Heartfelt Thanks

We, the family of the late Paudie Mullane of Knocknagorna, Athea, would like to express our deepest appreciation for everyone’s sympathy as we mourn Paudie’s loss.

We thank sincerely the Gárdaí, the Community First Responders, the Medical Staff of Westbury Medical Centre, Athea and the Ambulance Staff, all who came to Paudie’s aid and helped out.

Sincere thanks to our kind neighbours and friends who did so much for us in our time of need. To everyone who brought food to our home and helped out at our home during the funeral.

To all of you who came to sympathise with us and shared memories of Paudie’s life, the phone calls and words of condolence meant so much to us all.

We would especially like to thank Canon Tony Mullins who helped us through our difficult days and to all the clergy who concelebrated the beautiful mass for us, the music making it so special.

To Kelly’s Undertakers, along with those who managed the traffic, we extend a huge THANK YOU. To Paudie’s workmates and all who reached out to us at the most difficult of times, we are so grateful for your continued and love. Paudie will be sadly missed by all who knew him.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers. God Bless you All.

Mary B., Conor, Thomás, Sean, Conor and extended family.

ST. BARTHOLOMEW’S CHURCH, ATHEA

Mass Intentions this week:

Wed Aug 10^th 9.30am – Madeline, Paddy & Ellen Mulvihill.

Sat Aug 13^th at 7.30pm – Martin Dalton and Thomas & Bridget O’Sullivan. Tom & Bridie Moran   (Clash Rd),

Sr. Molly Sheehy, Brian Sheehy and the extended Moran & Sheehy families.

Readers: Denise O’Riordan & John Redmond.

Eucharistic Ministers:    Angela Brouder O’Byrne & Margaret Ahern

Morning mass this week on Wednesday at 9.30am followed by Eucharistic Adoration and the Devine Mercy Chaplet.

All masses can be viewed online via the following link https://www.churchservices.tv/athea

Mass at Templeathea Cemetery on Tuesday evening Aug 9^th at 7.30pm                                                                                                

Parish office hours:  (Mon – Fri) 11am to 1pm.

Contact Siobhán on 087-3331459

or email [email protected] – outside of these hours please leave a voice/text message.

Thank You

Sincere thanks to all my neighbours, friends and family for your prayers, get well cards, Mass Cards, phone calls, gifts and visits in hospital and at home.

All your kindness is helping in my recovery.

Heartfelt thanks, Mary Barrett, Lower Dirreen.

Athea Drama Group

Our AGM will take place on August 31st at 8pm at Con Colbert Memorial Hall. We hope to put plans in place for our 2023 production & hit the stage in Spring 2023. Come along to our AGM. New members especially welcome.

ATHEA TIDY TOWNS ARE GOING FOR GOLD

We are delighted to announce that Athea has once again been shortlisted in the Limerick Going for Gold Tidy Towns Category, along with 29 other groups from Limerick. There are two parts to this competition, a Radio interview together with a public vote and also a visit by the Judges.
The judges will visit anytime in August/ September and will judge the area inside the speed limit signs. We require the help and support of the residents by assisting us in the following ways;

1. Ensuring boundary walls are washed and painted on all approach roads
2. Ensuring the village as well as approach roads are kept litter free.
3. Ensuring there is no weed growth on kerbs, flower beds etc.
   On the day of our Radio interview, we will be interviewed together with  five other groups. From these six, one group will progress to the grand final. Voting will take place online, and we will be sharing the link for votes as soon as it is forwarded to us. Voting will take place from 12 Midday to 12 Mid-night. We will let everyone know when we know our date for the interview.

This competition carries a prize fund of €10,000 which would be of huge benefit to us if we won, allowing us to continue our work on making Athea a better place to live, work or visit.
Thanks to everyone for their continued support.

