Twomey Family Remorial Weekend had a momentous occasion in having our 5th Twomey Family Remorial Weekend on June 9th and 10th. It was our first landmark anniversary in remembering Con, Baba Oisín and Baby Elber-Marie and in promoting how precious life is.
Our 2018 Twomey Family Remorial has had numerous highlights. Firstly to our wonderful committee as passionate as when we began in 2014, to see the numerous people who travel to be with us to support our weekend in Meelin and Rockchapel in honour of Con, Baba Oisín & Little Lady is just magical, and behind the scenes the extraordinary number of friends, neighbours, fellow Meelin, Rockchapel, Newmarket and Duhallow people who work tirelessly at making sandwiches, pouring tea, refereeing, stewarding, managing safety, sponsoring food, sponsoring the weekend and run miles, taking photos, tidying up, no doubt Heaven smiles down on them all .
Secondly our Twomey Family Remorial returned to Kilkenny for the second year huge thanks to Nigel and Gillian and all at taxback.com and VHI Healthcare. Furthermore we branched into Europe with our dear friend and neighbour Norma O’Connor holding a Twomey Family Remorial ‘Sports Day’ in Holland, truly magical!
2018 had already begun magically for our Twomey Family Remorial. January saw the super news of us having Seán Browne and his great team at Newmarket Motors and Volkswagen Commercial support our Twomey Family Remorial Weekend again this year, for the third year, huge huge thanks.
On Jan 15th we received the wonderful news that we are now a registered charity in Ireland. Furthermore, on Feb 20th we received a note from the Revenue who kindly told us that Twomey Family Remorial is approved for the Scheme of Tax Relief for Donations to Eligible Charities and other Approved Bodies. So if you want to donate a “few bob” to us you’ll get tax relief. 
On Saturday morning the Remorial supported by Newmarket Motors & VW Commercial, opened with the under 12 ‘Connie Twomey Memorial’ Hurling blitz. St. Marks, Croagh Rovers, Newmarket and winners Bishopstown took part.
This year we were honoured to have Assistant Chief Constable Jim Nye from Devon & Cornwall Police travel over to join in our Twomey Family Remorial Weekend, without doubt Con and my beauties will be proud. Huge respect to Assistant Chief Constable Nye, he very kindly travelled over especially to be with us, to mark our 5th Twomey Family Remorial. We were also delighted and honoured to welcome Chief Superintendent Aidan Reid and his wife Deirdre, Garda Inspector Joe O’Connor and Garda Sergeant Dan Murphy
Our Table Quiz was hugely entertaining as always huge thanks to our extraordinaire quizmaster Aonghus.
Local musicians led by Kathleen Wright from Rockchapel and Liam Guiney from Meelin drew Saturday to a close with a hugely entertaining selection of music, song and dance at Meelin Hall.
Sunday morning was an early start with a 55k and 110k cycle organised by Twomey Family Remorial committee member Johnny Stack, leaving Rockchapel at 8.30am.
Rockchapel had a magical atmosphere on Sunday morning huge thanks to my dear friend Pat, who was a always Mr Entertaining!
Pat set our wonderful cyclists off in great humour and Assistant Chief Constable Nye officially sent them on their way with some handy words of road safety advice.
Moments before an impronto bike horn sounded to start the race, he vowed to return next year and take part.
The race start was followed by Mass in Rockchapel.
On Sunday afternoon we had a huge gathering of walkers and runners in Meelin village.
Amongst the wonderful runners we had Sergeant Keith White and 3 of his Garda colleagues in Irish Roads Policing from Dublin.
There were other participants from the emergency services and a gentleman, Tom O’Riordan who had already completed the 110k cycle, just amazing!
There was a beautiful atmosphere in the village as our wonderful walkers and runners returned. They were welcomed back to live music, and lots of delicious treats very kindly and cooked and all monies collected were very generously donated by both Chris and Tom. Unreal!
Meelin village was buzzing for the evening with DJ Liam O’Sullivan and local musicians.
Earlier in May our dear friend Nigel held the second Twomey Family Remorial Run at taxback.com in Kilkenny Twomey Family Remorial Runs In Kilkenny 🙂
This year Nigel and Gillian my dear childhood friend working at the neighbouring VHI Healthcare drummed up over 80 people to run for us, which was truly amazing. They raised an enormous €2,000. Truly amazing friends!
Later in June, my dear friend Gary Curran retired from Devon & Cornwall Police. Gary was our Police Family Liaison Officer. Himself and his colleague Sarah were absolutely extraordinary to both families after the crash and in particular to me, how blessed we were that they were on duty that horrific day. For Gary’s retirement his friends at his local church, St Thomas got together to mark his special day. Instead of gifts, Gary asked them to contribute to our Twomey Family Remorial, exceptional to put it mild, but then that’s Gary and his beautiful family.
Later in June the girls primary school in Newmarket held a non uniform day for us, how extremely generous!!
Along with kilkenny, Twomey Family Remorial branched into Holland this year 🙂 Our dear friend and neighbour Norma O’Connor held a Sports Day for us and raised over €1,000, absolutely fabulous. What an amazing girl!
In all our events this year Twomey Family Remorial raised €21,060 which will please God help save and enrich lives. Each of the wonderful charities we supported this year
- Brú Columbanus Cork
- St Josephs Foundation Charleville
- Irish Community Rapid Response
- 3Ts
- Cork Samaritans
- Samaritans Festival Group
each received a cheque for €3,510 on Friday night last which will please God help them in the amazing and life changing work that they do.
Indeed our 5th anniversary Remorial was yet another emotional, yet a truly beautiful tribute to honour Con, Baba Oisín and Baby Elber-Marie huge thanks to our wonderful committee and fantastic people in both communities who continue to inspire us at Twomey Family Remorial.
More than 9,000 people from counties all over Munster and indeed across Ireland have taken part over the four years.
Without all this extraordinary help our weekend would not be possible. The committee of Gerard Angland, Dan O’Connor, Tomás Twomey, Thomas Mahoney, Johnny Stack, Nigel O’Donovan & Finbarr Murphy along with Dave Allen our IT expert, do untold work not just in the extremely busy lead up to the weekend but from January onwards when our preparations get underway.
To them all and to you all I personally owe a huge debt of gratitude and I know only too well that Connie, Baba Oisín & Little Lady are smiling down to see the way in which they are being honoured and remembered each year and that we are please God brining about a little bit of good out of our Twomey Family Remorial.
#LifeIsPrecious
Where There Is Life There Is Hope 