14th Annual George Brown Memorial Event 2021

 

The fourteenth annual George Brown Commemoration was held in resplendent sun-drenched Woodstock Gardens on Saturday 17 July with open-air music performances, a wreath-laying and a tree planting.

 

The pandemic has severely restricted the scope of the commemoration over the last two years. Events in 2020 centred on a gathering of committee members for a wreath-laying at the George Brown plaque in St Colmcille’s graveyard in Inistioge. This year, the focus switched to Woodstock Gardens where the ‘Olive Grove’ is located. Committee members, family and friends assembled outside the recently re-opened Tea Rooms where entertainment was provided by Terry Bannon (banjo and vocals) and Steffi Goulde (violin). The session finished with a song composed by Terry and his friend Jim Kelly in memory of George Brown, set to the air of ‘The Bantry Girl’s Lament’, which speaks of ‘the boy from Ballyneale … who left his blood on Brunete mud, in the Civil War in Spain’. There followed the laying of a wreath by Terry Bannon at the ‘Olive Grove’ in the walled garden where the stone commemorates George Brown, his brother Michael (also a volunteer in Spain), along with two Castlecomer Brigadistas, Seán Dowling and Michael Brennan. The event was greatly enhanced by Craig Ó Mathúna who entertained those assembled with a wonderful rendition of a number of Spanish classical guitar compositions.

 

Undoubtedly the most poignant event of the commemoration was the planting of a Blue Atlas Cedar by members of the Doyle and Delahunty families in memory of Cáit Doyle who died in February. Cáit, wife of Joe Doyle, committee secretary, was a Delahunty of Portnahully, Mooncoin. This was the fifteenth tree-planting to be sponsored by the Inistioge George Brown Commemoration Committee since 2008.

 

The members of the Inistioge George Brown Committee would like to express their appreciation to all those who made this such a memorable event, in particular the staff of Woodstock Gardens and Tea Rooms, the musicians, and Sandra Garzon, photographer. It is also the committee’s earnest hope that next year will see a return to the former full weekend commemoration.