New 2025 calendar launched by Dromcollogher group

'DROMCOLLOGHER Remembers – Memories of the Past,' the Calendar for 2025 is now on sale in the local shops in Dromcollogher and it was launched  at an Information Day in the Town Hall last Saturday. 

The event was organised by the research team of the Dromcollogher26 group, the local community group that has been formed to work towards the centenary of the Dromcollogher Cinema Disaster.

The Information Day on Saturday was quite well attended. Its purpose was to open discussion on The Burning (the cinema disaster) and its aftermath as well as to consider the upcoming commemoration.

There was an interesting exhibition of documents and photographs on plinths and tables in the hall for visitors to peruse. Many people brought along their own mementos as well as their own family stories.

All of these will be followed up and added into the emerging account of how Dromcollogher and its people coped with the great disaster. The input and cooperation of all who contributed to this event is greatly appreciated.

As for the calendar, it is proving to be hugely popular. It includes so many pictures that almost every family in the town is included. Priced at €10, the calendar will be an essential gift for friends and relations of Dromcollogher all over the world.

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The Dromcollogher Cinema Disaster was a tragedy which occurred in 1926, when 48 citizens of the small West Limerick town lost their lives. These people, ranging in age from seven to 68, were attending a film show in the loft area of a local storehouse.

A candle ignited the extremely flammable reels of nitrocellulose films, setting fire to the timber structure which had only one exit. This meant that for many, escape was impossible – hence the great loss of life. It was a tragic accident that shocked the whole country and reverberated across the world.

Happening so soon after the foundation of the state, the Dromcollogher Cinema Fire is one of the most terrible disasters of modern Irish history. The Stardust Disaster which happened in 1981 has many parallels to the Dromcollogher Cinema Disaster – public entertainment, local venue, young people, inferno, and exactly the same death toll – 48 lives lost!

All such events are so very tragic, but happening as it did, in such a small community, the level of devastation caused by the Cinema Disaster in Dromcollogher was extreme – almost one in ten of the population perished in this one awful fire.