Plaque unveiled at 25th anniversary of lady of the erne

The 25th Lady of the Erne context was staged in the Hotel Kilmore on last Sunday night and to mark the silver anniversary a plaque was jointly unveiled on a wall adjacent to the river Erne on Saturday by Dr Paul Clark and the Chairman of Cavan County Council, Paddy Smith in the presence of the Director of the competition, Mark Leonard.

Speaking at the unveiling ceremony the Chairman of Cavan County Council, Cllr Smith said “it was a huge achievement” for the contest to last for 25 years. He complimented the contest committee including the Director Mark Leonard and the Secretary, Nuala Corrigan, who has been with the event from the outset.
The Chairman called for a minutes silence for the late Herbie Dunne, who was the innovator and first Director of the Lady of the Erne, a quarter of a century ago.
Dr Clark who has also been compering the contest for that entire span of time, told those assembled including the Lady of the Erne contestants and the CEO of Cavan County Council, Ger Finn that “it is hard to believe that it is that long – but it is – we have paid our respects to Herbie Dunne – a man of great vision. Whenever Herbie spoke to me about taking part in this event, he talked about something that has lived with me every day since then – it is about trying to look at our neighbours across the Border – our neighbours – we have to remember it was a very different place then”.
“The roads between Northern Ireland and the Republic – they were cratered – you could not travel on them like now – it take it for granted that it has always been as easy as that – to come across the Border – but in those days it wasn’t”.
“What Herbie said to me was – we on this Island of Ireland, have more in common with each other, than we are ever being allowed to believe”.
“Twenty five on, this is a testimony to the vision that man had and it is a vision that has been grabbed by those who are in harness today and I pay particular tribute to Mark Leonard and all the other people involved with this festival and long long may it continue,” said Dr Clark.
“It is a great privilege and a pleasure for me to unveil this plaque”, he concluded.
In honour of Herbie, former Councillor Liz McDermott read a poem which was written about his role.