The Way I See It

By Domhnall de Barra

I can’t believe that we are only a week into August and already we have had the All-Ireland finals in hurling, football, camogie and ladies football. The All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil is also over after a fantastic week in Mullingar, the place where Comhaltas began back in 1951.  I was used to a sort of structure to the year and looked forward to  times when certain things occurred.  Late spring and early summer was the time for the provincial championships, August was for the semi-finals with the All-Ireland Fleadh at the end of the month and September was the time we looked forward to most of all with the hurling final on the first weekend and the football final on the third. The Listowel Races were on the week after the football final and that put an end to the summer season and we settled in to the longer nights and the colder weather with Halloween breaking the time between there and Christmas. The Summer was nicely spaced out with something to look forward to all the time but now, at this early stage we have only the races left and even they have been brought forward from their dates and somehow don’t have the same appeal as they used to. There seems to be a big void with nothing to fill it; yes we have the club championships but it is not the same as the big occasions that kept us going for another month or more. Maybe I am just set in my ways but I liked the old system and I have little to look forward to at the moment. I did enjoy the games this year, especially the ladies football and camogie. They were fantastic games with the greatest level of skill and sportsmanship on display. The ladies sport has come on in leaps and bounds and now attracts a very big following. They deserve no less support than their male counterparts and I strongly feel they should all be part of the same organisation with equal claims to finance and facilities.

As I already alluded to, the Fleadh is over too and this year, the first in a few years to be attended by the general public, there was nightly coverage by TG4 on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. While it is great to see the programmes, I must admit to being less than impressed by them. Mullingar was teeming with the very best of traditional entertainers but the producers of the programmes insisted on including individuals and bands who, though famous in their own right, have nothing to do with traditional music and give the wrong impression to viewers who might think this is what Comhaltas is all about. It wasn’t all bad and I was delighted to see people like Louise Mulcahy from Abbeyfeale and Dan Brouder, of Monagea extraction (brother of Jerry, Gale View) who showed just how good the musicians from this neck of the woods are.  We could have done with more of their type of music instead of the gimmicky groups that depend on strange rhythms and foreign influences to get their music across. The success of the Fleadh, over the years, has shown that traditional Irish music needs no frills and can stand on its own two feet with the beautiful tunes handed down from generation to generation. The sooner those who pull the strings in TG4 realise that, the better.

There is a lovely word in the Irish language, “Pleidhchíocht” (pronounced ply keeecht) which was used around here when I was younger and is included in Timmy Woulfe’s excellent book “As Tough as Táthfhéithleann” and means blackguarding or as my mother used to say “caffling”.  It was basically young people letting off steam and making fun at the expense of others, especially those who might not be too bright. Swapping gates on fields by the roadside was a common occurrence and was usually done late at night. On one occasion, a group of young lads were coming home from a dance in the early hours of the morning. It was at this time of the year, in the middle of a heat wave, and the moon was shining. As the weather was good it was common for people to leave the washing out on the line overnight as did two neighbours, Nell Noonan and Maig Saunders in Cratloe. The boys took Nell’s clothes and put them on Maig’s line and did the reverse with the other line. Imagine the surprise the two women got when they went out to take in their washing the following day!  Another bit of tomfoolery was to untackle an ass from his cart and re-tackle him turned the wrong way.  I was told of a prank that took place long ago when radios were new and very scarce. People would ramble to a house that had a radio just to hear the news. They couldn’t be bothered with any other programmes. In one such house there were two brothers who were great pranksters but were also involved in amplification. They decide to play a trick on a couple of elderly neighbours who regularly visited at night. They set up a mike in the bedroom behind the kitchen and attached it to the radio set. At news time, one of them pretended to turn on the radio and the other lad proceeded to read out the news from the bedroom. He gave a few general news stories and then said as follows: “A whale was washed ashore near Ballybunion last night and ate a whole pit of spuds belonging to John Sullivan”. One of the old men said to the other “great God, that poor man. What will he feed his family for the winter?”  I suppose there was no real harm in the “pleidhchíocht” and it kept them all amused for a while.  They wouldn’t get away with it today.