Description
The news and stories that occurred in 2019, 2020, 2021 & 2022 in Castleconnell, Ahane, Montpelier Co.Limerick
It was summer 2021, when we received a telephone call asking if we would be interested in taking over the production of An Caisleán. Of course, we all said ‘Yes’ and agreed that Castleconnell must not lose this annual record of events, achievements and everyday life in our beautiful village.
Although we were sad to see the An Caisleán Committee stepping down after a magnificent 20 years, what a legacy they have left us … and what a lot we had to live up to! We would sincerely like to thank them not only for all their hard work over the years, but also for making the handover so seamless. The main challenges we faced were in trying to ensure that no one was excluded from the publication, but we realised this was a very difficult endeavour, and with our greatest efforts we are sure we haven’t including everything! So we felt the best way to safeguard this in the future is to hand the power back to you, the people of the locality! We wanted to bring the publication up to speed with modern technology, and so www.lovecastleconnell.com was born.
The marriage of the publication to the website was a no-brainer and we felt it was an amazing way to bring the publication up-to-date with modern times, while creating a valuable resource for locals and visitors alike. The website is a user-driven platform that allows business and community groups, including sports clubs and non-profit organisations to create a membership and then add their profile to the directory listing on the website.
It will also allow members to add events to the calendar ensuring there is no clashing of important dates. A very important element of the website is the Contributors area. This is an area where approved members can add their own stories, news and opinion pieces to the website in real-time, thus creating a database of information where we can capture the relevant content for future editions of An Caisleán. This year we added a Local Directory to the publication with important contact information for businesses and services, schools and crèches, community and sporting groups. Our thanks to all who responded to the callout. We hope this will become a useful community resource in future years, and our apologies to all those we missed this year. This directory will be created in future publications off the back of the website so we urge everyone to add their profile to the website.
www.lovecastleconnell.com/join
We were only too aware that, due to the pandemic, there was four years worth of news and stories waiting to be told. However, we decided our focus should be 2022 so as well as including club, school and community news, we have told the story of the new owl sculpture at the riverside, the new outdoor gym, and our two new cafes. We have highlighted community achievements and events and asked our new Ukrainian residents to tell us their story. And finally, we must offer congratulations to our hardworking Tidy Towns group who have had a year of success culminating in winning a Bronze Medal in the national competition for the fourth year in a row.
