A new book celebrating the wonderful elders of Clonmel is launched

There was a full house at the Clonmel Borough Town Hall at a reception hosted by the Mayor ,Cllr Richie Molloy and Clonmel Applefest, bringing together the many participants of the Elders of Clonmel project.

It is the title of a new writing project highlighting the life stories of some of the key older citizens of Clonmel.

As part of this year’s project, the Elders of Clonmel, Applefest have recruited thirteen older people to be interviewed for publication to share stories about their lives growing up in Clonmel and how they see the changes that have happened to Irish society.

Candidates were nominated by a third party who committed to be the liaison person between the older person and the project co-ordinator, so as to ensure transparency and safeguarding.

INTERVIEWS

After a very active callout and robust nomination process, Applefest underwent the difficult task of selecting the thirteen elders to be the subjects of the interviews.

These were then matched with a local writer to share stories of landmark events in their lives as well as musings about our changing lifestyles.

The project is a follow-up from last year’s highly successful Artisans of Clonmel writing project in collaboration with Cashel Arts Festival in which 16 writers wrote about local artisans and their crafts, complemented by beautiful photographs by John D. Kelly.

This year’s project will also be produced into a book, Elders of Clonmel, to be launched as part of Applefest festival on September21 .

The elders comprise of a wide range of backgrounds and professions, including two centenarians, Peg Rossiter and Mary Carri.

The gathering at Clonmel’s Borough Chamber was hosted by the Mayor of Clonmel Richie Molloy at the request of Clonmel Applefest’s director, Theresia Guschlbauer who felt it would be a suitably grand location for such an occasion.

The Mayor of Clonmel Cllr Molloy welcomed all the attendees, the elders and their families as well as the local writers.

Speaking about the history of the Town Hall, the mayor commended the Applefest festival committee on how the Applefest project is a wonderful complement to this by recording the history of people and place, which would otherwise be lost.

PEG ROSSITER

Ms Guschlbauer highlighted the prompt behind the project: “On hearing last year that my old friend Peg Rossiter was about to turn 100 in 2023, I suggested the theme of the elders to the Applefest committee in the knowledge that there were many interesting older people in the area who would have wonderful stories to share about ways of life in Clonmel in the 1950s and 1960s.”

“The selected candidates represented a very wide range of Clonmel society, some barely recorded at all, including teachers, factory workers, shop owners, journalists, international aid workers, and trades people, all of which contributed in their own way to the life and pulse of Irish society,” said Ms Guschlbauer.

“I am delighted with the turnout at this gathering. It was wonderful to put faces to the names of people I had merely spoken to on the phone. I’m very much looking forward to reading the stories of all the people interviewed,” she said.

Ms Guschlbauer also thanked the project co-ordinator Rebecca Lenehan who has been holding all the different strands together as well as the festival committee who were deeply involved as writers, nominators and indeed advisers throughout the project.

The Elders of Clonmel book project should prove to be of immense value in documenting our more recent past.

Funding provided by the Tipperary Festival and Events and Tipperary Age Friendly schemes, as well as government funding from the Arts Council of Ireland funding and Creative Ireland,