by Kathleen Mullane

“Is Anything Sacred Anymore”

It’s actually very hard for me to write my few lines this week. Having enjoyed the day immensely at Michael Moran’s wedding (Tommy and Sheila’s son) along with the rest of the Athea contingent at “The Red Cow” in Dublin and moreover at their beautiful home after the Mass. And to see how a young lad from Toureen, Athea, whose father died when they were all very young, along with 2 young brothers later on and who had worked so hard, and now along with his lovely wife Sheila and very closely knit daughters and sons can now enjoy the “fruits of his labours”, and has come up in the world such a long way – all I can say is “fair dues to him”!

Then on Monday morning I go up the yard at 7.00am to do my usual – feed the cats , then the kittens, the hens and baby chickens to discover firstly that the lock on one of my shed doors had been broken or sawn off – then worst of all to realise that all the copper tanks, pipes and fittings that had been separated by Mike Flavin and John Scanlon from the heavy scrap heap, for separate sale to the scrap dealers had been stolen while we were asleep on Sunday night. This was copper and fittings etc that people from the parish and beyond had so willingly given us for our scrap-fundraiser for the hall and that Mike and John had spent time and energy separating, cutting the tops off and filling the copper tanks with and this is what happens!

I am appealing to everyone in the parish to keep an eye out for any strange vehicles in the area. – Please take the reg number, it may be insignificant, but then again, it may be a help!

“We have to stand up for our civil rights”.

The Garda Sergeant who came out to take the details said that ‘copper’ was being taken left, right and centre from around , as it’s making good money, they even have been known to try and steal copper and bronze statues etc recently. Now we are minus this €500-€600 for our fund-raiser which was going so well. We are asking if ye have anymore scrap or heavy metal, batteries, old cars etc. to please let us have them , and also if as many as possible would come along and climb Mangerton mountain on June 26th as our “Family Fund-raiser” – if the families in the parish would take a sponsorship card and maybe the aunts, uncles and cousins would sponsor a couple of euro. The bus will leave at 8.30am. If you need a seat, ring me on 087-1233361.

Whoever stole our copper remember ‘the wheel is always turning’.