Presentation to founder of Age Friendly Roscrea - Anne Keevey

Founder of the thriving and groundbreaking local group Age Friendly Roscrea, Anne Keevey, was honoured at a recent tevent in the group’s headquarters in the former Roscrea Courthouse.

The Rambling House event saw the committee which oversaw Roscrea’s hosting of the Tipperary County Fleadh join in the 10-year celebrations of Age Friedly Roscrea.

Comhaltas members are often in attendance at the regular Rambling House on the first Wednesday of each month but this was a special gathering as part of the Tipperary County Fleadh Cheoil.

There is a strong link between Comhaltas and Age Friendly Roscrea, given that Jack Keevey, Anne Keevey’s father, was one of the founder members of the Roscrea branch of Comhaltas in 1962.

Anne’s mother Mai was also totally dedicated to Irish language and culture. Anne is the person who brought the Age Friendly Roscrea project from concept to reality and the very memorable night included a wealth of music, song and dance.

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Musicians, (some of whom also sang) included Maria Madden, Leah Byrne, Theresa Larkin, Mick Ryan, Peter Redmond and many more.

The ukulele group of Pauline King, Annette Williams, Mary Curtin Delaney, Billy Costello, Marie O’Connor and their leader Fionán Stapleton also participated in the celebrations. Pat Flanagan, secretary of the Fleadh committee was MC for the evening.

Light refreshments were provided by Mary McMahon, Marion Flanagan and Anne Feehan.

In acknowledgement of the 10 years of dedicated service of Age Friendly Roscrea to the local social fabric, Carol Thompson (chair of the Fleadh committee) and Barbara Farrel (chair of the Tipperary Co Board of Comhaltas) presented Anne Keevey and Mary McMahon with a Genesis piece (sourced by Kathryn Browne) aptly titled ‘The Session’ with the inscription ‘where words fail, music speaks’.

In accepting the presentation, Anne was gracious in her acknowledgement of the contribution of many people and agencies, without whose assistance and dedication, the project would not have been possible.