by Tom Aherne

Congratulations and best wishes to Patrick O’Donovan, Ardagh, and Imelda Cumiskey who were married recently in Saint Molua’s Church, Ardagh. They celebrated the occasion at their reception in the Killarney Heights Hotel.

Congratulations and best wishes to Mary Kelly, Kerrikyle, Ardagh, and Fergal Mooney, Douglas, Cork, who were married recently in Saint Colman’s Church Kilcolman. The ceremony was performed by Fr Denis Mullane and the Reception was held in the Woodlands House Hotel Adare.

Congratulations to the recent winners in the Carrig Celtic AFC 300 Club Draw held in Moore’s Bar, Carrigkerry. €1,000 Kieran Brouder. €250 Joe Copse. €50 each to John O’Connor, Mike Liston, and Noel Broderick. The fifth and final draw will be held on Sunday 1^st July which is also the date for the Euro Soccer Final in Kiev. It costs €10 to enter and all support appreciated.

The 50^th staging of the four-yearly Eucharistic Congress commenced on Sunday last 10^th June in the RDS in Ballsbridge Dublin. An estimated 10,000 people, including many pilgrims from overseas, attended.  The annual collection in aid of the Eucharistic Congress was taken up in Ardagh/Carrigkerry Parish last week-end. A number of people from the local area attended the various ceremonies held in Dublin over the past week.

The death took place of May Mansi (nee Upton) in London on Wednesday 16^th May. She was a native of Old Mill and her burial took place in London. Sympathy to her daughter, son, grandchildren, brother, extended family members and friends. Her Month’s Mind Mass was held in Saint Molua’s Church Ardagh, on Saturday 16^th June. May she rest in Peace.

Limerick County Council recommenced work to repair Glensharrold Bridge on Thursday 31^st May. It was damaged on 24^th November 2011 and the road from Geoghegan’s Cross to Keating’s Cross in Upper Glensharrold has been closed since. The river was diverted to run under another smaller bridge further down the road on Thursday 1^st March, and left that way as the Council decided what to do about it. The road has been closed since adding miles to people’s destinations as they go about their daily business, be it to work, school, farm, shop and church. The heavy rain has caused further damage in recent weeks and a major job now needs to be done to get it back to its original condition. The latest flood caused damage to the second smaller bridge which will now have to be repaired again. A case of Nero fiddling while Rome burns, as the people suffer for the unnecessary delay in getting the bridge repaired. The people have been treated very badly as the Council has wasted seven months on inspections, discussions and planning and plenty mileage allowances adding up. This bridge could have been repaired months ago when the weather was dry and little water passed through under the smaller bridge if the Council had got their act together. The work is currently in the early stages and people are wishing it will be repaired quickly as it is causing a lot of people excess time and mileage costs to detour to their destinations.

The following are the Lottery results from the draw held in Moore’s Bar Carrigkerry on Monday 11^th June. The numbers drawn were 13,16,24,25, and there was no Jackpot winner. Congratulations to the lucky dip winners as follows.

€60 Katie and Seán Mullins, Newcastle West. €60 Kathleen Sheehy, Kilcolman. €60 Mattie and Stephen c/o Moore’s Bar. €30 Tom O’Sullivan, c/o Lynch’s Bar. €30 Mike Magner, Coolanoran. €30 Ann Mullins, Ardagh. Next week’s draw takes place in Neary’s Bar Ardagh and the Jackpot will be €18,200.

The Friends of Saint Ita’s Community Hospital wish to thank the collectors and everyone who contributed so generously to their recent Church gate Collection in Kilcolman. The amount collected was €341.10 which will go towards the ongoing improvements, for the patients in Saint Ita’s Community Hospital, Newcastle West.

The Limerick G.A.A. Club Draw for June was held on Friday 8^th June, at the Idler Bar, Knockane. Congratulations to Maureen Long from the Saint Kieran’s Club, who won tickets for the All Ireland Hurling Weekend. The next Draw will be held in Skuller’s Bar, Dromcollogher, on Friday 6^th July.

Congratulations to Donal Dineen, Ardagh, who won the €250 special bonus prize in the Newcastle West RFC Lottery Draw held in Fitzgerald’s Bar, Newcastle West, on Friday 8^th June.

A big thank you to all who supported our inaugural Dog Night held recently at Limerick Greyhound Stadium. It was a great success. Our deep gratitude goes to our advertisers, nominators and raffle sponsors who were so generous. Special thanks to Duggan/Hayes Family, kind sponsors of the Johnny Duggan Memorial Stake. This Stake added much local interest on the night. Our Finance Committee is to be congratulated on the smooth running of the night. The many hours of planning had paid dividends. Alva, Ide and Moira hosted our Club Stand and added a real touch of glamour to the proceedings. Two Carrigkerry natives were in the winners enclosure on the night. Neilie Brouder won our Nominators Prize of €200, while local soccer legend Pat Dalton held the winning sequence to trap our Buster Prize of €500. Heartiest congratulations to both. Finally, a big thank you to all players and members who took on the not too pleasant task of selling tickets. We greatly appreciate the wonderful backing and encourage you to support those who support us.

