“County Captains”
Callum Buckley, U15 County Captain of Athea that won the County Final in Mick Neville Park against Kildimo Pallaskenry last Saturday 19th June.
Pictured here with his proud granduncle Tom Barrett who captained the 1963 Junior County Champions Team

ALONE

ALONE is a national organisation that strives to enable older people to age at home, safely and securely, for as long as they wish. We work with all older people, including those who are lonely, isolated, frail or ill, homeless, living in poverty, or are facing other difficulties

ALONE is encouraging older people who need advice to call ALONE on 0818 222 024 from 8am-8pm, seven days a week. Contact ALONE if you have concerns about your own wellbeing, or the wellbeing of an older person you know. Further information can be found on www.alone.ie.

Alone are actively recruiting visitation support and befriending volunteers in  Moyvane and surrounding areas.

If you would like to volunteer with ALONE see the volunteer section of the Alone.ie website.

Vaccination at O’Riordan’s Pharmacy

O’Riordan’s Pharmacy are delighted to announce that we will be vaccinating people against the Covid 19 virus, hopefully by the end of this week (18 June) or early next week depending on delivery. We are only allowed vaccinate ANYONE OVER 50 WHO HAS NOT RECEIVED ANOTHER COVID VACCINE at present. This will probably change as the vaccination roll out progresses. The vaccine we are getting is the Janssen or Johnson & Johnson one shot vaccine which does not require a booster. Please phone the shop to book an appointment 068 42418. We will need your PPS number, Eircode and date of birth.

Knockanure Meals on Wheels

Knockanure Community Centre is providing a “Meals on Wheels” service since March 2020.

We operate on Monday, Wednesday & Friday with the option of a 7 day service if required. Home delivery or pick up at the centre is available.

For more information or to book meals please contact the Community Centre on 068-49799 or Paudie on 087-9957611.

Lost

A black, lightweight walking cane, in Templeathea Cemetery on Sunday, June 13th. Owner is offering a reward

Please Phone: 068-42646 if found or drop it in to Athea Community Council office.

St. Bartholomew’s Church, Athea

Mass Intentions next weekend

Fri June 25^th 7.30pm:                  Tim & Margaret Enright and their son

Paddy Enright (month’s mind).

Tommy (Willie) Liston.

Sat June 26^th 7.30pm:                 Mary & Mossie Browne. Nellie, Denny  & Mick Mullane.

All masses and funeral masses are live streamed on the Church Services TV network via the following link https://churchservices.tv/athea

The Church is open daily for private prayer. If you wish to book an anniversary mass, a wedding or get a mass card signed please contact Fr. Brendan on 087-0562674 or

Siobhán on 087-2237858.

Baptismal Information Any parent who wishes to baptise their child must have the baptismal course completed – for further details please contact Theresa on 087 1513565.

Course Dates:   Tues 13^th July/ Tues 10^th August.

Graduation Mass for this year’s 6^th class will take place on Wednesday morning, June 23^rd at 11.30am. This mass will be live streamed and recorded to be viewed later on the church services website.

Sacristan’s Collection – Thank you most sincerely for your contribution to the recent sacristan’s collection. Your generosity is much appreciated.

“Lucky Numbers” Lottery

The weekly Community Council Lottery, our main source of funding, will resume in the coming weeks as Covid restrictions are eased. If you would like to help us pleas purchase a ticket by clicking on the following link and completing the application:

Lucky Nos Online Form

The Way I See It

By Domhnall de Barra

The question is; is there light at the end of the tunnel or is it the light of an approaching train?  We are almost out of the Covid pandemic but the experts tell us we are not safe yet. There is no doubt that the vaccination of a large portion of the population is making a huge difference. As older people are made safe, the numbers in hospital continue to come down and also the number of people dying as a result of contracting the virus. On the other hand there are many new cases every day, especially among the younger generations so the virus is still spreading and with new variants being discovered that are more easily transmitted, we must still be on our guard. It hasn’t been easy for the past 15 months but we can take some lessons from what has happened. We must never take those we love for granted. Some people have been separated from their families for a long time and though they could talk to each other and see each other on phones and computer screens it could never compensate for the physical contact that we all crave. I think we have become more aware of our neighbour’s needs, especially those who may have difficulty getting about and need a helping hand. For me, the best thing that has come out of it is the restructuring of the Leaving Cert exam. I have always thought it very unfair that a person’s future can be decided on the results of one written exam after five or six years study. There are too many things that can go wrong. At the time of the exam, a student may not be in the best of health or have an off day. It is also a lottery as to what questions are on the paper. Maybe there is a subject that has not been covered in depth at the school as it is difficult to cover all bases. Then we have the correcting of the papers. This is done by several people throughout the country. Suppose the person correcting the papers is having an off day, the marks awarded may not be as high as they otherwise might have been. On the other hand if he/she is in a particularly good mood, marks awarded may be higher. I have no doubt that they are doing their best but they are only human and we know what human error is capable of. I think we are going down the right road with a twin based approach; written exam and continual assessment. The overall performance of a student throughout the school years has to be taken into consideration as well as the ability to sit a written exam. Then we have the points system that determines what college course is on offer. They are affected by the number of places available rather than the suitability of a particular student for their chosen profession. Medicine always demands very high marks but these marks can be obtained in subjects like Irish, Mathematics, Geography, History and many more that have no bearing whatsoever on whether somebody will make a good doctor or not. I hope the government will not revert to the old system, when things go back to normal, but will take a good look at a new way of doing things. We owe it to future generations to give them a fairer crack of the whip.

The situation in the North of Ireland is a cause for alarm as the DUP implodes on itself. It is difficult to see how the assembly will work when that party is so set on not giving way to anything that they see as weakening their control in the community.  It is hard to see why they are so against the Irish language act, an act that has already been agreed in the assembly, since it is no different from what happens in Wales and Scotland. Like it or not, the Irish language is important to a great number of people throughout the North and is not in itself a threat to anything. It will take an exceptional new leader to pull the party together and drag them into the present time. The glory days of Unionism are long gone and it is only a matter of time before they are a minority group as every census shows that  the nationalist population is growing far faster than they are. There is provision for a border poll at some stage but I don’t think now is the time to broach that. Only when all parties have respect for each other will we have progress but, alas, we are far away from that at the moment. Sinn Féin also need to tone down the rhetoric a bit but they can see a bright future for the party, on both sides of the border, and that will encourage them. There is much political horse trading to be done between the EU and the UK regarding  the protocol and the mess that has been caused by Boris Johnson and his cronies who got Brexit through by lying to the British public. Whatever happens, we can never again go back to the dark days of conflict in the North so it is up to all political parties to pull their weight. Where there is a will, there is a way.!

Nature is a wonderful thing. On our way to Tralee on Saturday morning last, Noreen and myself, took a little detour on the Castleisland side of Abbeyfeale to have a look at a hedge in front of Dillane’s Shop near Fealesbridge that Noreen had heard about. The hedge in question is covered completely with strong, grey webbing as shown on the photos below. I thought it was some species of spider that created this wonder but no, it is, apparently, a rare moth who uses the webbing for protection. I have never seen anything like it in my 76 years on this earth and I must say it has a certain kind of beauty all of its own. If any of you are passing that way, have a look.

The webbed hedge at Fealesbridge