Áine & Clodagh Prendeville enjoying the sun in Glin last Sunday

St Bartholomew’s Church Athea

Mass Times:

Sunday & Thursday mornings at 10.30am

Friday & Saturday evenings at 7.30pm

Readers:

Sat 17^th Aug – Patsy Hayes

Sun 16^th Aug – Bernadine Enright

Mass Intentions:

Thurs 13^th Aug:    Mass for the Parish.

Fri 14^th Aug:                      Denny Falahee. Sr. Ann Ahern and her parents Tom & Johanna Ahern.

Sat 15^th Aug:         Michael & Sean Quinn. Martin & Ann Denihan.

Sun 16^th Aug:        Michael & Mattie Brosnan. Ellie & Bob Scanlon.

Collections: August 8^th & 9^th  €790.00

Confirmation – The first of three confirmation dates will take place this coming Saturday Aug 15^th at 11am. We have 35 children being confirmed in the parish this year. May God bless them and keep them safe, especially has all children start back to a new school year shortly. 

Flowers – Many gardens are currently in bloom with wonderful colours of flowers, if you would like to donate some flowers to the church please contact Carol (Sacristan).

Church Seating Arrangements – Every second seat has been sealed off and this is to adhere to regulations under current Covid 19 guidelines. Two people can sit in the centre aisle seats – one at either end, and three people can sit in the side aisle seats. Families/those in the same household can sit together in the one seat.

Please sanitise your hands upon entering and leaving the church.

Communion Arrangements – We would ask people to remain seated until directed to come forward by the stewards. Within each aisle we administer communion to each section separately in row order starting at the front working towards the back. The Eucharistic Minister will bring communion outside to those who may be listening to the outside speakers. Once again we thank you sincerely for your patience and understanding.

Fr. Brendan Duggan – Contact details 087-2600414

Congratulations to Councillor John Sheahan, Glin, who has been elected Cathaoirleach of the Southern Regional Assembly which links local and national policies through regional planning initiatives.

Based in Waterford, the assembly is embarking on a significant period of activity, having recently adopted the Regional Spatial and Economic Strategy for the Southern Region.

It is also responsible for  delivering a new round of EU regional funding to the nine counties in its catchment area.

A member of the Assembly since 2014, John was first elected to Limerick City and County Council in 2004, he is a member of Fine Gael.

A  Sense of Perspective

By Domhnall de Barra

I am reading a book at the moment written by the well known RTE sports presenter Des Cahill. Noreen got it for me at Christmas and it has been sitting gathering dust until the past few weeks. I expected it to be another boring tome glorifying the author, which accounts for my tardiness in not opening it, but I was pleasantly surprised when I at last opened the covers and plunged into the world of journalism and sports reporting. Firstly, let me say that I have nothing but admiration for the men and women who bring us the programmes that we take for granted. The amount of hours and travel time they put in is unreal and, as Des says, today’s flavour of the month is tomorrow’s has-been.

Sport is a very important part of our lives from the u-8s who tog out for the parish club to the Katie Taylors who conquer the world and let us all bask in reflected glory. We just have to look back to the Jack Charlton era to understand how sport can galvanize a nation and make us all feel a little better about ourselves. We are indebted to the many athletes who entertain us on our screens every week. What we may not realise is the toll it takes on those who nearly made it. It must be gut wrenching to train in all kinds of weather in preparation for the Olympics, get to the peak of fitness only to come fourth in the final and miss out on a medal. Even worse is when corruption rears its ugly head like when Michael Conlon was cheated out of a gold medal. I watched that fight and it was quite obvious, even to the amateur eye, that Michael was streets ahead on points. I can understand his frustration and his outburst after the referee raised the hand of his opponent to the boos of all assembled there. At that Olympics, Katie Taylor also got a raw deal. Again, I watched as she out fought her opponent, clearly landing far more punches with more precision. I saw the look on her face and the realisation that all the hardship in training and the hundreds of sparring rounds were all in vain. Yes, sport can be cruel too and there can only be one winner at the end. Winning has become too important. The inter-county GAA championships are a case in point. Every county wants to win the All-Ireland and will spare no expense in getting the best available manager and an extensive backroom team that would do justice to any professional soccer club. County players are pushed to the limit and live their lives by strict rules with time devoted to different aspects of fitness and  a controlled diet. From the time they start training with the county panel their lives are consumed by work and training. They go through the same rigorous schedule that professional soccer players do but they still have to go to work on Monday morning. The minute they are knocked out of the championship, nobody remembers them any more.

Maybe we have made sport too important. In his book, Des Cahill tells of a time when he was listening to the radio in his car. The Ryder Cup was on and when a player missed a putt the commentator said that it was a “disaster”.  At the time Des was coming from the hospital where they had turned off the life support machine on his brother Brendan. Brendan was born with severe mental disabilities that meant his mother spent her life trying to look after him until he was too big and strong to be restrained. He had taken a severe fall in the hospital and gone into a coma. Coming in the middle of the family he was loved by them all and the sense of loss was great. Having to turn off the life support was a disaster but how could missing a putt be equated with that?  It put things into perspective.

Poet’s Corner

I received these Limerick’s during the week

There was a young man from Athea

Who liked his few pints every day

But now with Covid

He’s foiled in his bid

For to pass the few hours away

There was a young man from Athea

Who once went to Australia (y)

After years in the mines

His riches he finds

And faith now he’s back home to stay

Hannah Mai Collins.

There once was a man from Athea

Who lay on the beach one fine day

But the tide it came in

So he came home again

Saying “I’d rather a roll in the hay”

Anon

We’ll give this limerick another week so, come on, pen to paper and give us a bit of a laugh.