by Kathleen Mullane
‘Bits and Bobs’
Firstly good wishes and sincere congratulations are sent to Betty and John Murphy of Gortnagross who celebrated their Golden Jubilee last week – 50 years of ‘Wedded Bliss’. Family ravelled from overseas for the great occasion and Mass was concelebrated by Fr Larry Madden PP and Fr Tim O’Leary. Family, relatives and friends enjoyed a lovely evening at the Listowel Arms Hotel. Here’s to many more years of health and happiness for them both.
Have we a “star” in our midst – hopefully so! Young Megan Carroll (daughter of Margaret and Tommy) got her call last week from the FAI to attend trials for the Irish U-17 Girls International panel. Megan, who is only 14 years old, was spotted by FAI scouts during the year while representing North Munster. Megan has been part of Athea United, Abbey United and Newcastle West and they all wish to join and wish her the best for the trials in Dublin on Friday. Fingers crossed for Megan.
The much acclaimed “Pilgrim Hill” is making its Limerick debut this weekend when it will be shown at The Memorial Hall on Sunday night next November 6th at 7.30pm. Gerard Barrett is really making a name for himself in film production in recent years and this is his first full length film following his success with “The Valley of Knockanure”. Gerard’s mother Peggy hailed from Knocknagorna .
Well, there’s a lot going on this weekend with The Fashion Show on Friday night at The Gables – it should be great , especially with all local models etc and of course ‘Jules’. Then on Saturday 5th is the ‘Fair of the Village’ hopefully we will have a nice dry day for it. It makes all the difference – and no doubt there will be a great ‘BUZZ’ around the place for a change. Then of course to round off the weekend on Sunday night as I’ve stated there’s ‘Pilgrim Hill’.
And , of course, coming shortly due to popular demand – is the showing again on two Sunday nights of ‘Walking on Sunshine’ on November 13th and November 20th – as some people were unable to get in to see it such was the volume of people . And mark my words Daniel Barry who performed along with Ruth Walsh on the show (he’s grandson of Noreen and Donal) will have his name in ‘lights yet – what a talented young man and of course not forgetting Jessica and Damien Ahern- such youth and vitality.
With Christmas on the doorstep please don’t forget your shoe boxes for the Christmas appeal. There will be many ‘happy faces’ overseas when they are delivered to the less fortunate, so put them together and drop them into the school or the co-ordinator Teresa Flavin.
Sympathy is extended to Mai Mullane of Templeathea on the death of her sister Mrs Moloney over the weekend at Milford Hospice and to Denis Murphy of Dirreen on the death of his mother in Templeglantine. ‘May They Rest in Peace’.
Watch out for the “Athea Banner” on this Friday at the game between Australia and Ireland (International Rules) on the Gold Coast, Australia. Jamie Hayes will be there with friends having been part of the team who erected this great stadium. Jamie is son of Patsy and James, Templeathea.
oulI�v ��q �Ci t in many other directions including the right of intervention and to be able to speak out on behalf of a constituent where there is a suspicion that something is wrong and unfair in a legal matter. We all know that in recent years some Dáil Deputies have been censored for speaking out in this context and even one lost his ministerial position because he stood up for a constituent and that in itself was also very unfair and even senseless, and anyway what are public representatives for, if not to intervene in any relevant matter on behalf of their constituents.
It is to be hoped that last week’s exercise in democracy throughout our state for the powers that be will provide a valuable lesson that the voice of the people is ultimately the defining factor.
While there was a whole lot of nonsense in the course of the Presidential campaign and very many needless recriminations one of the most stupid questions of all was asked by a fairly youngish woman in the frontline programme when she question Martin McGuinness as to why he came to seek election from another country to what she termed “our country”. One wonders if this lady has ever hear of Armagh, Down, Tyrone or Derry ever winning an All-Ireland final or the Irish Rugby team being selected from all over Ireland, before pretending to be smart and asking a silly and ridiculous question.
But then again of course it’s a free country where people can ask questions no matter how senseless.
Anyway as in the words of that popular song “it’s all over now” and Michael D is in the Áras. We hope he will have a happy reign for the next seven years.
Celebrating Killing
There is little doubt that there is something weird and sinister about people going out to shout, roar and demonstrate in streets in cities and towns in any given country in order to celebrate the killing of a former leader or for that matter anyone else. This was very much in evidence during recent weeks in Libya after the killing of the former ruler of the country Colonel Gaddafi and members of his family. Killing anyone no matter who they are is bad enough, but then going onto the streets chanting, waving, flags and generally acting like hooligans is uncivilised and obscene when these people go at it to celebrate someone’s death. The NATO powers went in to Libya to intervene in the civil war there. Does anyone think that this interference will bring people together and bring peace to Libya no more that it has done in Vietnam, in Iraq, Afghanistan and in many other countries all over the world? Interference in the internal affairs of another country does not generate peace, it usually leaves behind it a bloody civil war. We had an example of this even here when the British left in 1921.But fair play to the Irish people on all sides, they never went out celebrating the deaths of even the most notorious Black and Tans or British Army Officers during the War of Independence, whatever about the living our people always respected the dead. In the civil war the IRA never celebrated the deaths of Free Staters and to give the Free State government and the Free State army due we never heard of them publicly celebrating the deaths of Republican leaders or army members. It was the same during the more recent war in the North, the IRA did not celebrate publicly the deaths of leading or other Loyalists or British Army members who were killed and neither did the Loyalists or even the RUC and British Army did not celebrate the deaths of leading IRA officers and members who were killed or died on hunger strike.
The only organisations who occasionally did celebrate the deaths of militant Republicans were British newspapers, but not all of them done so.
So it would appear as regards respect for the dead that all our people on both sides of the border, unionist and nationalist, loyalist and republican, have one thing in common, respect and reverence for the dead. That is indeed a good thing of which all Irish people have reason to feel proud, unlike other nations who prefer to celebrate death rather than life.
The Bins
It now appears that all householders in the country who live within 200 metres of a bin collection point must now register with a bin collection company to take away their waste or in default to face ongoing fines.
This is just another crazy measure being imposed and very likely emanating from European bureaucrats to create further financial problems and possibly make criminals out of ordinary decent householders who refuse to comply. Many people were taking their waste to council dumps and paying for it but whether this practice can continue or not we do not yet know