This past Thursday, our Village was honoured to play host to the national Pride of Place judges, Tim Caffrey & Eddie Sheehy, while Kerry County Council was represented by Liz O’Donnell.
Our nomination for this award is the culmination of all our community’s work & the many projects brought to fruition, particularly since the creation of our 5-year Development Plan.
A special well done to the organising committee of John Kennedy, Mary Mulvihill, Lorraine McElligott, Fiona Enright & Eoin Kennedy for leaving no stone unturned in the build-up to the 3-hour judge’s visit, ensuring the village was looking its best & in preparing the 30-minute presentation.
Before thanking each of our speakers at the places we visited for their valuable contributions, we want to pass on our deepest sympathy to the family of Tom Breen, who very sadly passed away this morning. May he rest in peace.
Tom played his part speaking on the day, along with his wife Josie, Ann Collins, Dave Griffin, Martin Stack, Fergie O’Connor, Tom Kennedy, Michelle Sheehy, Maureen Walsh, Aine Kennedy & Maggie Kenny.
Also, a massive thanks to the huge number of people who have helped carry out all the work we have undertaken, most recently in poor weather conditions to prepare for the judges visit.
We were delighted to have our local Councillors Aoife Thornton, Mike Foley, Jimmy Moloney & Robert Beasley attend on Thursday afternoon & thank them for their very kind words. We also acknowledge Tom Barry & Mike Kennelly being unable to attend. A big thank you to Super Valu for the sandwiches & to Denise Scanlan for her lovely desserts.
It was a brilliant few hours, where our community turned out in force on a Thursday afternoon, for which we are very grateful. We showcased highlights of the work our community has carried out & supported since the Development was established. They were even treated to a fine rendition of the ‘Village of Asdee’ by Mary O’Connor.
The presentation & welcome by our community was heartily complimented by both judges. This was the result of many people putting in trojan work, but it is only right to highlight the amount of work & time put in by our Secretary, Mary Mulvihill. Mary showed her professional expertise to put together a presentation we could all be proud of & spent many hours going over the finer details of the visit to ensure as much as possible was covered.
We have put together the video below of each project carried out, up to & including the presentation on Thursday. As we’ve seen again today, these memories & what we have is to be cherished, it can all change in a second.
The results of the Pride of Place will be announced on the 9th of November at an event in Armagh.