Celebrating 75 years of scouting

In August 2002, Kilcully hosted a special anniversary camp celebrating 75 years of the Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland.

Scouts and leaders gathered at the campsite for a weekend that combined camping and Scouting activities with celebrations marking the organisation’s 75-year history.

A special Mass was celebrated during the weekend, while former and serving members of Scouting joined invited guests at Kilcully for the occasion. The celebrations also provided an opportunity to recognise long service and the contribution made by generations of volunteers to Scouting.

Tom O’Sullivan, Kilcully Camp Chief at the time, was among those welcoming visitors to the campsite, including the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress of Cork.

The photographs provide a wonderful snapshot of Kilcully more than 30 years after the campsite first opened. One view across the camping field shows traditional canvas Scout tents pitched alongside the increasingly familiar modern dome tents. Compared with photographs from Kilcully’s earliest years, when rows of canvas tents dominated the fields, it provides a simple but striking illustration of how Scout camping had changed over a generation.

Together, the photographs capture both the formal celebrations and everyday life at the anniversary camp — the tents across the fields, Scouts and leaders gathering together, the outdoor Mass and presentations recognising many years of service.

Coming just a year after the large International Camp of 2001, the anniversary weekend was another significant gathering in Kilcully’s history and a celebration of the generations who had helped build Scouting in Cork and throughout Ireland.