Ronald McDonald House Coffee Morning 

Left:
Helen Hickey presenting Gráinne Duffy with the
fabulous cake
donated by Jacqueline and Sarah O’Connor for the Ronald McDonald Fundraiser

A year on from the highly successful ‘Athea Runs Faster in Stripes Fundraiser’, the committee decided to host a socially distant Coffee Morning at Athea GAA Club last Friday morning to continue the support of the cause from the parish. The event was another great success with many gathering to fondly remember the famous weekend. Huge thanks to everyone who helped out on the day and dropped in goodies to be sold. Congratulations to Gráinne Duffy who won the fabulous cake donated by Jacqueline and Sarah O’Connor. The fantastic sum of €1851.32 was raised and will now be donated to Ronald McDonald House. Míle buíochas. 

Thank You

I would like to thank the parishioners of Athea for their kindness, generosity and support throughout my 4 years as Sacristan.

I would also like to extend huge gratitude to all those who contacted me over the last couple of weeks and for their kind gifts and well wishes upon my retirement.

I will never forget the friendships I made during my time as Sacristan, a special mention to the late Pa O’Connor who was always by my side. May he rest in peace.

I leave my position with a heavy but happy heart as I know I did the Parish of Athea proud.

Kind Regards – Carol O’Connor

Athea Vintage Club

Unfortunately due to the latest Covid restriction we have had to cancel our planned vintage day for Oct 11th 2020.

We hope to be able to run one again in the future. Our priority is everyone’s safety.

A group of Athea people in Australia
Patrick Ahern, Liam Chawke, David
Horgan, Joan Quinn and Kenneth Murphy

Church Notices

In keeping with level 3 guidelines all mass services will move online this week. Mass times will remain the same as follows:  Thursday morning 10.30am, Friday & Saturday evening at 7.30pm and Sunday morning at 10.30am. You can access the mass via the webcam on the following link https://www.churchservices.tv/athea.

You can also access the mass on local radio supplied by the church – there are a small number of these radios still available, please contact Siobhan on 087-2237858.

Mass Intentions this week

Friday Oct 9^th 7.30pm – Mrs Ita Shine   (month’s mind)

Saturday Oct 10^th 7.30pm – Brian, Mary & Patrick Hanrahan.

Collections: Oct 3^rd /4^th €750.00

Harvest Dues:  The Harvest Dues (which forms part of the priests income) are currently been taken up. If you wish you can drop your envelop into Fr. Duggan at the parish house. This year has been unusual as due to Covid 19 Fr Duggan did not get to have a Lenten or Easter dues collection, therefore your kind generosity is greatly appreciated.  We are very lucky to have Fr Duggan in our midst as some parishes around do not have a resident priest and are not having their priest replaced when he retires. We are also very fortunate to have our webcam service available.

Church Opening Hours – The church will continue to remain closed to the public for the next 3 weeks while we remain in level 3 – we are taking this measure on health & safety grounds to protect each other.

If you need to book an Anniversary mass, a wedding date, a baptism date or get a mass card signed please contact  Fr Brendan on 087-2600414 or Siobhán on 087-2237858.

Once again we thank you most sincerely for your patience and understanding.

SKYDIVE FOR PIETA

Included in photo: Megan Farrell (Glin), Molly Cluney (Athea), Laura Walsh (Glenagragra), Enya McIntyre (Glin), Eamonn Stack Mulvihill (Moyvane),

In 2017, 365 lives were lost to suicide in Ireland. That’s one life a day for the whole year.  Last year, that number was even higher at 421. For everyone reading this, those are heartbreaking figures to have to digest and unfortunately nearly everyone reading this has been affected by suicide in some way or another. One charity, in particular, strives to reduce these numbers by helping those suffering and aiding those who have been affected by suicide. That charity is Pieta House. Pieta is a FREE suicide and self-harm crisis service and a suicide bereavement counselling service that is available 24/7 to everyone.

Unfortunately, as many of you know, the organisation’s flagship event – Darkness into Light – had to be cancelled this year. This left the charity with a budgeted shortfall of €6.5 million. Our group of 14 decided to do our bit by organising a skydive to raise funds for the charity. Our target was €4000 and as of today we have reached our goal. We are blown away by the generosity, kindness and words of well wishes by everyone.

As the skydive isn’t scheduled for another two weeks, we decided as a group to keep fundraising and raise as much as possible for Pieta!!!

We appreciate all donations but more so we appreciate spreading the word about our skydive and Pieta House because you never know who needs help!! We hope not only will we raise more much needed funds for Pieta but we hope to raise awareness of the charity in the process and hope that our campaign we help at least one person reach out for help!! In times like these, it’s so important to keep an eye on the ones closest to you because you never really know whose suffering.

