By Kathleen Mullane
Many ‘Congrats’ again this week. Firstly to Brian Sheehy – son of Margaret and Dick, who recently became engaged to Sarah Reidy. Best wishes are extended to the newly engaged couple.
Next we congratulate Tom Brosnan of Knocknagorna who, on Saturday night last, celebrated his 70th birthday with a ‘huge contingent’ of relatives and friends at the Top of the
Town. A great night was enjoyed by everyone.
Congrats and well done to Megan Carroll who, on Saturday last, earned her 1st Cap for Ireland when she represented the Irish Ladies Tag Rugby team in the British and Irish Cup in London. Indeed a marvellous achievement.
We must also congratulate our dedicated altar servers who, on Saturday night last, were thanked for their help and given a ‘thank you’ token by Fr. Duggan at the evening mass. Also the new group of servers were there on the night and Teresa O’Halloran helped them with their initial preparation – we wish the outgoing servers all the very best as they move into secondary school and also to the new contingent.
This Saturday evening, September 14th, Fr. Duggan has brought forward the mass to 5pm to enable all football enthusiasts to watch the All-Ireland replay between our Kerry neighbours and Dublin and we all hope for an exciting game again.
The annual Coffee Morning in aid of Milford Hospice will take place on Thursday, September 19th in the hall from 9am. As always this will hopefully be a very well supported morning and with an abundance of cakes and buns so willingly donated, everyone’s help will be greatly appreciated, with all donations going to the hospice.
Well this will be a very busy week in nearby Listowel for the annual Races. Hopefully the weather will remain dry throughout. And anyway if it doesn’t they will be televised each day on T.G. 4 for all the racing enthusiasts! The races are earlier this year and they mark the end of a year for the busy farmers – who make it their holiday.
I suppose we all come to a point in our lives when it’s ‘Time for a Change’ as Domhnall de Barra’s lovely piece in last week’s newsletter stated and he has indeed done tremendous work over many years in the various organisations. And as the saying goes “ If you want anything done – ask a ‘Busy Person’ – very true words. I suppose we all have a ‘Bucket-List’ that we would hope to get through but don’t leave it too late as life sometimes can be much shorter than you expect
The death took place over the weekend of Bridie O’Shea of Gortnagross, Athea, who had been pre-deceased by her husband Danny some years ago. Bridie was a member of Athea Vincent de Paul for many years and was also involved in the Voluntary Housing and Going Strong. A real gentle lady who had made many friends in Athea over the years. Her remains reposed at Finucane’s funeral home on Saturday evening where many came to pay their last respects. Burial followed requiem mass on Sunday to Holy Cross cemetery. Sincere sympathy to her relatives, great neighbours and friends. ‘May she rest in peace’.
On passing through Athea the other day a person commented the following (as they hadn’t passed through in a good while) “is this really Athea that we are seeing or another town”. They couldn’t believe the Transformation – the brightly painted houses – the flowers – hanging baskets and above all the Cleanliness of the village. The Tidy Towns have done untold work and they would like to compliment everyone who made a special effort in the past week or so, by making sure there wasn’t a speck – cigarette butts, gum, papers etc strewn around. “If we can do it for a week we surely can keep going and keep on doing it.