
Councillor John Sheahan and Ned Mahony at the Fair of the Village
Rosary
For the Holy Souls in Graveyards
Holy Cross – Sunday, November 27th at 12.15pm.
Con Colbert Hall Church Gate Collection
The annual church gate collection for the Con Colbert Community Hall will take place this weekend 26th/27th November. Your support would be appreciated.
CFRs AGM
The AGM of the Community First Responders (CFRs) will be held in the Hall on Thursday 01st December at 8:30pm. Everyone is most welcome. It is a great opportunity for the public to hear of the group’s activities over the past year, new developments, and to ask about learning emergency life saving skills.
Athea Christmas Street Lighting Collection
A sincere thank you to all who supported our Church gate collection for the Christmas street lighting last weekend. The total raised was €660.50.
Athea Senior Citizens Christmas Party
Takes place on Wednesday 7th December at the Top of the Town Bar. Music by Blue Rhythm. Spot Prizes galore!
Dinner, Afternoon Tea, Song and Dance.
All for €10 per Person! Names for Catering purposes to be given to ROSE ENRIGHT – PEGGY CASEY – MARY O’KELLY or any Committee Member before Friday 2nd December. There is a choice of main course this year, Turkey or Beef so please state your choice when you give your name in.
If anyone wishes to donate spot prizes it would be greatly appreciated, they can be given to any of the committee members.
St. Vincent de PaulChurch Gate Collection
The St. Vincent de Paul annual collection takes place on Sat. 3rd/ Sun.4th December. Your support, as always, would be appreciated.
Different but the same
Every generation wants to do things different to the one that went before. They think that their parents and grandparents have made a mess of the world and they are going to put it all right. That is only natural and really a good way for the world to move forward. On the other hand, older generations sometimes think the younger ones are irresponsible, binge drinking, drug taking nutters who have low moral standards and should act a bit more like their parents did. It is just the way of the world and today’s teenagers are tomorrow’s parents and they will perpetuate the circle all over again. But are we all that different?
What are the young people doing today that we didn’t do in our time? Young men in particular drive fast cars and like to do “doughnuts” in the road. The only reason we did not do that is because we did not have either the cars or the money to run them. If we had we would, I’m sure, do exactly as they are doing today. “Binge drinking” is a term that is frequently used, especially with reference to the way young people “do” bars and night clubs. I would wager that, if it was properly researched, our generation drank far more than the young people of today. They only go out once or twice a week but, in years gone by, some people were known to drink all day. Many a man went to the creamery in the morning and had his first pint before most of the parish had their breakfast. You might meet someone coming from the creamery at three or four o’clock in the day. Bars were well frequented each night , not to mention at the weekends and a good time was had by all. Not so different. The notion that we did not experiment with drugs is a myth. I already have mentioned one drug; alcohol.
The other one we succumbed to was tobacco. The other night, at a set dancing class, a birthday cake was produced to honour one of the members. Unfortunately the candles on the cake weren’t lit because nobody in the room, and it was well crowded, had a match or lighter. In my day over 90% of the people would have been smokers. The reason we smoked at all is fairly obvious; it was the cool and manly thing to do. Hard to understand today but back then there were ads for cigarettes on the radio every day. Smoking was good for you. It relaxed you after a hard days work and made you happy. All the stars of the silver screen smoked. The way they held the cigarettes was mimicked by the rest of us. Sometimes the ladies used cigarette holders, the longer the better. Ingenious devises were created to hold cigarettes. There was one that shot a cigarette from the box at the touch of a button. There were different styles of holding the cigarette and blowing out the smoke. Some smokers became quite artistic and could blow smoke rings of various sizes. Yes we thought we were great and there wasn’t a word about the harmful effects of filling our lungs with dangerous substances that would bother us in later life. At least today, people are aware of the dangers of all types of drugs and the vast majority experiment for a little while and then give up. Of course there are some who end up on heroin or worse just the same as some drinkers are alcoholics. My point is; we are not so different after all. If the drugs that are there today were available long ago, we would have used them as well.
We all have to live with the temptations that surround us on a daily basis. The names may change over the years but the challenges are the same. That is why I do not like to hear people decrying the younger generations. I have the utmost respect for them. They are, in general, a well educated, good natured, caring group who are a credit to their parents and their country. In the city slums things are different but they have always been different there. No fault of the young people who live there. They have little choice but to fall into the trap created by society, a society that has abandoned them.
I was in Cork recently at the graduation ceremony for my grandson. I felt a great pride in all the young people who were about to reap the rewards of their hard work at college and I looked around at the parents and grandparents who had made sacrifices so that this day could have become a reality. With such a talented population, surely our future is looking bright. Our schools and colleges are doing a good job but it all begins in the home and in national school. We are extremely lucky to have such a good school in Athea. Our young people are well looked after by the school and by the sporting and artistic organisations in the parish. Let us celebrate them and realise that we would have been like them if we had the same opportunities. We are not so different; we only think we are.
Domhnall de Barra
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