A Committee was formed in 1955 with a view to acquiring part of the McCarthy O’Leary estate for the people of the town and district. The committee consisted of the following Rev. Denis CurranC.C. Denis J. Buckley, John Phillips, Patrick Cashman, John Murphy, Richard Kiely, Jeremiah Corcoran, Tady O’Driscoll, Denis J Hickey, Patrick Coleman, Matthew O’Sullivan, Denis Kelleher, Patrick O’Flynn, Robert Justice, Daniel Kelleher, Denis McSweeney and Denis Duggan.
Thirteen acres and one road were purchased from Thomas Horgan on 31st August 1956. The original trustees were Richard Kiely, Patrick O’Flynn and Daniel Kelleher. The rules and regulations for the management of the park were adopted at a meeting on the 11th of January 1957.
John Murphy was the first secretary and was succeeded by Pat Kelly and then John O’Keeffe who is the present Secretary. Rev. Denis Curran C.C. was the first chairman, succeeded by Denny Twomey and then by William O’Leary who is the present Chairman. Patrick O’Flynn was the first Treasurer succeeded by Cormac Dineen who was succeeded by his daughter Maura who is the present treasurer. Denny Twomey and Cormac Dineen were also appointed trustees.
In 1994 a local lotto was formed in conjunction with the Youth Amenity fund and has proved to be a tremendous success and so responsible for funding all the improvements that have taken place over the years. Thanks to all the people for supporting the lotto. The people of Millstreet are indeed indebted to the founding committee for their great vision in providing such an excellent amenity in the middle of the town.
The present committee:
Chairman – William O’Leary
Secretary – John O’Keeffe
Treasurer – Maura Dineen Moynihan
Vice Chairman – Noel Collins
P.R.O. – Jerry Lehane
Committee
Brendan Kiely, Willie Neenan, Denis Hickey, Denis Twomey, Joseph Kelleher, Pat Murphy, Patsy McAuliffe, Michael McCarthy, Noreen Corkery, Maurice Linehan.
Trustees
William O’Leary, John O’Keeffe, Noel Collins, Denis Twomey, Jerry Lehane
I remember my dad saying that he was given the job of ploughing the Town Park after it was purchased (probably amongst others), but that it was the school children who were lined up for the job of picking the stones.
Millstreet Town Park is also one of the best coursing fields in cork and a very popular, keep up the good work
We are so blessed to have such a superb amenity as Millstreet Town Park. Tremendous credit is due to the wonderfully dedicated Millstreet Town Park Committee and to the original Committee members who established our splendid Park in the late 1950s.
I was telling my wife only the other day how picking stones in the town park made up part of my primary education: which part, I could not say, as it was hardly horticulture or nature study; perhaps our teacher was doing a film study unit – “The Field”, perhaps?