Kilbeggan historic walking tours to go ahead in late July
Covid has played havoc with a long-planned historic walking tour of Kilbeggan by local historian, Stan McCormack, but the event looks set to finally go ahead on the weekend of Friday to Sunday, July 29-31.
Postponed for nearly two years due to the pandemic, Stan planned to hold the event in March of this year, but had to call it off again due to the intervention of Covid.
The plan now is to present the walking tour on the weekend of Cemetery Sunday in Kilbeggan (July 31), as many people will be home visiting their families.
“I am going to tell the story of Kilbeggan from five focal points – the Green, the Crescent, the Square, the entrance to the graveyard, and at the Distillery bridge, incorporating the canal, church, school, convent, GAA club, Kilbeggan Races as part of the story,” said Stan. “The tours will be about the people of historic Kilbeggan, rather than just the buildings.”
The tours will kick off on the evening of Friday July 29 with one tour, continuing on Saturday July 30 with another, and on Cemetery Sunday with two tours after cemetery devotions.
“I hope people will enjoy the stories. If successful, then it might be possible to do a video or put our great history online for Kilbeggan people everywhere,” Stan continued.
“I will give more details about the tours closer to the time.”
Stan would like to thank the sponsors who have so far come forward to support the project.
“I had hoped that Westmeath County Council might support suggestions regarding the Square in Kilbeggan, cleaning up the Protestant graveyard as there are great international stories there, or even erecting a few historic plaques, but it seems unlikely,” he added.
“Hopefully, some improvement might be possible with the help of local people.”
Stan McCormack is one of Westmeath’s most prolific local historians, and has chronicled the history of Kilbeggan for decades through books, talks, exhibitions and newspaper articles.
For more details on the forthcoming historic walking tours, contact Stan on 087 7499857, 057 9332683, or florandstan@eircom.net.