Athea Drama Group

Present

“Lovely Leitrim”

 

Everyone over a certain age remembers “Lovely Leitrim” sung by Larry Cunningham. Now it is the title of Athea Drama Group’s latest production, a play of emigration and land, beginning on Saturday night next, February 25th in the Con Colbert Memorial Hall. The play is written by Leitrim man John McDwyer who also wrote  “Unforgiven” which was staged by this group a couple of years ago.

It moves between a farmhouse and pub in Leitrim to an Irish pub in London where exiles meet after a match between Leitrim and London. Set in modern times it uncovers the pain of separation from home and the land and could easily be about this part of the country. A cast of ten men and two women have been rehearsing for a few months and it should be well worth a visit. It plays on the following dates:  Sat. 25th, & Sun. 26th February,  Thurs. 1st, Sat. 3rd & Sun. 4th March. Don’t miss it!

 

Athea Coiste na nÓg

 

Registration for U-6’s up to U-16’s will take place on this Sunday 26th of February in the Clubhouse in Páirc na nGael from 12:30pm to 1:30pm. Cost of registration is €25 for one child and €40 for a family of 2 or more. A refund amount of €10 will be offered to parent(s) who help out the club with fundraising during the year. For any child who will be registering with the club for the first time it will cost €15.

Athea Community Games

Church Gate Collection

 

The annual church gate collection for Athea Community Games will be taken up before Masses this weekend 25^th and 26^th February.

 ATHEA ROAD RACE PRESS RELEASE

 

Athea Road Race Club regrettably wish to announce that this year’s event will not be taking place.

After coming back last year, we experienced a number of problems with the road surfacing of the circuit and also with the drawdown of the grants due to the current banking situation.

The club has not reached this decision lightly and we hope to run again in 2013.

Thanking everyone for their continued support and wishing everyone every success for the 2012 season.

Keep‘er Lit.

Athea Road Race Club.

21^st February 2012.

 

ABBEYFEALE TOWN PARK

 

A meeting to discuss the future of Abbeyfeale Town Park will be held at St. Ita’s Hall on Tuesday, February 28 at 8pm.  The park plays an integral role in the leisure hours of the people of Abbeyfeale and its hinterland and it is essential that this important meeting is well supported.

 

Listowel Community College

Open Evening for Adult Learners

 

Listowel Community College will be holding its Open Evening for Adult Learners on Thursday  March 1^st from 4pm-7pm.

A large number of Post Leaving Certificate courses are on offer from Childcare, Business, Secretarial, Sport, Recreation, Hairdressing, Furniture Making, Journalism, Horticulture, Cultural Heritage, Music, Community Care and many others .

We have a VTOS programme for adults who have been out of education and wish to return to complete their leaving certificate or to participate in a PLC course.

Enrolment for Post Primary will also take place Thursday March 1^st 4pm-7pm

All staff will be available to answer all questions  in relation to all programmes.  You can contact the school at 068 61023 or e mail [email protected].

 

West Limerick CDP

The ADD/ADHD support group will meet in St. Ita’s Hall on Wednesday February 29^th 2012. Parents who attended the ADD/ADHD workshops by Mid West Support Group are welcome.  This support group is open to any parent/carer who has a concern regarding ADD/ADHD and co-existing conditions.

Michael De Villiers Educational Psychologist will talk on ADD/ADHD on Thursday February 23^rd in Newcastle West Family & Community Hub.  Time 7.30pm to 9pm.

Tina O Brien Child Psychologist and Play Therapist will talk on grief and loss on February 20^th 7.30pm to 9pm and on February 27^th 11.30am 12.30pm.

All of the above are supported by West Limerick Resources and HSE

Contact  069 79113 or 087 9382883

 

 

Down Syndrome Limerick

Church Gate Collection

 

Down Syndrome Limerick would like to thank all those who gave so generously to the Church gate collection which amounted to €735.46.

Thanks also to those who helped with the collection.

