By Peg Prendeville

Hear ye! Hear ye! I have good news to report. At least it is good for Jim Lynch, Glasha who won the Killeaney jackpot of €26,200 last Sunday night. Congratulations to Jim, a deserving winner as he is a long time supporter of the lotto, which starts again at €3,000 this coming Sunday in the Knockdown Arms.

There are a few of the local stone bridges being repaired at the moment hence we have two sets of traffic lights between Knockdown and Clounleharde.

Congratulations to Lisa and Diarmaid Daly, Dromagarraun  on the birth of their 4th child, a little girl called Cleo – a much wanted sister for Ayda. Her two brothers Noah and Ríain are happy with her arrival also.

The final episode of “Smalltown” was aired last Thursday night. It was a very gripping, emotional programme and full marks go to Gerard Barrett for his sensitivity in dealing with the subjects of death and emigration. We look forward to seeing a lot more of him in the future. Pat Short played his serious role very effectively.

The Ballyhahill/Loughill ICA held the September meeting last week. It was nice to be back after the summer break. Majella O’Connor gave a very interesting talk on the merits of Reflexology; she has being doing a course on it for the past 12 months. Some members will attend the Federation meeting on this Thursday night in the Woodlands.

Of course this is National Ploughing week which is nearly as popular as the Listowel Races and many locals will travel to Screggan, Tullamore on one of the three days. Speaking of the Listowel Races I hear that there was only one batch of wrenboys this year. It has died down a lot from the days of five and six batches from around the country. Maybe it will revive again in time to come.

And we have another All Ireland football final to look forward to on October 1st. It is nail-biting stuff. Not being a sporty person myself, I always admire the stamina and persistence of teams who, without any remuneration, give so much of their time training and playing to the best of their ability and so providing entertainment for us all. May the best team win.