2017 Review: February: Medieval Mile Museum opens and new animation studio for city

In the first edition of The Kilkenny People in February it was reported that o ne hundred and twenty five cattle were seized during an early morning raid on a farmhouse.
Officials from The Criminal Assets Bureau along with local gardaí raised the farm. Checkpoints were set up and the roads were closed for a number of hours during the operation.
There was plenty of good news in the city including a trip to Los Angeles for some of the team at the twice Oscar-nominated studio, Cartoon Saloon. Puffin Rock, a pre-school TV was nominated for a second time at the prestigious Annie awards. Puffin Road follows a family of lovable puffins living on a wild and beautiful Irish island. Puffin Rock has also picked up two awards at Kidscreen in Miami for Best New Animated Series and Best Preschool Series as well as a Royal Television Society NI Award for Best Children’s Animation.
Cartoon Saloon continued to make the news in February with the announcement of over one hundred new jobs to be created in the city over the first six months of the year with the opening of Lighthouse Studios making Kilkenny a centre of excellence in the animation industry.
Some of the biggest players in the animation industry such as Disney, Netflix and Amazon are all expected to work with the studio. Lighthouse Studios is a partnership between Oscar-nominated Cartoon Saloon and Canadian animation company, Mercury Filmworks.
Kilkenny City’s Medieval Museum opened in February and marked a new departure for Kilkenny Civic Trust, which is to maintain and operate the museum.
It was also reported in February that people living in dozens of townlands around Kilkenny could be sitting on precious minerals, including gold and silver. The Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment has given notice of his intention to grant prospecting licences here for base metals, barytes, gold and silver to a Wexford-based mining company. The activities permitted under such a licence are generally non-invasive and of minimal environmental impact. The licence, if granted, does not authorise the mining of any minerals.