A Brief History of Fedamore News

The first issue of Fedamore News was printed in 1973.
The committee were unsure whether to call it a newsletter or a bulletin.
This first issue had few pictures with lots of text and was just stapled together.
However, the seed was sown and since 1973 the Fedamore News has appeared annually at Christmas and once at Easter.
We have gradually improved the magazine over the years and we now believe we have one of the finest annual magazines in the County. Many parishes produce a book every two years or produce a once off history but we continue the tradition started in 1973 by our then Parish Priest, Áth de Bhál, Christy Fitzgerald, John O’Donnell (RIP), Bill MacNamara (RIP) and Seamus Fitzgerald. Bridget Holland and Dick Gleeson were also there in the early years. Christy Fitzgerald remains as Editor and Seamus, Bridget and Dick are still active Committee members.


Christy fitzgerald the Editor of the fedamore News Journal for 35 years fedamre News Journal.

The original aim of Fedamore News was to form a link between our parish and those who lived abroad (in the early seventies many from this area lived in England).It is a link between generations – even centuries. In it we continue to value our “people connections”; our past our dead, our on-going events, our families and friends away from home and our hopes for the future.

Fedamore news tells the story of a year in our community in word and picture. We ask Club Secretaries to send us reports and pictures of the various happenings in the many Clubs we are lucky to have in this Community. Our schools too are well represented.

Historic happenings down through the centuries have all been recorded and over the years this compiles into a comprehensive record. This can be very beneficial to anyone doing research or schoolchildren who often seek local material for school projects.
Over the years we have featured many interesting articles including the origins of townlands; we have articles and interviews with locals; those who have won fame on the sporting front; we tried to record all the families living here in the 1999 edition for the Millennium and last year our local historic society did a wonderful feature on the ceiling of Fedamore Church.

We introduced spot colour in the early nineties and in 1998 we had our first full colour cover to celebrate the 25th edition. In 1999 we had a full colour section in the magazine as well as the cover. Each year, funds permitting we try to increase the number of colour pages in the book.

The 2004 edition of the magazine was entered in a competition for parish newsletters/magazines held by the Irish Episcopal Commission for Emigrants Campaign whose aim is to encourage and reward community links with our emigrants abroad. We finished second in Ireland and received a generous financial reward which we quickly put back into our magazine.

We are indebted to our many advertisers, sponsors and patrons without whose financial aid we would be unable to produce Fedamore News to such a high standard.
Davis Printers in Limerick print our book and they are always on hand to offer professional help and advice with layout, graphics etc. They try also to keep us focused on a deadline, which is difficult!

Our Parish Priest Fr. Mike Cussen and his predecessor, Fr. William O’Gorman allowed us to use a room in the parochial house to hold our meetings and put the book together. This is a great help as we are working in warm, comfortable surroundings.

The current committee of Fedamore News is:
Editor: Christy Fitzgerald
Chairperson: Kathryn Casey
Treasurer: Bridget Holland
Secretary: Geraldine Fitzgerald
PRO: Dick Gleeson.
Committee: Fr. Mike Cussen, Seamus Fitzgerald, Noreen O’Donovan, Irene O’Mahony, Fergus South, Mary Sadlier, Anne Marie McMahon, Mary B. Moloney.

When it comes to selling the book we have an excellent sales committee who swing into action throughout the parish and we are very grateful to this group for their help. I am afraid to mention them by name because I might forget someone.

Fedamore News 2008 is currently with the printers and we hope to have it on sale during the second week in December.


Front Row Bridget Holland, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Kathyn Casey,Fergus South
Back Row Seamus Fitzgerald, Noreen O Donovan, Dick Gleeson