Archive for November, 2015

News-25/11/2015

Enjoying the fair day recently were Thady Woulfe, Timmy & Seanie Hanrahan

Enjoying the fair day recently were Thady Woulfe, Timmy & Seanie Hanrahan

Trad for Trócaire Céilí

A Céilí, in aid of Trócaire, will take place this Friday night November 27th at the Top of the Town. Music with Domhnall de Barra.  This is part of the Trad for Trócaire which is a nationwide promotion in association with Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann. It has been running for the past couple of years and has raised a lot of money for this charity. If you cannot attend please help by making a donation through Cairde Duchais. 

Christmas Street Lighting

The Christmas Street Lighting collection takes place this weekend 28th/29th November at both Masses. Your support would be much appreciated.

Shopping Trip to Cork

A bus will be leaving Moyvane on Wednesday, December 2nd at 7am sharp on a shopping trip to Cork, the cost  is €16 per person. This is a very enjoyable day out with shopping and a bite to eat and great craic on the journey plus great bargains in the City shops for Christmas. For further information and booking contact Eileen at 087-6679943 or Jill at 087-9512387.

Going Strong Christmas Party

The Christmas party will take place on Wednesday, December 9th. Dinner at 1.00pm with music after by Blue Rhythm. €10 per person for dinner and entertainment, numerous spot prizes on the day.  Names to be handed in to Rose at Brouder’s Shop or Peggy Casey before December 1st.

St. Vincent de Paul

The St. Vincent de Paul church gate collection takes place on December 5th & 6th. Your generosity would be appreciated.

O’Donovan: “€728,000 allocated to Athea sewerage scheme.”

Every year there is a great response to this request and the collectors are very grateful for this. You can drop the stamps in to the office here for collection at any time.

Limerick Fine Gael Patrick O’Donovan has welcomed the announcement from Irish Water that they have allocated €728,000 for the upgrade of the Athea sewerage scheme.

“Over the last number of months I have been working with Irish Water to get Athea prioritised. I recently secured a commitment from them to include the scheme in their capital programme, and this announcement that they have provided €728,000 to the scheme is a massive investment for the community of Athea.”

“Irish Water have informed me that they have awarded a contract for the design, procurement and management of all the project. This is important because I know from speaking to people in Athea that they were anxious to hear how much Irish Water were prepared to invest. Through a long process of discussions with them I was able to convince them to prioritise Athea and I am delighted that the scheme has now moved on to a very significant stage. The next stage of the process will be to complete the public consultation and to appoint a contractor to carry out the physical works.”

Patrick O’Donovan added “Since I first became a public representative in 2003, the issue of the sewerage scheme for Athea has been an issue which the people there have sought to be addressed. This is now being done, and as TD for the area who has worked to get this scheme prioritised I am delighted to receive this very important news that almost three quarters of a million euro will be spent in the village on this upgrade. This is good news for the people of Athea and I will continue to work closely with them to ensure the timely delivery of this scheme.”

Love/Hate

Love and hate are two sides of the same coin and are probably the most misused in the English language. Love is described in the dictionary as  a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person”

Hate is described as quite the opposite yet we use these words when they do not really mean what they say. “I love you” is said all too easily and in the early stages of a relationship it can be mistaken for another four letter word, lust or indeed infatuation. It is part of our development from childhood to adulthood that we develop attractions for other people. These may be very strong feelings and easily mistaken for what love truly means. In American dramas and films we often hear the expression “I love you but I am not in love with you”. What the hell does that mean. Either you love somebody or you don’t. What they really mean is “I love you but I am not sexually attracted to you”,  and therein the problem lies. Sexual attraction is not love. It is a physical emotion that is necessary for the propagation of the human species.  “Making love”, as a description of the sexual act is another term that drives me spare. You don’t need to love somebody to have sex with them, in fact it is possible to have relations with somebody you don’t really like.  Since I am at it what about “I love you with all my heart”, or “I love you from the bottom of my heart”.  The heart is a very vital organ but it is basically a pump (the best in the world). “ I love you from the bottom of my pump” doesn’t sound quite so good, does it. “ he died of a broken pump” also sounds ridiculous. The heart has no feelings like love or hate but we continually attribute these emotions to it. I suppose there is no real harm in using the word love as long as it does not give offence. The English, in particular have a habit of calling everybody “love”. Shop assistants, bar people etc will greet you with “yes my love”.  Of course you aren’t their love but it is warm and friendly and breaks the ice. People tend to end conversations on the phone to people who are just friends with; “bye, bye, love you.” Again we can excuse it on the grounds that it may make somebody happy. The greatest misuse of the word is in songs. Over 90% of pop songs have love as their theme. As often as not it is directed to somebody called “baby”. This is a term you would never hear in Ireland but when Irish composers write pop songs, “baby” crops up frequently. I suppose it is because the love of a parent for a baby is probably love in its purest form. Until you actually hold your own offspring in your arms you will never experience the true meaning of love. You are now prepared to put your whole life on hold for this  helpless little being. You would gladly give your own life to save theirs and you expect nothing in return. This unconditional love is not affected by how they treat you as they grow older. They may stray from the path and get into trouble but you will never desert them and will always be there to pick up the pieces. Contrast this with the love that is undyingly declared in our young adult years. “ I will never stop loving you”  is soon forgotten when things start to go wrong and separation is on the horizon. That feeling of love can soon turn to hate so was it love at all in the first place? There is the great love people have for God and the Saints in Heaven, if they are lucky enough to have the gift of faith. Sometimes it can be so intense that it takes over their lives Love is not only confined to people. It is possible to love, for example, one’s country. Down through the generations men and women have loved their country so much that they were prepared to fight and even die for it. We are about to celebrate the anniversary of 1916 when many of our patriots made the ultimate sacrifice so that we might have the freedom we enjoy today. That was love. The one sure thing about love is that it will continue to be exploited to sell every kind of merchandise. So, it is part of our daily lives and we would be lost without it. So “love you all” and bye for now.

