Menu

tag

The Dermot Earley Youth Leadership Initiative

 

 Ceol, Craic agus Caint. Fancy Dress Competition (Primary school children),Entertainment, Refreshments and Raffle.

Sunday,  March 16th 3pm -5pm in Kilteevan Community Centre. Admission Free. All Welcome.

Initiated and led by fifteen year old LAURA CROGHAN with the proud support of Kilteevan Community Development Group Ltd. and St Joseph's GAA Club.

Please note the event is taking place on Sunday March 16th 

 

 

 

Read more...

President of EALM

 

Congratulations to Kilteevan man, Michael Spellman, who has been elected President of the European Association of Livestock Markets (EALM). The European body represents 14 national federations and over 600 livestock marts and is responsible for the sale of about 35 million cattle, sheep, pigs and horses annually .

Michael is currently in his second term of office as chairman of the National Marts Committee of the Irish Co-operative Organisation Society Ltd. He is also a Board member of Roscommon Livestock Mart.

Good luck to Michael in his new position.

Read more...

Good Luck to Fuerty

Good luck to the Fuerty team in the All ireland Junior Club Football Final in Croke Park next Sunday.

To reach the final is a wonderful achievement . All in Kilteevan hope that you cross the final hurdle on Sunday and return to the county as All Ireland Champions. Fuerty Abú!

Read more...

Our Irish Heritage

Today February 1st is St Brigid’s day.

St. Brigid was born in AD 450 in Faughart, near Dundalk in Co. Louth.

St Brigid is associated with the early church (now a ruin) in the graveyard in Cloontogher, Kilteevan.

Making a St. Brigid’s cross is one of the traditional rituals in Ireland to celebrate the beginning of early spring, 1st February.  Across Ireland some people still adhere to the old tradition of placing a St Brigid’s cross in a place of honour in their home, to protect against fire and evil spirits.

The cross is most frequently made from rushes The rushes are pulled rather than cut. A distinctive square of woven rushes is the centerpiece, from which four radials extend, each tied at the end.

According to tradition, a new cross was made each St Brigid's Day to protect the house. Many homes preserved several crosses in the ceiling believing it was a good way to protect the home. Fire was always a major threat in houses with thatch and wooden roofs in former times.

St. Brigid and her cross are linked together by the story that she wove this form of cross at the death bed of either her father or a pagan lord, who upon hearing what the cross meant, asked to be baptised.

One version of the story relates that a pagan chieftain from the neighborhood of Kildare was dying. Christians in his household sent for Brigid to talk to him about Christ. When she arrived the chieftain was raving. As it was impossible to instruct this delirious man, hopes for his conversion seemed doubtful. Brigid sat down at his bedside and began consoling him. As she sat by his bedside, trying to calm and console him, she picked up some of the rushes which were strewn across the floor of the room. As her fingers played with the dry strands, she started weaving them together, eventually forming a cross.

As she worked she explained the meaning of the cross to the sick man. Her calming words brought peace to his soul. The chieftain’s fever broke, and he grew quiet. Captivated by her lesson of love and enlightenment, the old chieftain was baptised as a Christian, just before his death.

The word of his conversion spread very fast. Ever since, Irish people have made rush crosses to commemorate the occasion.

St.  Brigid died in AD 525 at the age of 75.

Read more...

Lesser Celandine Awakens ;The Spring Messenger is Here

Lesser Celandine, Grán arcáin

This one of the earliest Spring flowers to raise its head therefore it is sometimes known as The Spring Messenger. One, cheery, star like flower was spotted in Kilteevan this week. Rejoice!

The plant is a hairless perennial with shiny, narrow, yellow, 8-12 petalled flowers.

It blooms in woods, by rivers, in hedge-banks and roadsides usually between February and May. The blossoms close up before rain. Even in fine weather it does not open before 9 a.m. and by 5 p.m. it has already closed for the night.

It is a native plant and it belongs to the family Ranunculaceae. It is found throughout Europe ,West Asia and North Africa.

Celandine is widely referred to in literature.

The poet, William Wordsworth was very fond of this flower and refers to it in some of his poems. He wanted the flower carved on his tombstone.

CS. Lewis, J.R Tolkien, and  D H Lawrence also refer to celandines in their work.

Look out for this little beauty in our hedgerows over the next few months.

Read more...

Successful Social Dancing Night

 

Kilteevan Community Development Group and friends of Kilteevan Community Centre wish to thank all who attended or supported our Social Dance held in the Community Centre on Friday night January 17th last.

The event was very enjoyable and hugely successful.  Liam Mannering and his wonderful band ensured the floor was continually full of lively, happy feet.

Given the positive response received on the night and since, a further dance is being planned for March. Details will be available in the next few weeks.

Social dancing is gaining popularity in recent times and for good reasons.

Kilteevan Community Group is conscious of the fact that dancing is more than a social activity.  Recent research indicates that dancing has a positive impact on a health and well-being.Dancing can significantly reduce the risk of health conditions, such as heart disease, high blood pressure, and weight gain. Dancing the night away can burn more calories per hour than cycling a bike or swimming.

