Fadó, Fadó:  Sparking Memories -Competition-Winners 2025 Announced

Winners have just been announced in the “Kilkenny Fadó, Fadó:  Sparking Memories Competition. Launched back in October this initiative a collaboration between Kilkenny Archaeological Society, Kilkenny County Council Library Service and Rothe House Trust and Garden aims to promote local history and heritage among young pupils.

The competition offered primary school pupils (3rd-6th class) an opportunity to work as historians and personally engage with the local studies strand of the history curriculum.
Students were encouraged to become young researchers and historians as they dug deep into history to learn about their local heritage. Entries were submitted under the two categories: Junior Competition: 3rd & 4th class pupils & Senior Competition: 5th & 6th class pupils.

Schools throughout County Kilkenny responded enthusiastically to the challenge.  The organisers have been bowled over by the number of entries and by the breadth and quality of the work.  ‘It’s great to see so many personal projects and interesting family stories with lots of new diverse information coming to light,’ said Declan Macauley, retired Executive Librarian who was one of the judges.  ‘Very encouraging also to see so many original topics with lots of imagination and originality”. ‘Picking out winners was a challenge, students’ care and attention was displayed all over the place’, commented judge Ann Tierney, KAS Honorary Librarian, ‘Interest and enthusiasm shone through drawing our attention to new and important aspects of our heritage.’

Projects focussing on family connections included the winning senior entry by Beatrice Mealy of Presentation Convent, Castlecomer, whose topic was ‘Fonsie Mealy Auctioneers’.  Beatrice traced the family business from her great-grandfather’s time to the present day. The senior runner-up was submitted by Annie Comerford from St. John of God –‘My Grandfather’ – A world champion at racquetball who retired from the sport at age 78.

The winning entry for the junior section came from Patrick Gallagher of Clara N.S., who presented a project about a local cottage ‘frozen in time’ on his grandfather’s land entitled ‘Tony’s Cottage’. The junior runner-up was Katie Shortt of Clara N.S. for her project entitled ‘When My Granny Worked in Padmore and Barnes’.

Prize winners and highly commended entries were acknowledged at an award ceremony in Rothe House. In attendance was Senator Malcolm Noonan, Mayor Andrew McGuinness, Fiona Deegan Director of Services at Kilkenny County Council, Fonsie MeaIy (President) and Ian Coulter (Chair) of KAS. Valerie O’ Sullivan, General Manager of Rothe House and Garden chaired the event.
Winning entries and highly commended will be digitised and available for online viewing on the Kilkenny Library Digital Archive.

The organisers are looking forward to running this competition again next year and plan to extend it to post-primary level.