Medieval trail helps town celebrate heritage week

A MEDIEVAL ‘inn trail’ and a Walled Towns evening will take place in Clonmel as part of heritage week.

This coming weekend’s Festiveal Cluain Meala will get under way at the historic Old St Mary’s Church near the town centre with a performance by Micheál Ó Súilleabháin and Banna Chluain Meala.

Medieval costumes will be available for the Medieval Inn Trail, which follows the concert on the Friday night.

Meanwhile, the emphasis on Saturday is on free family fun as part of the Clonmel Walled Towns evening at the Gordon Place Carpark, beside the town walls.

Entertainment includes medieval jousting, combat school, workshops, best medieval dressed competition and reenactments.

During the festivities a ticketed medieval-themed banquet will be served and a limited number of tickets are being sold locally.

A Tipperary Breakfast featuring locally-sourced produce takes place at Hearn’s Hotel on the Sunday morning, along with a celebration of food and farming at the famous Main Guard as well as along the adjacent Sarsfield Street and the quay.

This will incorporate free events from 12 noon, including craft stalls, workshops, exhibitions, music, willow-fencing, butter-making, beekeepers, stocks and a blacksmith.

Coinciding with the festival but already up and running is a Clonmel Business and Industries exhibition which is on display at the Main Guard until September 10.

The work of staff at the South Tipperary County Museum, as well as the South Tipperary County Archives, this gives visitors a snap shot of Clonmel’s businesses and industries over the centuries.

Through the ages Clonmel was an important industrial hub and commercial centre and this exhibition recalls iconic industries based in the area and covers themes such as dairying, milling, banking, transport, brewing, retail, drapery, food production and general merchants.

Included are postcards, billheads and photographs depicting various industries and trades based in Clonmel, along with significant objects such as bottles from Murphy’s and Magners breweries, alongside items from Burke’s Bacon, the Princess Garage, O’Gorman’s coach-building and more.

Michael Lavin, from the Transport Museum, and Anthony Landers have donated some of the artifacts to the exhibition, admission to which is free.

Meanwhile, former RTÉ cameraman and well-known photographer Donal Wylde’s exhibition, The Light of Other Days, is still running in South Tipperary County Museum.

Sales of his book of the same name are reported to be brisk but some signed copies remain at the museum and local bookshops.

*www.heritageweek.ie.