Our skydive is taking place on the 18th of October and we will be fundraising up until then. You can donate on our go fund me page called “Skydive for Pieta House” or you can contact any of us involved and donate through our sponsorship cards.

If anyone wishes to donate they can also contact Molly Cluney on 087 9839942

Current Affairs

by Domhnall de Barra

There’s a touch of de-ja-vu about last night’s announcement that we were going back into some kind of lock down. It is not the level 5 that we all feared but it is none the less a step backwards in our dealings with Covid 19 and very restrictive on  our movements. Restricting movement to within county boundaries makes sense in a way but if, like we are in Athea, on the edge of another county it throws up great difficulties. As I read it I am ok to travel over to Cappamore, more than 50 miles away, but I can’t go to Moyvane or Knockanure, two places a few miles away. Surely it would have made more sense to put a distance limit rather than a county one. There is a big difference between, say, one side of Cork to the other and a small county like Louth. Is this closing the door after the horse has bolted?. In the summer, when the pandemic seemed to be under control, the government urged us all to go on holidays in Ireland so people teemed out of the cities and populated the main tourist resorts with little regard for social distancing and the other recommendations. Is it any wonder that the virus has spread throughout the country?  Then we had the scenes after GAA matches with supporters in close contact with each other, hugging and kissing, celebrating a win. Add in the house parties, which were not confined to teenagers alone, and the back door pubs who defied the advice to stay closed, along with the loony brigade who demonstrated against having to wear masks, and it is easy to see how we got to this stage. In the beginning we all bought into the idea of isolation and cocooning and it worked but, as time goes by, we are becoming immune to the warnings. We have had enough, we tell ourselves, but the reality is that Covid is still as dangerous now as it was back in April and, if we are to prevent mayhem in our hospitals, we have to do everything in our power to keep the numbers affected as low as possible.

During the past week, the Chief Justice, Susan Denham, gave her ruling on the attendance of Seamus Woulfe at the Oireachtas Golf Society’s dinner in Galway. She concluded that, even if it was not wise for him to have attended and basically he should have known better, it did not warrant him having to resign from his position. A bit of common sense at last!  There are plenty who will not agree with me and are still looking for heads to roll. I argued at the time that it was not right that people like  Darragh Calleery and Phil Hogan had to fall on their swords because certain “holier than thou” people demanded it. It was too big a price to pay for an error of judgement. Suppose there is a house party in contravention to the rules, should people who are found to be there, if they are doctors, lawyers, teachers etc., be forced to give up their professions –  of course not. There is something in our make-up that makes us want to bring prominent people down. A wise man once told me “if you climb a few rungs on the ladder of success, a crowd will gather at the bottom, shaking it, trying to make you fall down”.  I hope we will learn from the experience and be more tolerant in the future.

I am not a great fan of any political party so I have no axe to grind but I find it hard to take some of the comments from the opposition with regard to the leaving cert debacle. I have a great deal of sympathy for Minister Norma Foley, who is new to the job, because what happened was not of her doing or indeed the Department of Education. When it was decided that the Leaving Cert could not be taken in the usual way, another method had to be found. It was designed to be fair to all and, at the same time, not allowing schools to give grades that were too high. A system was worked out and it should have worked but, two mistakes in lines of code meant that some people were not awarded as much as they should have. This impacts on a lot of students and the fallout is still not completely known but, to her credit, the minister came out and explained the situation as best she could and fielded questions in a very thorough and honest way. The opposition make much of the fact that she knew of the problem some days before and should have come public then but,  imagine the chaos that would ensue if she announced there was a problem and she did not have the full facts to divulge. At least we now know the exact situation and plans can be made to deal with it. The most important people in all this are those who got grades that were lower than they should have. Every effort must be made to ensure that they do not suffer as a result and that they get the college places they deserve. We await further information.

Can you believe everything that comes out of the White House in relation to President Trump’s dice with Covid 19?. This is a 74 year old, overweight man with underlying conditions and yet he is taken to hospital, put on oxygen and, miraculously, is home in a couple of days.  Many fear that it is all a big hoax to curry favour and improve his standing in the polls. Who can blame them when the honesty bar has been set so low by this administration. If he really had it and recovered so fast, good for him, but to tweet that there is no need to fear the virus and “get out there” is grossly irresponsible. Many who heed his advice will die if they now throw precaution to the winds and stop mask wearing and social distancing. Maybe the drugs he was given have worked and, if that is the case, we may be on the verge of dealing with this virus. I sincerely hope so but I am not holding my breath!  Stay Healthy.