Kildorrery GAA held its first ever Midsummer Festival in 1972. Since that time, the famous town has seen many changes. From the outset, the festival committee was run by club members, who had no fear of challenge. All kinds of entertainment was tried and tested. The amusements were an integral part of the festival up to a couple of years back but they became too expensive, so they had to be dropped from the plans. 

The Pub Crawl was an endurance test. How the mighty fell. This was a competition made up of a team of five people, four stretcher bearers and one on the stretcher. Each team had to call on every pub in the village and the person on the stretcher had to drink a pint. The fastest team obviously won. There were nine or ten pubs in the village that time and try doing that in less than seven minutes. After a number of years, this was discontinued as the incidence of sickness increased and competitors got fewer. For many years, a Road Race was organised in conjunction with Grange Athletic Club.

The Donkey Derby was a mighty crowd puller. Owners, trainers and jockeys all went into training for this prestigious event, some even putting the donkeys on special diets not to mention the jockeys. Various tricks were tried to get the donkeys to go faster but it was the donkey that wouldn't go anywhere or the wrong way that provided the best entertainments. The arrival of the donkey called 'Minstrel' probably led to the end of this event everywhere as he won everything and provided very little laughs and entertainment.

Another derby we held was the Duck Derby. This was on a Sunday afternoon at Charlie Burke's on the Funcheon River. Great fun was had, the highlight being the dipping of the stewards or some of the spectators. All innocent fun!

Of course, one that never seems to age is the Children's Sports. This is a 'have to be held' event with many serious competitors all wanting to win the gold medals. No drug testing here - just sheer guts and determination!

Over the years, many a good laugh was had at 'the corner' when the Fancy Dress parades went through. The children were always in the church yeard twenty minutes before starting time, with sheer enthusiasm willing them out the gate and up the street to be seen and cheered on by the very appreciative audience. You were guaranteed to see the latest celebrity 'Michael Jackson', 'Andre Agassi' et al.

The Adult Fancy Dress was very unpredictable as you never knew until the parade passed by how many floats we had. Politicians appeared - Ronald Reagan, Charlie Haughey, Brian Linehan, Garret Fitzgerals, to mention but a few. Eamonn Casey made several appearances as well. It was never a surprise to see a horse or a donkey but one year, a bull appeared and there was a lot spoken of it afterwards.

One guy decided to promote a famous washing detergent named Flash and another participant walked up the street on one leg "All because the lady loves Milk Tray"!

For a number of years we held a Fashion Show. Celia Holman Lee and her models strutted their stuff up and down the catwalk with music and applause all the way.

The Rose of the Hill was another one of our bright ideas. This was hard work having to go to the dances and discos all over North Cork and South Limerick area to choose lovely ladies to participate and represent their parish! The last Saturday night was dedicaed to the ladies in what became known as 'The Rose Ball'. The ladies, with their escorts, always looked superb in the marquee. It was always a great night complete with a full meal and a full bar. Billa O'Connell, Alf McCarthy and Des Cahill of RTE, Robert Walsh and Eric Griffin of 103FM and Paul Collins of Today FM were some of the many great comperes who interviewed the ladies. THere were three judges - one from the Rose of Tralee Festival, one from the Avondhu and one from the Community. Interviews over, judges on stage, winners announced, let the party begin!

Many other events were held over the years, including pub quizzes, concerts, ceilis, skittles and family fun days. Over the past five years, we have been doing our bit to promote traditional music with a concert that provides a stage for many talented local musicians, of all ages, that otherwise might not be heard.

The main event of the festival is Dancing in the Marquee. Many's the household name that graced the stage of our marquee over the years. We had them all - Gina Dale Haze and the Champions, Shaun O'Dowd, The Kay Twins, Angel and Power Attraction, Abbaesque, The Saw Doctors, The Four Of Us, The Wolfe Tones and Joe Dolan. I'm sure you can remember many more. We had the best of them and the people came in their droves to hear them and dance the night away. Marquee dancing continued to be such a big event in Kildorrery that it's no surprise that we had the one and only Bressie on stage this year (2012). A celebrity in every way but also a gentleman! Women of all ages adore this man and I would say that there were 4:1 women in the marquee. They love him. Also on stage that night was a band called the Seducers. They were fabulous and have asked to come back next year.

For many years, the festival ran over a ten-day period with dancing Friday and Sunday of each weekend but with the emergence of concerts all over the country now, this is not longer feasible, hence the weekend festival. This year, for the first time, we held a Table Quiz in the marquee. 77 tables filled the venue and our compere was Mr Paudie Palmer of 103FM Sport. It was a great night and to top it off, our local winners put their prize money back into the fund and a total of €3,000 was raised for Marymount Hospice. On the last day of the Festival, we held our first Country Fair, with stall holders displaying their goods, arts, crafts etc. Fun for all the family and yet again a great success!

So, thanks to everybody who for the past forty years have made this festival the success it is. Plans are being put in place for next year so, if you have any new ideas, please let us know. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all and roll on the festival of 2013.