One in a century real life stories
Newport News Annual proving popular
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The late Tom Bourke with a restored traditional village pump erected by Newport Tidy Towns Committee, of which he was a very active member.Image 2 of 3
Newport Intermediate Camogie team, who made history by winning the Tipperary County Shield in 2020 during the Covid pandemic.Image 3 of 3
The history-making Newport Under 12 team, North Tipperary ‘A’ Hurling Champions 2020, featured in the ‘Newport News’ Annual 2024.The real life experiences of living through a once in a century period of fear, illness and deaths within a local community has made ‘gripping’ reading in a history recording publication.
“It brought a tear to my eye,” was one reaction, while another called it “a gripping read” and many labelled the publication “an invaluable record” worth keeping.
Such has been the community reaction to the dedication of the 2024 edition of Newport News Annual to the real life stories from people within the local community of how the once in a century pandemic Covid-19 (2020-2022) impacted their lives and the experiences that they will “never forget”.
“The schoolchildren's stories featured in the book will in time be related to their families on how terrible the pandemic was and the memories of the period will be handed down through generations to come within the pages of this publication,” said one parent.
There has been a hugely positive reaction since the 160 page Newport News Special Edition 2024 was released prior to Christmas.
A few copies of the book are still available at Sweeney's Supermarket, Centra Supermarket, Hackett's Pharmacy and Mulcair Credit Union Office. The full-colour production includes an extensive listing of deaths over the period with pictures, photographs of babies born during the period and stories of the challenges which faced those planning to wed.
HEARTBREAKING MEMORY
Tom Bourke, a very active member of Newport Tidy Town's Committee, celebrated his 81st birthday in early 2020 as rumours of Covid were beginning to spread across the world.
Tom loved meeting people, socialising, talking hurling, history and the Tidy Towns and his wife Maureen recalls how the Covid restrictions changed his routine and impacted his health.
She relates a heart-rendering account that the deterioration in his health led to hospitalisation and “we could not get through to doctors, or nurses to enquire how he was” before he passed away on April 13, 2021.
Although he did not die from Covid, the same funeral restrictions applied with only 10 permitted to attend the Requiem Mass before being laid in his resting place at Rockvale Cemetery “with only the grave diggers”.
COLLEGE LIFE
Donal Madden, Principal, Newport College describes “the best of times and the worst of times” at the college without students, while pupils at national schools in the parish contribute their poems and stories of their “fear” and “terrible” restrictions and will be a reminder in the decades to come of the pandemic during their childhood.
Each of more than a dozen sporting organisations and groups in the area record how they were impacted, and there is a valuable World Health Organisation global overview as well as county-by-county statistics of the pandemic.
Finally, a week-by-week and day-by- day diary of how the infection penetrated the population nationwide, restrictions and the deaths of almost 10,000 people occurred due to Covid-19 is documented.
The book is a historical overview of life within a local community during the worst worldwide pandemic in more than a century and for those who have not as yet, it is well worth securing one of the last copies of the limited print run.