Stan McCormack
Stan McCormack has been writing about and bringing to life in numerous forms the history of Kilbeggan and its environs for the last 25 years. Over that 25-year period, Stan has completed or been attached to numerous projects, with the intention of recording the history of Kilbeggan or improving the town. These include six history books, among them ‘Against the Odds: Kilbeggan Races, 1840-1994’ (1995) and the recent ‘Kilbeggan Memories’. Between 2012 and 2016, Stan was part of a committee that organised Kilbeggan Knighthood Festival. The committee only expected the initiative to run for a couple of years, but it ran for five. The festival was based on the historic knighting of a local innkeeper, Thomas Cuffe, who received a title from the aristocrat and soldier, the Viscount Townshend, in 1772 after a night of drinking. Stan was also involved in the mounting of two plaques along Main Street, acknowledging local people involved in the Irish revolution and the First World War.