As a strong and sincere outpouring of sympathy was felt throughout the Avondhu area for the victims of the terrible bomb blast in Omagh, rumours abounded and concerns were being expressed that one of the leading members of the dissident group was a resident of the Fermoy area.
This had been spoken about for some time but it was not until the Omagh tragedy made worldwide headlines that it had come more into the open.
Callers to The Avondhu office said the message should be sent loud and clear to this individual that this despicable act would never be forgiven or indeed forgotten. The general consensus was that his presence in the area was not acceptable.
A Book of Condolence was opened at the Courthouse by Fermoy UDC, with a large number of people using it as a way of expressing their solidarity.
“This allows people in Fermoy to show solidarity with the people of Omagh,” said town clerk Michael Cremin. “The whole barbaric nature of what occurred seems to have touched a nerve with everybody,” he said.
Most people were at a loss for words following the news and images. Some signed their condolences simply with ‘sincere sympathy’, ‘heartfelt sympathy and prayers’ or ‘our thoughts and prayers are with you’.
Leaving Cert
The majority of Leaving Certificate students who collected their results were very pleased, according to a number of secondary school principals in the area.
The headlines concerning the high failure rates in Science papers in the press were not reflected in overall very good results. In fact, the press coverage only served to fill some students with an unnecessary dread of collecting their results.
Remarkably, two students in North Cork received six straight A’s in higher level papers.
Labour Party Selection Convention
Fermoy based Tadhg O’Donovan, a member of the General Council of the Labour party, was the unanimous choice of delegates at the Labour party selection convention held to nominate a candidate to contest the newly created Fermoy electoral area. Labour party general secretary Ray Kavanagh, presided over the convention.
O’Donovan was seen as having experience, having served on various groups and organisations at both national and local level. Initially going into public life back in 1979, he first held a seat for the Workers Party and subsequently for the Labour party on Fermoy UDC up until 1994.
Glanrock
Glanrock ’98 started with the arrival of the winners of the County Sound 103FM free ticket competition. The winners were collected from Mallow by helicopter and flown to the helicopter pad at Glanworth Mill.
This was followed by a display from the Bahamas parachute teams who were guests at the mill. It was a spectacular opening to what turned out to be a sensational night of entertainment in Glanworth.
After solid performances by several local bands, the night really started rocking with a great set from Strand.
As darkness fell the light show really took over as Primordial blew the crowd away with very heavy metal. An Emotional Fish lived up to their reputation of involving the crowd with their innovative act.
The night was then taken to new heights with the appearance on stage of Aslan. From the first blazing guitar chords through a hit filled set to a stunning finale, Christy Dignam and the boys left everyone in no doubt that they were still one of the best live bands around.
In Sport
For the second year running Killavullen won division 1 of the Avondhu football league at Buttevant. Although playing against a stiff breeze Killavullen were fortunate to get two goals in the 4th and 5th minutes from Ian O’Driscoll, but Deel Rovers (Milford) with six well taken points were only two points behind after 15 minutes.
David Hartnett gave Killavullen a cushion with a goal and before half-time, brothers Ian and Alan O’Driscoll added two more.
The half-time score was 5-05 to 0-09 and with the wind at their backs, Killavullen kept up the pressure and scored another 1-06, before Milford added to their tally after 15 minutes of the second half. The final score was Killavullen 6-16 Deel Rovers 0-11.
The Fitzgerald Cup was presented to captain Martin Carroll by Avondhu Board Development Officer John Fitzgerald.
