A LIFE TIME’S INVOLVEMENT WITH THE HALL 

by Paddy O’Shea

(Imokilly People 25 Nov 1990) My first experience of the Hall in Aghada was when as a young Since the formation of a Committee in teenager my friends and I used to Aghada Community Centre at a general cycle down from to the meeting, the centre has been a hive of famous Pioneer Socials run by Fr activity. O'Brien CC., who incidentally died last year 2012 at the age of 90. As well as the music Fr. O'Brien While the Centre continues to be used would show slides of landscapes etc. of the Parish. by the Civil Defence on Wednesday (Obviously as a Pioneer Social one had to be a nights and by the Prayer group on pioneer to gain admittance). Lar O'Brien (no Thursday nights the Foróige Youth relation of Fr. O'Briens) was always on the door Club have also resumed after their and had everyone under observation. summer brake. The WAS club is on Monday nights while the JETS most on My next contact with the Hall was when I was Saturday night. organiser of the Scór Competitions in East . Eventually I was also M.C. and Question Master all While the Committee are very happy rolled in to one... The Southern semi-final of the with the way in which the Hall is competition was always held in the Hall in Aghada. operating at present they are very much These were tremendous nights with large crowds aware of the necessity for adequate turning up, the Hall full to capacity and all done heating to enable the Centre to be more under the watchful eye of the Late Willie Ryan. widely used during the winter months. To this end they anticipate having a In 1977 when I had purchased Crowley's Corner central heating system installed in the Shop and moved my family to Aghada, having got very near future. my business up and running. In 1979 1 was invited to go along to a meeting at the Bayview Hall in The A.G.M. will be held at the end of Whitegate where the 44th Aghada Boy Scouts were November and it is hoped that it will be formed and I was elected its first Chairman. We very well attended. The present officers quickly moved to the Hall in Aghada and shortly and committee are as follows Mr. M. after we started a Youth Club. For its time it must Fitzgerald, Chairman Mr. Tom have been one of the first to have a youth committee Cashman, Vice Chairman, Mrs. as well as an adult committee and it worked very Assumpta O'Brien Secretary; Mr. well. Michael O'Brien Treasurer; Mrs. Ann Connolly, Assistant Treasurer; Ms. We were in the process of holding a function and Mary Cashman PRO. Committee Mrs. had to get the Fire Chiefs advice, when he arrived Breda Cashman, Mrs. Maggie Brosnan, he condemned the Hall for any activity and said Mr. John Higgins Mr. Tom Lane, Mr. that it should be closed down. Fr. Terry, now Very Tom McCormack, Rev. Canon, was the C.C. in Saleen at the time and was a man very knowledgeable about building. We approached him and he did a plan for a new Community Centre. All we then needed was the money.

  The E.S.B. Power Station was built some years before and I was aware that a development charge would be levied on them and would be paid to the Local Authority. I went to the County Hall on a number of occasions and had to satisfy them of my credentials but eventually they agreed to supervise the building and extend £16,000 to us. They also appointed an Engineer to supervise the work on their behalf. I approached ANCO (now FAS) and after a lot of negotiations they agreed to come on board to build the Community Centre.

They appointed their own Engineer and a Foreman for the construction. We employed our own Foreman Reggie Maguire of Shanagarry.

The construction took approx. 2 years with a lot of ups and downs. The old Hall had to be knocked and cleared and it is a great credit to the hard working committee and the Parish Community for getting on with the task. The local men and Farming community gave of their time and machinery and the site was cleared ready to build. Then it was the task of the women, who organised and helped to raise funds through Rallies, Jumble Sales (I suppose they are now known as car boot sales) and lots more.

It was officially opened by Mr Paddy Hegarty T.D. Minister for State at the time, and blessed by Very Rev. Canon John Aherne P.P. and the Rev Graeme Cooke Presbyterian Minister.

Our efforts of 30 odd years ago I think served the Community well, and I hope the new building will serve the coming generation for many many years to come.

Some facebook comments

Maggie Rath (Lee) I have great memories of Aghada Hall. The walk back to Whitegate afterwards was often just as much fun! Songs by the Bee Gees bring back particularly good times!!

