Woodworking College & Crossing the Shannon

January 18, 2011 Maggie's Malarkey


This morning we walked to Letterfrack which is about 3 miles away from Tully Cross. When we got to Letterfrack, we went on a tour of the Furniture Cottage in Letterfrack. Woodworking College. The students there are studying how to make furniture and also how to teach others how to make furniture. Our tour guide was a first year student and he took us to see the large machine hall with the various machines they use to create their furniture, the library and also a room where they have classes. After our tour we had a delicious soup, sandwich and tea lunch in their canteen. 


After lunch we went on a tour of the Connemara West Association. This was started some 38 years ago as an attempt to bring the community together and better it as well. They began by collecting donations from local community members and then no matter how much someone donated, if you donated anything at all, you became an equal shareholder in Connemara West. One of their first projects was building the cottages Aquinas students now stay in. The cottages were built by volunteers most of whom we encounter on almost a daily basis without even knowing it. The people around this area who are shareholders feel that they own the cottages, rightfully so, and they will park in the lot in front of my cottage or the other cottages if they come to Tully Cross for mass or any other event. We also toured the radio station which is run totally by volunteers and two full time staff members. The radio station runs from 11am until 9pm and since they are a local organization run by volunteers, they are not allowed to play national advertisements and therefore must run advertisements for local businesses and hope it is enough money to keep the radio station running.  We also visited the Youth Center which specializes in offering “Early School Leavers” a second change at an education and being a productive member of society. Most of their students have learning disabilities such as dyslexia and therefore need the help they receive at this alternative school. The students are provided with small group and even in some cases individual tutoring outside the large group instruction, they have art class as well as shop class and a computer lab. A project the students are currently working on is establishing and maintaining a garden. The director at the school mentioned how gardening is something no one seems to do anymore and it is there hope the students will want to have their own gardens and know how to properly maintain and care for it. We also visited the children’s day care center where the students are divided into three categories “Babies, Wobblers, and Toddlers.” I think the name “wobblers” is absolutely adorable. Our final stop was to a local restoration and conservation workshop in the village. The man who owns that company works on various projects that are brought to him. The coolest project he showed us was a late 17^th century cabinet and writing desk which had been stolen from the owners of it in the 1990’s and had been severely damaged by a water leak where the thieves kept it.



We walked back from Letterfrack to Tully Cross and then quickly changed and went to Clifden for a concert. The name of the concert tour was “Crossing the Shannon,” there were three men and one woman in the group. The woman sang and played the fiddle and the men played various instruments from the guitar to the flute and the fiddle. The four of them sat in chairs on a stage in a small theater complex. Besides being freezing cold, it was an amazing concert. What made it so unique is that they stopped to explain where each song came from and who originally recorded it or where they learned it from, you do not get that in America very often. They played music from all over Ireland, mostly from where they were from but it was all astounding. There were some songs that had no words and other songs the woman sang, and her voice was beautiful. I love Irish music and am so excited we got to go to a concert.


It was a busy day, but a lot of fun!