West Limerick 102 FM Community Radio is holding their AGM in the Desmond Complex, Newcastle West on this Wednesday 20^th June at 8pm and all are welcome to attend.

The final fundraising draw will take place on Thursday 28^th June, and tickets can be purchased at the Station in Newcastle West, or from committee members.

Limerick County Council is offering limited funding to grant-aid work in burial grounds.  Application forms are now available and can be obtained by contacting the water services department at Telephone: 061 496394 or alternatively by emailing Maureen Dillon at [email protected] The closing date for receipt of completed applications is Friday 22^nd June 2012.

The Newcastle West branch of Saint Joseph’s Young Priests Society will travel to Knock on Saturday 23^rd June. A coach will leave the Market Yard, Newcastle West, at 8am. More details are available from Pat Dalton, 069-62306.

The annual Old Mill Sports Club week-end will take place on this coming Friday 22^nd June to Sunday 24^th June. The U-IO Football semi-finals, take place on Friday evening, with the finals on Sunday evening. A sports quiz will follow in the Old Mill Bar on Friday night. On Saturday there will be camogie, and ladies football games, and 5 a-side soccer blitzes, with musical entertainment by Dusty in the Old Mill Bar. Sunday will see the sports in the field for all age groups, penalty shoot outs, and novelty races, etc, Bouncy Castles, bric-a-brac, driving lessons, and much more to be enjoyed.

A clothes collection in aid of the Club will be held on Monday 25^th June. Please drop bags of unwanted clothing into the Changing Rooms in the Sportsfield and further details from Ellen on 087-6339450.

West Limerick Resources launched its first in a series of Community Information Points in Carrigkerry Community Centre in early 2012. An Information Assistant is available to assist people to access relevant information on-line or in printed form, should they request it. Literature on benefits and vital services is also available to view or take away. The free service is open four days a week from 9am to 2pm on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, and no appointment is necessary. The list of information that can be sourced include the household charge, employment training, education opportunities, switch to digital television, health services available, farming issues, MABS and coping with debt. The service will operate on a confidential and sensitive manner, and plenty of parking available, and all are welcome. This is a great service for the locality and people should avail of it where necessary. Our thanks to Ed O’Connor and West Limerick Resources for putting the service in place. People can now call in and find out information on the switch over to Saor View from Eileen, who has all the information at hand. A Coffee Morning is also planned in the coming weeks, to explain the switch over to Saor View. The Social Welfare Officer, will not be calling from now on as the service has been cut. Eileen will be able to advise and help people with their queries. People are urged to use the service, or it could be discontinued like other services in rural areas at present.

Knockfierna Heritage Society are holding their annual Traditional Bonfire night, proceeded by an evening of Gramophone music, at the Rambling House Knockfierna on Saturday 23rd June.

On the following evening Sunday 24th a walk to Knockfierna Hill  will take place, with participants to meet at 7.30pm at the Rambling House.

The Mannix Joyce Weekend will be held on Saturday/ Sunday 30th June/ 1st July.

West Limerick Resources are delighted to announce that John Joe Conwell from Ireland Reaching Out Headquarters will hold an information session on Thursday June 28^th in the Rathkeale House Hotel at 7.30pm.  Offering an opportunity for individuals and communities to learn how they can get involved and benefit from the initiative, the event is free of charge and open to all.    Ireland Reaching Out is an Irish government sponsored initiative established to connect people of Irish heritage abroad with the parish where their ancestors originated from Ireland.  It will offer local parish communities an extraordinary opportunity to extend the numbers of people committed to their parish by inviting its own Diaspora worldwide to become involved in their place of origin.

Those currently receiving their TV signal from an aerial will now be seeing a caption on their screen saying “24 October”.  This means that unless you take action you will no longer receive a television signal after October 24th 2012.  West Limerick Resources are currently operating the Community Outreach Digital Switchover Programme and are asking for your help to identify those locally who will need a little assistance and make sure that they get it including older people living alone, those with literacy and other learning difficulties and those with few social networks.  A ‘Reach Out and Switch Over’ Week will run nationally from June 25^th to July 1^st. Communities interested in holding events in the West Limerick area to help raise awareness of the Switchover as well as individuals who would like to volunteer their time to help in the effort  are asked to contact Clint on 069 62222 or email [email protected]