Fermoy Enterprise Board marked a significant milestone this week, when members gathered at the Community Youth Centre on Monday night, reflecting on 30 years of voluntary effort for the good of the town.
Monday’s gathering coincided with the date of the actual first meeting, by invitation, back on September 26th 1986, in the empty Beehive plant, located on Rathealy Road, on a site purchased by Cork County Council.
Those present on that historic day were chosen for being involved in the basic sphere of economics locally, who were prepared to work together on a voluntary basis.
Present at the first meeting in 1986 were the following individuals, in no particular order: Joe Slattery (Slattery Travel), Joe Murphy (Pearse Square), Liam Donnelly and Barry Connolly (Moorepark), Dick Collins (FBA), Ned O’Keeffe TD, Michael Cremin (town clerk), Jim Bartley (Bartley Insurance), Lynn Glascoe (craft industry), John McAleer (Cork County Council), Brian Carroll (Carroll Sols), Seamus Feehan (local youth co-ordination), Tim Duggan (publican), Stephen Randles (manager Castlelyons Co-Op), Tom Cooney (manager Bank of Ireland), Tim O’Sullivan (manager AIB), Martin Joyce (manager Woodfab), Frank Donaldson (Cork Kerry Tourism) and Bob Farrell (town engineer).
While the Fermoy Enterprise Board has been the centre of some criticism through the years, chairperson Michael Hanley will exclusively outline to The Avondhu over the coming weeks, why works undertaken by the Board, from the word go, had to be confidential.