Domhnall de Barra

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Kathleen’s Corner-25/11/2015

By Kathleen Mullane

“What a Community”

Several times over the weekend I heard the very familiar line being uttered “what a great parish community there is in Athea”, and once again this was very true over the past weekend. The fundraising dance on Saturday night last for brave little Ella Ahern of Garrygloss attracted hundreds of people who all rallied around Terese and Mike to lend their support, it was indeed heart-warming. We wish Ella all the best on her road to recovery, as do the entire Athea parish and beyond.

Yet again a great crowd gathered at O’Riordan’s Pharmacy on Saturday afternoon last to join Diarmuid and Áine and their family and staff to celebrate their “10 years in Business” here in Athea. There was a great atmosphere and everyone enjoyed the cakes, buns, sweets, drinks etc and of course the face-painting for the kids. Congrats to them and continued good luck in their pharmacy. 

On Sunday last another great gathering at the hall where the annual Christmas Fair took place. There were many tables selling their various goods and lovely hand-crafted articles. Yet again a nice Christmas atmosphere. The winner of the large hamper on the door tickets was Nellie Flavin of Hillside Drive and a second hamper was won by Helen Collins. Well done to the organizers and all who came along to support our hall

Sincere congrats go to Eleanor and Tomás Mullane who were blessed with their twins over the weekend. A little girl they are calling Maia and the little boy is being called Tom. We also send congrats to the very proud grandparents Mary and Conor Mullane of Knocknagorna and to Catherine and Patsy Stackpoole of Tullyleague, Glin.

Congrats also to Mary O’Mahony and John Heffernan of Galeside who were also blessed with their little girl Abbie, a little sister for Jamie and Callum recently. Congrats to Nora and Seanie Mahony, the proud grandparents.

Well done to the U14 boys basketball team who had an exciting game on Sunday last here in the hall, beating St. Anne’s of Farranfore 29-26.

A very nice ceremony took place at the hall on Thursday last when two members of the Irish Army from Limerick Barracks visited Athea and presented the Flag and Irish Proclamation to Athea N.S. There was singing, dancing, poetry, questions and answers, photos and a great crowd including all the pupils, teachers, parents, grandparents and friends. Indeed a really nice get-together.

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Knockdown News-25/11/2015

Peg Prendeville

Sympathies to the extended Brouder family on the death of Kitty Conway in Glin last weekend. She was a kind gentle lady and had the joy of celebrating her 90th birthday recently. She was a loyal member of Glin ICA for many years also.

Sympathies too to the family of Billy Martin, Glin who died suddenly on Sunday evening.

There was great excitement in the FitzGerald household in Meadowvale, Ballyhahill last Friday November 20th. This was the day that James FitzGerald, youngest son of Noel and Tina, and grandnephew to Liam Enright of Clounleharde, was one of the members of the Passing out Parade of the 137 Recruit Platoon from the Renmore Military Barracks in Galway. Yes, James FitzGerald is a new recruit in the Irish Army. Any of us who saw the programme on TV during the summer on the training of recruits knows that this was not an easy task so great credit is due to him. On top of that he was awarded the “Esprit de Corps”. This is an award given to the recruit “who participates most, works hardest and contributes best to the overall morale of the platoon. During training Recruit FitzGerald stood out to instructors as being extremely honest and hardworking. It became apparent, during the final training exercise, that when spirits were flagging, the platoon often turned to Recruit FitzGerald for morale and a kind word to lift spirits.” Well done to James and congratulations to him and all his family. We wish him well in his new career.

A huge crowd attended the Enterprise Town Expo in Askeaton last weekend. A big thank you to Brenda, Evelyn and all the staff of Bank of Ireland, Askeaton branch for giving local craft workers, businesses and sporting organisations an opportunity to showcase their work. Among the many displays were our own locals: Carol Noonan displaying her crafts, Pauline Sharp – her paintings, Cakes by Lisa – her cakes, Kearney’s –  their home baking, and Jim O’Brien’s cheeses. Mickey Harte, Paul O’Connell and Gerard Barrett gave very inspiring motivational speeches which should help and encourage all these enterprising people to keep going even when it seems that the path ahead might be difficult. Well done to all concerned.

Knockdown Arms is the place to be on next Monday night 30th November for the local craft fair. Fiona Prendeville invites you to come see some of the beautiful jewellery and accessories that Stella & Dot have to offer. With half the catalogue under €50 there are plenty of products to chose from for your Christmas presents. Also on the night Linda Cummane will be selling some fantastic and fabulous skincare and make up products which can also be found in Mise Beauty in Limerick. Carol Noonan will be there to show us some of her lovely homemade crafts. All these make ideal Christmas gifts and you do even have to go into the city!

Scoil Naomh Mhuire, Ballyhahill will appreciate you supporting the Christmas raffle to help raise funds for the school. Lines are on sale in Knockdown shop or from any parent.

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