U16 Basketball Limerick Community Games Gold Medal Winners
Back Row L to R: Shauna Scanlon, Rachael Greaney, Aibhilín Murphy, Oliva Twomey, Mary Jo Leddy, Sienna Murphy Front Row L to R: Ciara O’Shea, Amy Ryan, Claire Carmody, Grace Ryan, Laura Dalton
Mike O’Riordan, Eoin Hayes, Margaret Watters, Aogán Ó Fearghail, (President of the GAA) Jacqueline O’Connor, David O’Connor, Martin Skelly and Peter Nash
FAMILY VARIETY SHOW DAY
Celebrating the Life of Bernie Cudlipp
A memorial Fundraiser in Duagh Sport’s Complex on 22nd May from 3.00 – 5.30
Facebook Berniecudlippmemorialfund
Email: info.berniecudlippmemorialfund
@gmail.com Donations: www.ifundraise.ie/berniecudlippmemorialfundraiser
Community Crisis Response Team
Mobile suicide intervention team
Crisis line open 5pm – 6am 7 nights a week 085 1777631
Athea Community Games
It’s been a busy and successful few weeks with the community games. Athea was well represented in the County games in basketball, enjoying success with the U13 boys and the U16 girls both victorious in their age groups. They now go on to represent Limerick in the Munster Community Games in U.L in July and we wish them well in their endeavours. Congratulations also to the U11 mixed teams and the U13 Girls who played their hearts out and came home with a bronze medal for the U11’s and a silver for the U13 girls. Well done to all.
What a wonderful day we all enjoyed last Sunday at the Vales for our athletics day. We would like to thank all who helped out in making this a very successful event, in particular Athea Soccer Club for their wonderful facilities. Boys and girls from all ages ran their hearts out, skipped and jumped along in the three-legged race and sack race. Best of luck to all the boys and girls who will be travelling to Mungret on the last week-end in June to represent Athea in the County Games.
Language Camp
A Language Camp will be taking place in Scoil Naomh Iosaf school in Rathkeale during the summer. French and German Language Camps for both Junior and Senior Cycle Secondary students. Contact Eileen 086-8714337/087-7804200 www.adareactivelanguage.ie
Rocky Road Ahead
At last we have a government, if you could call what has been cobbled together by that name, and now all the chickens will come home to roost. Promises made at election time and statements made by the various parties will now hamper the tough decisions that have to be made if our country is to get back on its feet. The way Fine Gael were talking in the lead up to the election would lead one to believe that our troubles are over and the good times were back again. Far from it. We still are crippled by our huge national debt caused by the mismanagement of the “Celtic tiger” and we are bound by the rules laid down by those who lent us the money to get up off our knees. By saying everything was ok and there was “fiscal space” to put money back into peoples pockets, they have opened a Pandora’s box that will now haunt them. The public service unions are all looking for their pay to be restored and some have already drawn up battle plans. Hard to blame them; they made a deal that they would suffer pay cuts in the short term on the understanding that these monies would be restored when the recovery came. Now they want the government to honour the promises made to them. There is no point in talking about the fact that our civil servants are among the better paid in the world; you can’t give people pay rises that were benchmarked on the false public service during the boom years and then try to claw them back. Those at the coal face on the lower levels of pay need to be looked after and there has to be parity for those new recruits who find themselves getting paid less than their colleagues for doing exactly the same job. The question is, can the country afford it at the moment? The answer is simply no. Pay can be restored but only on a phased basis. Where is the money to come from? The politicians painted themselves into a corner by promising to scrap water charges and the universal social charge, two of the charges that would stabilise the tax base and at the same time provide a good water supply nationwide. It is easy to be populist in opposition but in government practicalities have to take over and tough decisions have to be made in the long term interest of the country. The Irish Water fiasco is well documented. It was badly thought out and was arrogantly imposed on a people, many of whom had had enough. Had there been a generous allowance that would ensure that only those who overused would pay I don’t think there would have been such opposition but , having gone so far down the road, it is ludicrous to now completely scrap the whole idea. Fianna Fáil are mainly responsible for this in a desperate attempt to take ground from Sinn Féin their main rivals in opposition. Almost 70% of households were paying their bills and all it would take was a bit of forward thinking to make the Irish Water more “user friendly”. Anyway, I think charges are gone for the foreseeable future which leaves us with the question, where is the extra money going to come from at a time when all the services are crying out for resources? The trade unions will want their pound of flesh as well and we have seen how powerful they can be when they put their minds to it. Much depends on the outcome of the Luas drivers dispute which is going on at the moment. The union made a ludicrous claim of 54% increase in wages at the outset, despite the fact that these drivers are some of the highest paid in Europe already. The company seem to be bent on resisting to the last and the government are watching in anticipation. If the drivers get a substantial raise it will open the door for all the other workers to look for similar pay and conditions.
Domhnall de Barra