ARE you fans of the legends of Irish music and song? The FUREYS, renowned for their hit songs ‘I Will Love You’, ‘When You Were Sweet 16’, ‘The Green Fields of France’, ‘The Old Man’, ‘Red Rose Café’, ‘From Clare to Here’, ‘Her Father Didn’t Like Me Anyway’, ‘Leaving Nancy’, ‘Steal Away’ and many others, will hit the Torch Theatre stage this March.

The oldest of the brothers, Eddie Furey left home in 1966 and travelled to Scotland at the time of the great folk revival, where with his brother Finbar, he met and shared accommodation with then unknown folk singers Billy Connolly, Gerry Rafferty, Tam Harvey and Alex Campbell.

In 1972, Gerry Rafferty wrote ‘Her father didn’t like me anyway’ for Eddie. BBC Radio 1 presenter, the late John Peel, made it his single of the year.

They are particularly proud of their UK chart success with songs such as ‘I Will Love You’ and ‘When You Were Sweet Sixteen,’ which in turn helped bring Irish folk and traditional music to a completely new audience. The band made their Top of the Pops debut in 1981.

Eddie Furey recalls how “many musicians have told us we influenced them after hearing a record from their parents or grandparents’ collection”. Dave Stewart of The Eurythmics has credited Eddie with teaching him his first chords on the guitar while still a teenager. Eddie would return the compliment by joining Dave on stage in Paris for a jam during the latter’s wedding to Bananarama’s Siobhan Fahey.

Their emotive songs stir many emotions, tears and laughter, sadness and joy.

Tickets for The Fureys on Thursday 27 March at 7.30pm at the Torch Theatre are priced at £26.00. Visit the website for further details www.torchtheatre.co.uk or phone the Box Office on (01646) 695267.

A COURT has heard how a woman was left feeling ‘humiliated and embarrassed’ after being allegedly raped by a man when she was just nine years old.

“I feel so humiliated,” the victim told a jury sitting at Swansea Crown Court on Monday.

“He told me that if I ever told anybody, they wouldn’t believe me and I wouldn’t have any friends.  I took his word for it.

“I was so scared that I used to wet the bed.  And I knew why I was doing it…it was because I was scared.”

Gary Hicks, is accused of raping the female sometime between July 7, 1987, and December 31, 1989, when she was aged between 9 and 11.

This week Hicks, 63, appeared before a jury where he denied the charge.

The Crown claimed that at some point between 1987 and 1989, Hicks entered an upstairs bedroom in the house in the Milford Haven area where the child was living at the time of the alleged offence.

“She’d fallen asleep on the floor and Gary Hicks entered the room and laid her on her front,” said Daniel Jones, KC, for the Crown.

“She felt the defendant lift her hips and he penetrated her vagina with his hands from behind.”

Mr Jones claimed the assault lasted ‘a few minutes’.

“Gary Hicks said that if she ever told anyone about the abuse, she would not be believed and she’d have no friends,” he said.  “‘Who was going to believe a young girl over a grown up?”

However when the child reached adulthood, she began telling people in confidence.  These included her psychotherapist in 1993, her GP in 2006, a work colleague, and close members of her family.  Finally, in the early hours of October, 2022 the victim made a call to Dyfed-Powys Police claiming that Gary Hicks had raped her when she was a child.

Hicks, formerly of Milford Haven, who now resides in Oregon Way, Luton denies the charge of rape. 

His trial is expected to continue throughout this week.

MILFORD HAVEN Community Primary School’s Prioryville site was forced to close on Monday morning (Feb 17) following a gas leak.

The junior section of the school shut down at 10:15am due to a strong smell of gas in the main corridors. As a precaution, all gas to the site was turned off, leaving the building without heating or hot water.

Pupils were sent home for the remainder of the day while the issue was assessed. It is not yet clear when the site will reopen.