Inaugural Cavan Day celebrations go online
An online celebration of all things Cavan is set to take place next month to mark the inaugural Cavan Day.
A day of festivities were due to be staged as part of the wider Cavan Calling 2020 initiative, which was postponed last April due to Coronavirus concerns.
Not to let COVID-19 completely rain on their parade, some dignitaries and Cavan ambassadors gathered at the weekend at the prehistoric landscape of the Cavan Burren Park for the launch of the inaugural Cavan Day 2020.
They included Tommy Ryan, Chief Executive of Cavan County Council; Oisín Kiernan, Cavan Senior Football team, Neven Maguire, award-winning celebrity chef and proud Cavan ambassador, and Cllr Sarah O’Reilly, Cathaoirleach of Cavan County Council.
The revised Cavan Day 2020 will now be an online celebration of the global Cavan family, its people, its diaspora and everyone who shares an affinity with the county.
It will comprise a special ‘Cavan Day’ show that will broadcast live on Saturday, September 26, at 5pm (Irish time) on Cavan TV, on Facebook, and on YouTube.
The show will feature live musical performances of beloved Cavan music, interviews with some of the Breffni county’s best-known figures from the world of sport, arts, food, and business, and messages from the Global Cavan Family around the globe.
People are being encouraged to get involved by proudly wearing their county colours and show your pride in and connection to Cavan, by taking to social media and celebrating Cavan, using the #CavanDay hashtag.
In April, the local authority made the difuficlt decision to cancel 'Cavan Calling 2020' due to the Coronavirus.
The flagship event is to be postponed instead until 2021. Mr Ryan said at the time: “After careful consideration, and with the safety of our friends at home and abroad foremost in our thoughts, we have taken the difficult decision to postpone Cavan Calling until 2021.”
From Dowra to Dubai, Ballyjamesduff to Boston, people from across the globe were invited to celebrate all that is Cavan in terms of culture, heritage, music, and landscape.
But Mr Ryan said in a statement issued this lunchtime, that the global effort to halt the spread of coronavirus has “understandably made it difficult” to plan overseas travel.
So in order to facilitate containment measures both at home and abroad, he said the Council believes it is in the best interests of everyone's safety to host our homecoming celebration at a later date, “when we can safely bring the global Cavan family together in a spirit of kinship and community.”
Much effort had already gone into planning what was being billed as to be an “unforgettable celebration” of all things Cavan.
Mr Ryan stated: “While we know that a great many of you across the globe were excited to come home this August, allow me to assure you that Cavan Calling will be back in 2021, even bigger and better than before.
“For now, until Cavan Calling brings us together again, stay safe,” he concluded.