This article is from page 30 of the 2007-08-28 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 30 JPG
THE hidden life of Michael Cusack will be the subject of a series of half-hour talks taking place over the next few day in Carron. The talks, which take place at the newly opened Michael Cusack Centre, have been organised to coincide with this year’s National Heritage Week.
While much is known about the sporting achievements of Carron’s most famous son, comparatively lit- tle is known about his interesting and often times, tragic life outside the GAA.
“We will specifically focus on parts of his private life rather than just the GAA aspect to it. A lot of people don’t realise that his early life story
is very much intertwined with edu- cation and living up here in the Bur- ren,’ said Paddy Maher of the Carron Oise
Also under scrutiny will be his later years, which involved a lot of fam- ily tragedy, but also saw him lead a fascinating life in Dublin, where he met up with James Joyce and was involved with the revival of the Irish language. Also explored will be his quite liberal opinions of labour and how people were treated.
“He had a quite open-minded atti- tude on the way that life should be lived in Ireland,’ said Paddy Maher.
The lectures will take place throughout Heritage Week at 3pm daily and will last for approximately half an hour. The admission cost of
€2.50 includes a visit to the restored Cusack homestead. The Michael Cu- sack Centre has enjoyed great success since in opened in Easter with some 5,000 registered visitors to date.
‘We have been delighted with visi- tor numbers over the last couple of months. So far it has predominately been Irish people who have visited, but we have also had a few trial schools packages, which will be a big thing from September,” contin- ued Paddy.
“We are working on a couple of initiatives over the next three years. We are looking at creating more in- teractive facilities for kids when they come to visit. We are look at creat- ing an all weather pitch where young people, and indeed older people, can
go and test their skills in football and ova bberee
We also want to finish the inside of Michael Cusack cottage, includ- ing the restoration of some famine artifacts plus, we are looking at the possibility of hosting coaching semi- nars during the winter. We are look- ing at running sports physiology and general coaching courses for people involved in the coaching side of the GAA.”
For further information contact the Michael Cusack Centre on 065 eee