“Laughter is the best Medicine”

Well, having gone to the opening night of Athea Drama Group’s latest production “Stop it Nurse” one could really identify with the saying “laughter is the best medicine”. From start to finish it was a bundle of laughs and those who were making their 1st appearance on stage must be highly complimented of course along with the well seasoned players. In these recessionary times and with the weather being so wet and stormy and January is a sort of “down” month after all the Christmas hype – it’s great that the drama group has brought a bit of sunshine into everyone’s lives. If you haven’t yet gone to see the play – make sure you do – you can’t buy happiness or laughter and everyone nowadays needs a bit of a lift. Well done to each and every one involved. It’s great to see “full houses” each night.

Another group who have helped to make 23 lots of people and organisations very happy is ‘Airtricity’ who last week in the hall gave away no less than €130,000 in cheques. Many organisations in Athea and the surrounding areas benefitting from their annual generosity. Some people complain about the windmills – the noise, their appearance etc but this is an unreal amount of money which is going to be used for lighting, solar panels, water harvesting and much more energy efficient plans for our area. To mention a few who received cheques on the night – Athea Utd, Athea GAA, Tidy Towns, Drama Group, CFR’s, Voluntary Housing, Athea NS, Athea Church, Fishing Club, Colbert Hall and many more. Well done to all and thanks to Margaret Scanlon and Eileen O’Sullivan for preparing all the lovely eats on the night and all who helped out.

Congrats to Christopher Dalton, son of Maureen and Paddy, Dirreen, who celebrated his 21st birthday along with his family at Tralee Greyhound Track recently. Everyone had a great night.

The International “Dark Sky” award, only one of three in the world, has been awarded to Kerry, indeed another great boost for the area. We are so lucky to be living so near Killarney and the area, just 50 minutes and you are in the hub of one  of the busiest towns in Ireland which is great to visit at any time of the year and so much to do there.