World War 1 Centenary Weekend

Wonderful Centenary Weekend at Ardmore.

The weather smiled on us in Ardmore to facilitate what was a wonderful, historic weekend. Firstly, on St Patrick’s morning a huge crowd turned out to witness the children of Ardmore and Grange National schools perform a brilliant and moving pageant which re-enacted the arrival of the stricken crew of The Folia in Ardmore on March 11th 1917. When they arrived at the church gates the two Officers, Lt Darragh Broderick & Lt Aoife Murray called the roll and only then did they realise that they had lost 7 crew members, presumably killed in the explosion when the U53 torpedo hit The Folia.
Speaking on behalf of Ardmore Tidy Towns, Billy Harty thanked Waterford Council and especially John Manahan and his staff for their cooperation and help in preparing for this event. He also thanked the parents, teachers and children of Ardmore & Grange National Schools for their interest and involvement and also Bernard Stilwell for the huge effort and help he gave to make the whole weekend possible. Of course special thanks was reserved for divers Eoin McGarry, Gavin Tivy and Pat Waide who made the whole thing happen by recovering The Gun and restoring it and, against many odds, so generously donating it to the village of Ardmore. This work started way back in 2013.
We prayed in silence for a moment in remembrance of all who were present here on March 11th 1917 as well as for absent friends and especially for the families and crew of Rescue 116. Then Peggy Keevers, assisted by lead diver, Eoin McGarry cut the ribbon and unveiled the hugely impressive gun that will form an historic part of Ardmore’s street furniture henceforth.
On Saturday night, at St Declan’s Hall, Eoin McGarry delivered a brilliant talk and slide and video show detailing the history of The Folia and how the gun was found, recovered and restored. This very well attended event had a huge effect on the audience and was a perfect prelude to Sunday’s exhibition of writings, photographs and artefacts.
Visitors from far and wide were among the crowds who flocked to the hall to browse over the huge variety of pictures and articles produced mainly by Herbert Mundler, Des & Kay Fitzgerald and Lindsey Prendergast. A wide variety of most interesting artefacts were exhibited by divers Eoin McGarry, Pat Waide and Gavin Tivy and local people Peggy Keevers, Claire Mooney, John Power, Padraig Ó Foghlú, Michael O’Brien, Desmond Connery and Michael Lynch.
Among the visitors were Sean & June McGuire from Newport in Wales who came to represent their town as one of the 7 crewmen lost on The Folia was from Newport. Our sincere thanks to everyone who helped make this wonderful and historic once in a lifetime weekends possible, not least the ladies who made the tea and coffee and those who very generously made sandwiches and donated cakes & scones.

Please see our galery section for some photos from the event courtesy of Mike O Brien.