Saturday, February 11, 2012, saw the launch of 'Springsong', a commemorative selection of the poetry of Rudi Holzapfel in the Abymill Theatre, Fethard, Co. Tipperary.
Rudi lived for many years in Moanvaun, Cappawhite, had bookshops – first in Cashel, then in Tipperary town – and worked with the organisers of the Tipperariana Book Fair from the beginning until his sad death in 2005.
The launch was hosted by Fethard Historical Society and special guests were Rudi's wife Ulla and his sister Mona who now live in the city of Bonn in Germany. They told the story of a man who lived quite an extraordinary life from his birth in Paris in 1938 to transportation in his mother's arms during the war to a teenage life in California, to college in Dublin, to work in Germany, to finally ending his years in the heart of the quiet Tipperary countryside.