Isn’t this spring weather lovely, especially now with the long evenings. It is also a reminder of the April Spring clean of our local roads which once again are strewn with rubbish of all kinds. An Taisce provides bags and gloves for the National Spring clean every April to anyone who wishes to help in the cleaning up of roadside ditches. There are bags available from Jim Prendeville in the Killeaney grounds if anybody wants to take one while they are taking their daily walk. Things will not change much by me giving out but I still fail to understand why people throw out their rubbish through the car window and expect somebody else to come along and pick it up. So one of these fine evenings a few of us in Knockdown will go along with our bags again. Limerick Co. council will collect the bags. There are some in Glin Library also, left in by Glin Tidy Towns who have the same problem.
I enjoy Kay McDonnell’s articles every week in the Athea & District News and welcome her to the club. She always has something new for us to learn about how our bodies work.
I was browsing through the Local History corner in Glin library during the week. It is amazing what one can learn and I am always eager to cram another little bit into my dulling brain. I learnt that in 1847/1848 a man called Harry Loft who was a Lieutenant in the 64th Regiment of Foot from Co. Louth spent some time in Glin, during which time he wrote to his mother telling her about his time here. It was interesting to read some of his comments as follows:
“This is a rather nice village and in summer must be very pretty. The people here are extremely civil and hospitable. We are the first detachment to come here for 20 years so we are a great sensation; the people stare at us as if we were some newly discovered wild animals!”
“I hope you had a merry Christmas; it was miserable here. We could not get any beef and nobody here ever heard of plum pudding.” (Remember this is 1847 in the height of the famine and he is looking for plum pudding!)
“I am almost devoured by fleas since I came here. There is a great line of Saints above my bed, in the inn where I am staying, and I hoped that they might guard me from the fleas but they seem to have little regard for such folk in 1848.”
“13th January 1848. I see from the paper that a greater depth of rain has fallen on Ireland during last month than has ever been known.”
So it rained then also! He stayed in Glin for some months and was lonesome when he was moved to Ballingarry. The Local history corners of any library can be a fascinating place to browse through so keep it in mind when next you visit your library.
Happy 21st birthday to Amie Woods, daughter of Jim and Geraldine, who celebrated in Knockdown on Saturday night last. All these young birthdays remind us how old we are getting. I was going in to Mass in Ballyhahill last Sunday morning with one of my grandchildren and I met my friend Rosemary with one of hers and it reminded me again of how far we have come. We are enjoying these years though and hope they continue.