By Kathleen Mullane

Sincere congrats and good wishes are extended to Ita Greaney, Templeathea, who celebrated her “60th” birthday on Saturday night last with a get-together of family, relatives and friends. We welcome Ita to the “60s” club.

A large crowd attended the lovely mass on Wednesday evening last at Holy Cross cemetery. It was a beautiful, sunny evening and the first time the new altar had been used having been re-made out of the old marble altar which had been in the church years ago. This Wednesday evening the mass will be celebrated in Templeathea cemetery at 7pm for all those buried there.

Bríd Carroll, who teaches in Tarbert Comprehensive, has been awarded “fundraising teacher of the year” having raised €220,000 over the years for ‘Concern’. She thanks all those who over the years have donated to the cause. We, here in Athea, do our bit at Christmas time when the collection is held and she acknowledges everyone’s contribution.

Well the roads have been extremely busy over the past week – with loads of turf leaving the bog, machines of every size and description doing silage, hay etc. We have the ideal weather – in the USA they can’t hardly go out with the heat. In California they are experiencing after-shocks after tremors shook the area – in Poland the other day there was “a deluge” – torrential rain and hailstones – so no extremes in winter and summer gives us ideal conditions.

Well our hall is looking extremely well both inside and outside, having received a “facelift” on the outside – the kitchen has been newly painted – pictures hung up – the hall floor has been re-buffed. The kitchen roof has been repaired in parts and other additional work done on the outside – as over the years maintenance work is necessary to keep things intact. The toilets have been done up and the showers fixed. Some fund-raising is now necessary to keep funds going for repairs, insurance etc. The hall is a great asset to our community and is used for parties, after funeral meals, all sports, drama, the schoolchildren’s P.E. and more recently for the Fleadh, which truly impressed everyone. If anyone has any fund-raising ideas for the future they would be most welcome. Incidentally, Trish Phillips Aherne is just back from Barcelona having 2 teams playing basketball there, which only for our hall wouldn’t exist!

Shane Tierney, on behalf of the Horse and Pony Race Committee, thanks all the sponsors, field owner, volunteers etc who helped out with the recent races.

The Parish Pilgrimage to Knock will take place on Thursday, August 1st. Please give names to Agatha Barrett and Peggy Casey if you intend to travel.