoin Egan during the second half while Adrian Doheny gained quite an amount of possession.

The other substitutions came too late in the game to make an impact though by then the strain of playing with 14 players was making an impact.
Team: Brian Forristal, Kevin Quirke, John Murphy, Michael O’Brien, Sean Quirke, Joseph O’Meara, Edward Phelan, Shane O’Brien, Ned Tobin, Kevin Walzer, Adrian Doheny, Donal Cody, Niall O’Brien,, Enda McEnery, David Hennessy.

Well done to the team on getting so far, especially on the rare football victory over Fethard in the semi-final.

One of the principal thorns in Mullinahone side in the final was Damien McCormack whose father John was a loyal Mullinahone clubman for many years and still represents the club as a promising referee.

Golf Classic -
The annual GAA golf classic was held in Callan Golf Club at the weekend. The winners list in reverse order was: 7 Moynihans Bar, Clonmel; 6 McCarthys Bar, Fethard; 5 Modern Printers, Kilkenny; Molloys Undertakers, Callan; 3 Gerry O’Dwyer, Electrical, Boherlahan; 2 Callan Credit Union; 1 Sean Wal-zer, Kevin Walzer, Dermot Maher and Kevin Crotty.
Congrats to the winning foursome.

No Chiropodist -
The chiropodist will not be visiting on the fourth Monday of August as she is on holidays. Next visit will be the fourth Monday in September.