By Peg Prendeville

Sincere sympathy to Mary O’Brien and her daughter Ella on the death of Mickey O’Brien last weekend. Mickey was a gentleman with a very active mind and an interest in all things. May he rest in peace.

A collection of any unwanted clothes will be taking place in Ballyhahill N.S. on October 18th so please spread the word if anyone has any items they want to get rid of. They will take bags of clean and dry clothing, curtains, towels, sheets, paired shoes, handbags, belts, blankets and soft toys. Bags can be dropped off to the school any day during school hours.

September is closing in and the children are settling back to school. In Ballyhahill the junior infants are Ronan Healy, Riain Daly, Kelly and Shannon King and Sophie Moran Kennedy. In Loughill Annie Delee, Jack Wallace, Oscar O’Sullivan and Daniel Whelan began school life.

Gerald Griffins Mens and Ladies Sync Group is holding a fun 5/10k run/walk & Kiddies disco on this Sunday 29th Sept at 11.30am sharp. Starting & finishing in the Parish Hall Ballyhahill. Fee: €10 per Adult €5 per Child €15 per Family

Admission to disco is €5 & Free for kids who complete the run/walk. Registration is from 10.30am. Disco runs from 12.30- 2pm. All support greatly appreciated.

Many of us, including myself, love to go foreign to see nice places but we tend to ignore those which are near us at home. I discovered this on Sunday evening when I took a drive to Barnagh to explore the Barnagh tunnel which had an open day on Saturday. The tunnel is now connected to the Greenway following improvement works carried out by Limerick City and County Council and was officially opened in a ceremony on Friday 13th September. Parking my car on the lay-by at the top of Barnagh I took the path toward Templeglantine. I did not realise that there was a little distance before the tunnel came into view but what a lovely pleasant walk along with glimpses of the Golden Vale to my left and the murmur of the passing traffic to my right. Little streams flowed by my side and tiny rivulets flowed down off the high rock embankments on either side as I approached the tunnel. What a surprise I got when I saw that it had been tarmaced and lit up so that there was no spookiness at all. We’ve all heard the tale of the Barnagh ghost or Sprid na Bearna but there was no sign of her on Sunday evening only the lovely sunshine as I came through the other end. I looked up the ghost story in the Duchas.ie website. This is a shortened version of what I found; it was taken from the 1938 Folklore collection.

“This unfortunate woman, Moll S by name, brutally murdered her husband and un-baptised child with such a formidable weapon as a churning staff for which crimes she was condemned to wander through the locality where she committed those dastardly deeds and to molest honest people and to terrify the locality for quite a number of years until the almighty permitted his ministers to show their powers by permitting them to banish her for ever from the scene of her many depredations. The spirit continued her uncanny and destructive peregrinations to this world until she became quite a menace to the whole peaceful country side; nobody young or old dared venture out of doors after dark. Then the great Father Hartnett of Duagh who was now in the hayday of his wonderful miracle working career came on the scene. He watched out for her and he banished her for ever from the ken of men condemning her to drain the Dead sea with a bottomless thimble.”