In today's stressful world, the social aspects of ballroom dancing combined with the physical exercise of moving across the floor provides one of the most effective stress releases of any recreational activity.

Watch out for our next event and in the meantime get out those dancing shoes and start practising for Kilteevan Community Centre’s next Social Dancing night.

Finally, a word of advice !

Read more...

An Air of Sadness Lingers in Kilteevan

On January 9th John Mooney, an esteemed and respected community member died.  An air of sadness hung over Kilteevan last weekend as word spread around the community that “Our Man The Century” had quietly slipped away, just ten weeks from celebrating his 100th birthday.

John, beloved husband of the late Kathleen was a quiet spoken man, a true gentleman and a family man.  He was a very sociable person who enjoyed company and always had a hearty welcome for everyone. He was most generous with his time as many of us drew upon his wisdom and knowledge. John’s willingness to share his memories with us has left a legacy for future generations.

Read more...

Kilteevan Community Development Group Limited Reflections on 2012/2013

 

 

2012 /2013 was a busy and successful year for the company and we want to acknowledge and thank you all for your support during the past year.

Two new members joined our company in 2013, Fiona Coen and Michael Coyle. We are grateful for their work in 2013 and appreciate their becoming Company Directors.

In November 20I2, in co-operation with St Joseph’s GAA club, as part of the GAA Social Initiative, we had our Community trip to Belfast.  We will never forget the hospitality of the members of An Lámh Dhearg club Belfast!

Outside City Hall Belfast

 

Arising from the RTE John Murray show in December, renowned singer Mick Hanly performed an outstanding and intimate concert in the Community Centre.  Will we ever forget our moment of darkness before Mick started his show!!! We now have  Phase 3 electricity installed in the building.  Mick stayed in the community and left a lasting impression.

We also produced the first Kilteevan monthly calendar with images of Kilteevan. This proved to be a big hit at home and with the Kilteevan community abroad.

The decision to apply for funding from Roscommon Leader Partnership Company under the EU Rural Development Programme 2007- 2013 before it drew to a close increased the number of meetings and the workload on all of us.

Despite the short time frame and the challenging application and tendering process our applications were successful. While these projects added considerably to the work output of the company for the past year, it was undoubtedly worthwhile.

Early in 2013, we established Kilteevan Green Fingers Club and there is no doubt the members did great work on the community flower beds.

Will we ever forget the hype in April over Tom Cruise and the media talk of a visit to Kilteevan?  There were radio interviews, newspaper articles and other media activity in relation to Tom Cruise and the Kilteevan link. Well done Fiona Coen and Sean Mooney for their handling of the media hype.

In April 2013 we hosted our Wisdom Years party.  During the party there was a presentation by Seamus Hayden, former All Ireland winning captain to Andy Hanly.  Andy received a specially typed and bound copy of his GAA memories from the 1940’s golden era. Andy’s work was edited by Hazel Ryan.We continue to encourage our senior citizens to write their memoirs and to share them and any old photographs they have with us for future projects.

 

In June,again with the support of St Joseph's we organised a community night out to The Dogs in Mullingar.  This proved to be a great success and some well know punters among us displayed a great knowledge of greyhounds and greyhound form!!!

We will all remember 2013 for The Gathering Ireland.  The presence of Owen, John and Tom Brennan added something very special to our celebrations in August.  We made national and international news.  Approximately 18 people from the United States came to Roscommon for our Gathering. We can be very proud of our contribution to The Gathering Ireland 2013.

Other highlights of 2013 included 

  • Launch of Kilteevan Heritage Trail
  • Development of Kilteevan Community Website and facebook page,
  • Launch of Kilteevan 3yr Strategic Plan
  • Development of our new Logo- the spotted orchid.

We participated in National Heritage Week for the first time.  Hopefully this will continue to be a feature of our annual events.

In November 2013, we brought the years activity to a close with the publication of Kilteevan native, Sr Kathleen Glennon’s book A Sense of Place; Reflections on the Boglands of Kilteevan.  Senator Katherine Zappone and Dr Ann Louise Gilligan launched the book to a packed attendance in the community Centre.

The community spirit that exists in Kilteevan was the talk of the town and county in 2013.  People commented widely on our successes. This reflects well on our company and our community and it is something we should be proud of.

We look to 2014 with confidence and hope we can continue to develop community activities for the betterment of our community. We hope that the projects that were brought to fruition in 2013 will benefit the community.

Sincere thanks to everyone who assisted in any way during this hugely successful year and we look forward to your continued support and assistance in the coming year.

 

Read more...
Subscribe to this RSS feed

Contact Us

KILTEEVAN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT GROUP LIMITED
Kilteevan, Roscommon, Co. Roscommon
[email protected]

 

KILTEEVAN TIDY TOWNS
[email protected] 

http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/index_en.htm
http://www.environ.ie/en/Community/RuralDevelopment/EURuralDevelopment/

This project received grant aid from Roscommon LEADER Partnership Rural Development Programme which is financed by the Irish Government under the Rural Development Programme Ireland 2007-2013 and by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development: Europe investing in Rural Areas.sponsors