On Wednesday 1st January 2020 Breffni Vintage Club held our traditional New Year’s Day run organised by Dennis Wright.
We had a large turnout of cars and bikes in ideal weather conditions with participants from north south east and west. The meeting point was Trichia’s mini market in Milltown and the club is most grateful for the hospitality and refreshments.
We wish all our members a happy and healthy new year. Many thanks to Ryan McMahon Lynch for kindly allowing us to use his photos from the event.
This year the weekend away was based around the historic town of Trim in Co. Meath. The organisation was in the very capable hands of Peter Lynch, Denis Wright and Martin Cahill and all the work carried out by their good wives.
The first assembly point was Belturbet with more joining along the route to Lisgrey House. From there it was on to Martry mill, one of the few working water powered mills in the country. After an entertaining talk on everything from the history of the mill, eel fisheries and modern day television programming, many of which were made at the mill, everybody left with a bag of stone ground flour.
Next stop was the Silver Tankard where a much appreciated meal was had, and at a very reasonable price as well. With the inner man (woman) well fortified it was on to our hotel for the weekend, Knightsbrook Hotel, a very impressive location indeed. Some were staying in the Courtyard homes and some in the Hotel itself. Houses were allocated with military precision by Catherine Lynch and Darragh Fay and soon everyone was settled for the night.
The Following morning Peter Lynch ensured there were no hiccups at breakfast time with people in the different locations and then it was off to the Hill of Tara where we worked off some of the breakfast and the overnight rain had cleared thankfully.
From the hill of Tara it was off to the Battle of the Boyne site and a very impressive location it was indeed. The interpretative centre was excellent and the guide wonderful, many of us learned many new facts about the battle and the protagonists. After a relaxing cuppa in the cafe and a leisurely walk around the beautiful gardens it was back to our hotel.
A sumptuous gala dinner was arranged for us in a private suite, the organisers and their spouses were piped to their tables by our very own resident piper Jim Maguire. A very enjoyable night followed.
Sunday morning saw a very leisurely start to the day with a visit to the nearby Trim castle for more history in beautiful weather. From there the cavalcade headed back to Cavan with a stop at Lisgrey house for food and all went their separate ways.
The Club is indebted to the organisers who spared no effort in planning this weekend away. This event has grown over the last few years to become one of the major events in our calendar and continues to grow and we are most thankful to the hard working organisers
The clubs annual general meeting was held on the 30th September 2019 with forty members present. All the outgoing officers gave a report to the meeting, the acting secretary John Brady said that he would not be going forward for election and the meeting thanked him for stepping into the breech when the club was unable to appoint a secretary.
Ron Corry chaired the meeting for the election of officers. The officers elected were as follows:
At a club meeting Breffni Vintage Club made two donations to two charities from the proceeds of funds raised at events during the previous year.
Presentation of funds to Northern Ireland Palliative Care Front Row – Liam D’Arcy ChairPerson Jacqueline Maguire N.I. Palliative Care Raymond Mc Dermott and Thomas Mc Carron Back Row – Peter Reilly P.R.O Patrick Mc Govern Treasurer Pat Mc Govern President Garry Mc Guigan Membership Sec.
Presentation of funds to Jimmy O’Donnell of Cavan/Monaghan Palliative Care Front Row – Patrick Mc Govern Treasurer, Jimmy O’ Donnell Cavan/Monaghan Palliative Care and Pat Mc Govern President Back Row – Peter O’Reilly P.R.O. Garry Mc Guigan Membership Sec. and Liam D’Arcy Chair Person
The two charities were Northern Ireland Palliative Care and Cavan/Monaghan Palliative Care. Thank you to all those who supported our events enabling us to make these donations to these very worthy causes.