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Eugene O'Leary "The Hilltop Band" also played there. Johnny Sullivan on drums, Tony Hornibrook on accordion and Denis O'Leary on harmonica. Those were the days! Slow waltz, Quick-step, Walls of Limerick, and the Tango.

Don't forget the movies ("The pictures") every Sunday night, brought to Aghada hall by Tommy Archer from Ballycotton. Better than the ones in Whitegate which were known as "Pat Barrett's Breakdowns!" ("Ladies and gentlemen, the next song now will be a dance by Marie Kelly and Jimmy O'Leary") Great memories.

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Billy Fitzpatrick Yeah, surely everybody (over 66!) must remember Marcelino, the boy who got bitten by a scorpion?? I'm talking movie here

! "# TWELVE YEAR’S IN THE CHAIR (Imokilly People 5th May 1994) COMMUNITY CENTRE AGM

A very successful AGM of the Aghada Community Centre was held on March 25th. Apart from the standing administration committee of the centre a good number of interested people from the wider Community By Austin Brosnan attended. After the reports of the Chairman, Treasurer, and Secretary were read and ratified an interesting discussion took place re such My first experience of the matters as the future use of the centre to facilitate the community, the hall in Aghada is attending possibility of establishing a Community Alert Programme and also the a circus as a young lad on a need for a Community Council in the Parish. visit from Kerry to Batty Cronin’s. The trapezes It was clear from the discussion that took place that Aghada needs some artists swung of the beams of the hall. type of Community Association to identify and correct the felt needs of different sections of the population of the area. Later I was honored to be chairman of Aghada A new administration committee was elected as follows, Chairman Community Hall for over 12 Austin Brosnan, Vice Chairman Jenny Kennedy, Treasurer Ann years from the 1990's to the Connolly, Assistant Treasurer Penny Fitzgerald, Secretary, and PRO: early 2000's. The hall Stephanie Wall. Assistant Secretary: Assumpta O'Brien. Committee: Fr. committee were very Casey PP., Con Brosnan, Breda Cashman, Maria Higgins, and Mary committed hard working Cashman. The next meeting of the administration committee Will be people who gave their time hold on next Saturday 7th May to discuss how best to proceed with the and experience to maintain setting up of a Parish Community Council as soon as possible the hall for all the events.

!"#$%&''()*+$,'+)-.)/0()-..12))) For that period, it was a very busy MEETING TO SET UP COMMUNITY COUNCIL hall. We used to hold discos every month and their success was Fr. Casey expressed his delight at this excellent representation in his enormous with people coming from as opening remarks as Chairman. He then introduced the first speaker, far away as Tallow, and becoming so popular that we Mr. Richard Prendergast, Community Development Officer, Cork had to cancel them due to crowd County Federation, Muintir na Tire. control at the time!. Mr. Jerry Cronin, Chairman of Cloyne Development Association then spoke of the benefits that a Community Council would bring We hosted cookery demonstrations, concerts, fashion shows, table quizzes for the area. and of course the American tea Following Mr. Cronin's talk, Mr. Prendergast then advised the parties were the backbone of the hall establishment of a steering committee from those people present financially for many years creating and the members of that committee are as follows: Denis O'Leary, many great nights. The room upstairs Irene Prendergast, Maurice O'Neill, Willie Cunningham, Maurice was used every Thursday night for the prayer group and every day for a pre- Cashman, Donie Layne, Jerry Wafer, Ann O'Shea, Pat Foley, Torn school. Morrissey, Noel O’Keeffe, and Frances Creedon. This committee will meet on next Monday night to further the good work. The Sunday evening that Marion Terrace burned down the whole community met that evening in the hall and a plan of action was hatched as the local community got behind the people of Marion Terrace in their our of need.

During this time, we had three very memorable and special once off nights for the retirement of the late Dr Murphy and Rev Fr Casey PP and also a party for the retirement of the former principal of Scoil Iosagain, Tomas Ó Gormáin. I wish to congratulate the Community Council on the new Hall and wishing them the best of luck on securing it for the future generations to come.

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