West Cork town’s tributes to son Sam Maguire get RTÉ airing

By Áilín Quinlan

The pride of a West Cork town, through one of its most famous sons, is to feature early in September in an episode of the RTÉ series Nationwide.

Dunmanway’s tributes to sportsman and patriot Sam Maguire, who lies buried in a local churchyard and after whom the All-Ireland senior football championship cup is named, have led to two books about his life, the installation of some €60,000 worth of bells in a local church, and a video about their installation, The Sam Maguire Community Bells.

Added to that, Maguire’s statue stands in the town square while his life was the focus of a recent summer drama workshop for local children.

After the 30-minute video, by local filmmaker Brendan Hayes, was launched in June, and screened at the recent West Cork History Festival, it was submitted for consideration to RTÉ.

In mid-August, a crew from Nationwide arrived in the town to film a programme around the town’s many tributes to Maguire. The episode is expected to be aired in early September.

They came back and said they were very impressed by the video. They wanted to take their own slant on the topic,” said Mr Hayes.

“The Nationwide crew came down on Tuesday, August 14, and did a full day’s filming,” he said, pointing out that the RTÉ team interviewed a variety of people involved in ensuring the town never forgets its famous son.

These included authors Margaret Walsh and Kieran Connolly who have written about Maguire, as well as Brendan Hayes and Church of Ireland cleric Rev Cliff Jeffers, in whose church the bells were installed.

Along with local expert Martin Hough, Rev Jeffers holds tutorials between 7.30pm and 9pm every Wednesday on how to harmoniously ring the eight bells at the historic St Mary’s bell-tower in the town.

The bells were specially installed in St Mary’s Church last year at a cost of around €58,000, under a project which was funded through a mix of local fundraising and donations from organisations like the GAA, Cork County Council, and church charities.

“The theme of the Nationwide episode is the many tributes that have been paid locally to Sam Maguire,” said Mr Hayes.