Rallying all McCabes!

McCabe man wishes to invite everyone to the event.

McCabes from far and wide are set to unite for the annual McCabe Clan Rally later this month.

The event, which aims to bring together McCabes from all over the world, is set to take place in the Slieve Russell Hotel on August 21 during National Heritage Week.

Honorary secretary of the event, Brian McCabe is looking forward to the rally, having attended it for the last number of years.

“It’s most enjoyable,” he says. “It’s important because I think most people are interested in their surname and the history of their surname.”

The McCabe man wishes to invite everyone to the event, which he is sure will be of great interest to many.

“We’re inviting all McCabes anywhere and everywhere to assemble. We will have a number of overseas McCabes attending. We will have American McCabes, travelling over especially for the rally.

“The overseas visitors seem to enjoy it particularly because in Ireland, mainly in Cavan, McCabe is a reasonably common name. Over the years we’ve had people from places like America, Australia, New Zealand, obviously England as well too, and for them it’s a big deal to be meeting up with other McCabes to whom they’re not related. It’s an unusual experience for them.”

The event, which is organised by the McCabe Clan Society, will offer a range of displays and presentations, all which will be based on the history of the surname.

“We will have a presentation of material, which is of interest to McCabes. This year it will be a presentation of old film footage, compiled by Father Ultan McCabe, back in the 1940s and 1950s around Killinkere.

“It will be a picture of rural Ireland as it was in those days. He was an Irish priest based in America who came home every summer. That’ll be our main presentation on the day.

“We will also be sharing some research that our honorary research officer has done over the past few years, he’ll be presenting his research. We have a display available too of material related to famous McCabes in history and so on.”

The society compiles an annual newsletter and has been producing it for the past 20 years.

During lockdown, the event couldn’t be run and, as a result, the society turned their focus to creating a book.

“We have been saying for years that we should do a book on the McCabes and during the first lockdown we put all the information together and actually published the history of the McCabes, which should still be available in the shops in Cavan Town.”

The rally usually sees between 30 to 50 people in attendance, all of whom either share the surname, or have interest in learning about it.

“People can just arrive on the day, there’s no charge - that’s the beauty of it. You don’t have to have the name McCabe, anyone who has an interest in it at all will be more than welcome,” urged Brian.