By Peg Prendeville

The winter is in with a bang – not that we got a decent summer, but the darkness and the cold have returned in the last few days. A good fire and a book beckons for the long evenings.

September is over and so has the season in Lisdoonvarna. I was visiting family in Clare at the weekend and took a drive to Lisdoonvarna to see what goes on during the matchmaking festival which runs into October. It certainly draws the crowds. Cars were parked in every available spot. Music and dancing goes on from 12 to 6pm in all the pubs every day and from 9pm to the early hours of the morning. Crowds of men and women, mostly men, mostly over 50’s, filled the pubs; buskers sang in the street and it really was a carnival atmosphere. I was told that it was very quiet in comparison to the weeks in September. Drink was very expensive; a pint of Guinness costing anything from €5 to €5.30. The people of Lisdoonvarna obviously make as much as they can during the festival season. Depending on how you look at the situation it could be considered amusing or sad; amusing to watch so many people enjoying the fun and the music and sad to see so many lonely people trying to find somebody to love them.

Listening to the radio on the way home on Sunday I was delighted to hear that Gaybo is back on Lyric FM on Sunday afternoon and delighted to hear him telling us that  Kieran FitzGerald of Glin, a longtime favourite of the Late Late Show crew, who got injured in an accident in Spain some time ago, is slowly making a recovery. Remember he and Tommy Moran both had accidents about the same time?  I hope Tommy is recovering also.

It was lovely to welcome the little children from Ballyhahill Preschool to Glin library last week and to read a story to them. You are never too young to visit a library. On that topic it is that time of year again when libraries are required to calculate how many people use the library. This service indicator is the main measurement for public library use in the country and is a vital indicator of how important libraries are in the community. This is the week when calculations are made so it would be great to see many of you pay a visit to any local library. It would be even better to continue the visits throughout the year and so prevent any further closures. There are rumours of staffless libraries in the future also. A library with no staff would be soul-less in my opinion. 

Congratulations to Barry FitzGerald, Ballyhahill and Ashley Casey, Cromane in Co. Kerry who got married last weekend and had their reception in Killarney.

Congratulations too to Seán Prendeville of Glenbawn who got engaged to Bernie Small from Co. Tyrone recently. They both work in Darwin, Australia.