By Kathleen Mullane

‘Bits & Bobs’

Just in case people don’t realize it there’s a clothes bank in the Creamery Yard and also at ‘The Vales’ – Athea Utd’s soccer pitch, to accommodate everyone who may want to donate unwanted clothes to one organization or another. On a recent “recycling visit” to the bottle bank at Holy Cross it was terrible to see the black bin bags of clothes all strewn around the place when they could so easily have been carried to one of the other facilities nearby, when those depositing the clothes saw that particular clothes container was overflowing. We are indeed lucky to have bottle banks and clothes recycling in Athea, so it would be nice to make sure they are all kept clean and tidy. Actually the Charity shops are eagerly looking for unwanted clothes and with ‘4’ shops in Listowel, ‘4’ in Newcastlewest and ‘2’ in Abbeyfeale there is no excuse for just dumping clothes or shoes anywhere!!

On Thursday, September 17th  the annual Coffee Morning will take place as usual in the Community Hall from about 9.30am or so to about 3pm. The very deserving cause as always is Milford Hospice, so everyone come along and support the cause, give whatever donation you wish – enjoy a cup of tea or coffee and of course the wonderful baking by the very dedicated group of volunteers will be a real treat.

Sincere congrats and good wishes go to Tina Collins (Mulvihill), daughter of Mary T and Denny, who celebrated her 40th birthday along with her family, relatives and friends at the Top of the Town on Saturday night last. A great night was enjoyed by everyone.

A lovely Mass was celebrated by Fr. Bowen P.P. on Monday morning last to begin the new school year for pupils, teachers and parents alike. We wish all the pupils a happy year ahead – filled with fun and friendship and above all ‘Respect’ for all.

An abundance of turf has been taken from the bogs over the past few dry days thankfully after a very disappointing summer and if the ‘weather predictions’ are anything to go by, they are saying that we are going to have an extremely cold winter beginning in November. Time to start airing the “winter woolies”.

Well Listowel Harvest Festival Races will begin this Sunday and usually they are very lucky with the weather. It’s a meeting place for everyone at the end of the summer – “enjoy having a flutter”