 

 

Parish of Templeglantine

International Eucharistic Congress

Dublin June 10th – 17th 2012

 

A bus will travel from our Pastoral Area on Monday, Wednesday and Friday of the Eucharistic Congress week to the RDS.

Those interested should give their names and contact tel no. To the following as soon as possible: Fr. Bowen 087-6532482, Mike Hayes 087-7751386, Pat Higgins 087-2034626. The cost is €35 approx including bus and entry to the RDS.

The Principal Mass of the Eucharistic Congress will be celebrated in Croke Park on June 17th. There are 18 tickets allocated to each parish. Tickets €10 each. Anybody who is interested in going should hand in their name immediately as we need to know how many are interested. We will have to have a lottery if there are more than 18 names. Those who attend the Mass will be asked to fill in a simple health and safety form for the IEC Head Office. These forms have to be in the Limerick Office by March 9th.

Anyone who registers for three consecutive days of events during the week will be guaranteed a ticket for the closing Mass in Croke Park. There are 30,000 tickets for the closing ceremony set aside for those who attend the RDS events. Therefore anyone wishing to secure a ticket for Croke Park can register for three consecutive day’s events for €60 even if they do not attend these events. These bookings can be done online at www.iec2012.ie or try IEC Dublin.

There will be a day conference, open to everybody, in Limerick, in preparation for the International conference on Sat. March 10th. in the Halla, Mary Immaculate College from 10.30 to 4.00 Cost €30 including lunch, payable on the day.

“Communion with Christ and with One Another” a talks series in preparation for the Eucharistic Conference, in Newcastlw West Pastoral Centre on March 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th from 8 – 9.30pm

 

Athea Drama Group getting ready for Sat. 25th in the Con Colbert Hall

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lucky Numbers Draw

18/ 02/ ‘12    1, 5, 21, 22.   No Winner

Lucky Dips

€50      Anna Sweeney, Hillside Drive

€30      Tom Quinn, The Gables

€20      Margaret Carroll, Athea

Anne Denihan, Lower Athea

Jack Keane, Upper Athea

Josephine O’Connor, Limerick

Sellers Prizes:     Brouder’s Shop,     Ellen Quille

Next Draw:  25/02/’12      Jackpot: €4,300

Venue: Batt’s

by Pat Brosnan

 

Statutory Regulation Needed

 

By all accounts Fine Gael Dáil Deputy Dan Neville who is also the President of the Irish Association of Suicidology has called for regulations to be introduced in order to prevent unqualified people setting themselves up as mental health counsellors or psychotherapists and apparently there is no legislation or regulation to prevent them from doing so. According to Dan Neville anyone can put up a sign without any knowledge, qualifications or experience in the field of mental health and charge €80 per hour for a service for which they may not be qualified.  This practice, as Dan Neville is reported to have stated, could be extremely dangerous to vulnerable people. There is little doubt that those who are suffering from what is commonly known as “nerves” or any other form of mental illness are liable to chance anything to find a cure, so it is there unqualified practitioners find a ready demand for their so-called services. Mental illness is a very complex condition which even top highly qualified psychiatrists or psychologists find it often difficult enough to diagnose or treat, but one can imagine how a person with little or no experience of mental conditions are far less capable of dealing with it. So there is no doubt that Dan Neville is perfectly right in calling for a regulation on unqualified people who profess to be able to treat those with mental illness and charge fees for doing so. Any proffered treatment by some of these dubious people where money is the motive should be treated with suspicion and caution. On the other hand, however, there are some very reputable voluntary organisations providing help for those who are mentally afflicted such as the Samaritans who listen to people’s problems without being judgemental or intrusive and are doing a great service in assisting those who ring them up particularly those who may be in the process of contemplating killing themselves or possibly someone else. Unlike those who pretend to treat or cure unfortunate mental patients for money, the Samaritans do not provide their services for financial reward, but out of a sense of charity and commitment to their less fortunate fellow citizens.  They and other similar charitable organisations who provide help and consultation to mentally disturbed people in their time of need deserve the highest praise. We were glad that our own youngest girl Breda was a Samaritan volunteer during the years back in the ‘90’s when she worked in London several years ago.  Even those of us who have had many years experience of working in psychiatric hospitals never considered setting ourselves up as mental health counsellors or psychotherapists in our time and taking money from patients who would come seeking help for their condition.  While naturally we would give whatever advice or help that we could to those who might by physically or mentally unwell demanding payment for this particularly by unqualified people would surely be morally wrong and Dan Neville’s suggestion that legislation should be enacted to bring in proper regulation would surely be the proper way forward.  In the meantime if this is not done there is going to be a lot of disappointment among mental patients and their families if they continue to consult and depend on unqualified operators to either treat or cure their condition.

