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The Callcard that never was...
13 years after the last Callcard was produced, it is becoming harder and harder to discover new information about the world of Irish phonecards. However I was recently reminded of the Callcard which never seen the light of day. In fact, it's existence is unknown to many Callcard fans and collectors alike.
In the mid 1990's, a committee was tasked by the Irish government to run a program of events in 1997 throughout Ireland to commemorate the great Irish famine. The committee had a budget of €250,000 to organise events throughout Ireland and to conduct new research on the Irish famine which plagued the our country from 1845 to 1851.
As part of honoring the great famine, a music event known as 'The Homecoming' was planned in Drishane Castle, Millstreet, Co. Cork. Originally the planners anticipated large crowds of up to 100,000 to attend the event. In the end, the venue was moved to Green Glens Arena in Millstreet, with up to 25,000 people believed to have attended the event.
From our research, it's hard to pinpoint exactly why the Callcard was never produced. Was it because of downscaling of some events such as 'The Homecoming' concert? From the rear of the card, we can see that the card was going to be used as a way to raise awareness for such beneficiaries as the Big Issues, gorta and The Great Famine Irish Trust. So the card would have been used more to raise awareness of the event and to promote donating money to the various causes. Finally, there was a lot of Callcards around this time which marked events in Ireland such as Bloomsday (1175), An Slua Muiri (1176), Irish Air Corps (1178), Boy Scouts (1180) and the Community Games (1181). Perhaps a quota of special Callcards had been exceeded?
To summarise, it's hard to understand why this Callcard was canceled. Let us know what you think by commenting below.
Sources: "This Great Calamity: The Great Irish Famine: The Irish Famine 1845-52" by Christine Kinealy
"The Irish Times: Fighting famine with a feast of music by Kevin Courtney" http://www.irishtimes.com/news/fighting-famine-with-a-feast-of-music-1.75611