Skibbereen & District Historical Society

Fr. Patrick Hickey, a native of Skeaghanore, Ballydehob, and now CC in Timoleague, gave a talk titled ‘The Famine in West Cork’ to Skibbereen & District Historical Society on Thursday night, November 30, 2017, at the West Cork Hotel.

Fr. Hickey attracted one of the biggest crowds to the Society’s talks for quite a long time. His body of work on the Famine in West Cork, and particularly in the western part of the Skibbereen Union, is outstanding and his is the most authoritative voice on the history of the Great Irish Famine 1845-52 in West Cork.

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On Sunday January 22, 2017, the Papal Nuncio to Ireland, Dr Charles J. Browne, paid an official visit to Skibbereen.

Dr Browne was chief celebrant at 11.30am concelebrated mass at St Patrick’s Cathedral, and following the celebration of mass, the Papal Nuncio launched a new Visitors’ Guide to the Cathedral.

The beautifully produced Visitors’ Guide was researched by Gerald O’Brien and Philip O’Regan, and photography was by Paddy Feen and Jeremy Kingston.

To coincide with that great occasion for the parish of Skibbereen and Rath, John Greene of C103FM did a special one-hour radio programme as part of his hugely successful ‘Where The Road Takes Me’ series, which was broadcast on January 16 2017, a week before the Papal Nuncio’s visit.

That programme is now available to listen to as a podcast on C103FM’s website at

https://soundcloud.com/cork103/wtrtm-skibbereen-cathedral

St Patrick’s Cathedral is one of the most imposing and beautiful buildings in Skibbereen and has played a major role in the history of Skibbereen since the mid-1820s.

We’re sure that many people from this area who are living abroad, or who may have missed the broadcast, would welcome an opportunity to listen to the programme.

If you have family or friends with Skibbereen connections who are living abroad, why not forward the link to them.

Spearline, the multi-award winning technology company, currently based at Credit Union House, Main Street, Skibbereen, has completed the purchase of the former St Fachtna’s De La Salle High School buildings and site. The property was owned by the diocese of Cork and Ross.

It’s wonderful news for Skibbereen that the company has, by this investment, committed to consolidate and develop its business in the town. St Fachtna’s is an iconic building – for 170 years it has played a central role in the educational and cultural life of the greater Skibbereen area. Surely now, in its new incarnation as headquarters for Spearline, St Fachtna’s will continue to play a leading role in the development and progress of Skibbereen and West Cork.

Spearline was founded in 2003 by two university friends Kevin Buckley and Matthew Lawlor. It was initially set up to localise and distribute Mandriva Linux software in the European market. Following years of steady growth, Spearline announced a doubling of its workforce in 2016 and a major investment programme with the assistance of Enterprise Ireland. Spearline now employs 50 people and provides a full range of end to end testing solutions for large multinational customers through the Spearline Platform, and has a local presence in 60 countries globally.

CEO and co-founder of Spearline, Kevin Buckley, is of course a past-pupil of St Fachtna’s High School. His company has now bought his old school and he’s going to set up business there. How cool is that? (more…)

On Thursday evening, October 26^th 2017, William Casey delivered a talk to Skibbereen & District Historical Society, at the West Cork Hotel.

The talk, ‘Skibbereen Fenians’, was very informative and was received with great attention by the large attendance.

William is a very accomplished and confident speaker and his talks are always most informative and enjoyable. As well as being an outstanding speaker, William writes with great authority and depth of knowledge and has contributed very generously to the Skibbereen & District Historical Society journals over the years.

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THERE was a very emotional occasion recently for Cape Clear residents as Chuck and Nell Kruger bid farewell to their island home of 25 years.

Americans Chuck and Nell regarded Cape Clear as their home. They first saw Cape Clear in 1986 and both fell in love with the rugged landscape, and felt a spiritual connection with the island right from the start. They moved permanently to Cape Clear in 1992 having purchased 60 acres of land.

As to why the couple chose to live on Cape Clear for 25 years, Chuck simply said: “Cape choose us.”

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