 

Late Nora O’Sullivan

The death has occurred recently in England of Nora O’Sullivan (nee Harnett) who was a sister of the late Maureen Barry of Cratloe West and an aunt of the Barry family there. Nora spent much of her life living in England in the Coventry area where her own family are situated, but she came back to live in Gortnagross for some time but returned again to England some years later.  Nora was a religious person, a devout Catholic and a member of the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association and used regularly attend Pioneer meetings in Athea when she lived in Gortnagross. She used also attend daily Mass very often. Sympathy is extended to her family, her nieces, nephews and other relatives. ‘May her soul rest in peace’.

 

Cutbacks Hit Protestant Schools

According to recent media reports the Church of Ireland Bishop of Limerick, Killaloe and Ardfert Rt. Reverend Trevor Williams has drawn attention of how recent cuts in Department of education grants have had a highly disproportionate effect on Protestant Schools. The Bishop is patron of ten Primary schools out of eleven that serve the Church of Ireland and Protestant Community in Limerick, Kerry, Clare as well as parts of Galway and Tipperary often in isolated areas. Changes in transport arrangements have apparently hit the scattered Protestant communities hardest because some of the latest cuts which have included the withdrawal of transport subsidies means that it is now more difficult for families to get their children to schools of their own religious ethos unlike the Catholic Schools which are more localised and more convenient to the pupils attending there.  This is grossly unfair to the Protestant people who want their children educated in schools of their own denomination. Then, of course, transport is only part of the problems there are, as in all other schools around the country cutbacks and reductions in the teacher/ pupil ratio and the cutbacks in the resources to provide Special Needs Teachers for Church of Ireland schools. While all those cutbacks in the Department of Education grants and subsidies are having an effect on all schools and colleges Primary, Secondary and 3^rd Level it looks as if at Primary Level anyway these are having a particularly devastating effect on the Protestant Community in our country.

By all accounts Bishop Williams recently called a meeting of School Chairpersons and Principals at Adare to discuss the projected budget cuts.  Also it appears that Dr Ken Tennelly, Secretary to the Church of Ireland Board of Education pointed out that some 65% of 174 Church of Ireland Schools in the State are affected by the Retention Schedule and will lose a mainstream class teacher. 40 schools have less than 24 pupils and 38 schools will become 1 teacher. 90 schools have between 26 and 86 pupils.  The Bishop is also reported as having stated that Church of Ireland schools will see a reduction in the capitation grant of 6% over the next 4 years and that they stand to lose a teacher and have the class size increased. So while the Irish Protestant Community are likely to have to endure most from the education cutbacks it is also going to affect everyone else. One wonders if the Minister for Education has any interest whatsoever in the promotion of the religious ethos of the schools both Catholic and Protestant, or does he prefer to see religious teaching phased out in these seats of learning. Did anybody ever tell him of the immortal saying of Padraig Pearse “Educate that you may be freed” and as far as equal treatment in education for the Protestant Community is concerned the 1916 ideal “cherishing all the children of the Nation equally” is also relevant . It is certainly time that Minister Quinn and his Department of Education got their act together and woke up to the realities of 2012 whether it concerns the administration and teaching of religion in the schools or indeed any other learning subject.