Volunteer with West Limerick Mental Health Association
We are always searching for volunteers! Our volunteers play a crucial role in our organization and our community. Without the dedication of volunteers, many projects offered by our local branch would not be possible. We truly appreciate the dedication and initiative of those who unselfishly contribute their time and energy to further our mission. Volunteering is at the core of our organization. It is about giving, contributing and helping other individuals and the community at large; it is working with others to making a meaningful contribution to a better community.
Give the gift of yourself, your time, your effort, and discover the benefits of volunteering.
You are always welcome. Contact : [email protected]
Darkness into Light
2021: You can join us at Sunrise – Saturday, May 8.
Sadly this year again we can’t come together as a community and walk together, but we can still join Pieta and Electric Ireland for a special Darkness Into Light sunrise, and give the gift of hope to those impacted by suicide and self-harm.
T-shirts are available this year as part of the registration, but if you have an old Darkness into Light t-shirt we would love if you could reuse it. This keeps our running costs down and is kinder to our planet.
Cratloe/Keale/Coole West Community Alert are organising a walk along the Keale Rd. from Knocknaboul. Contact Maura Keane @ 087-7934796 for details
St. Bartholomew’s Church, Athea
Mass Intentions next weekend
Saturday May 1st 7.30pm Danny O’Sullivan (late of London & Toureendonnell) 1st Anniversary
All masses are live streamed on the Church Services TV network via the following link
https://churchservices.tv/athea
Church opening
The Church is open daily for private prayer. If you wish to book an anniversary mass, a wedding or baptism date or get a mass card signed please contact Fr. Brendan on 087-0562674 or Siobhan on 087-2237858.
Easter Water
Easter water blessed at the Easter Vigil is available at the back of the church beside the sacristy door. We have also produced a prayer card with prayers for the blessing of family and for the blessing of land and animals which are available in the church.
Limerick Council confirms plans to CPO dozens of vacant buildings
A further 24 properties at locations across Limerick city and county are to be purchased compulsorily by the local authority as part of a wider strategy to rejuvenate our towns and villages.
The council has confirmed details of the latest properties being CPO’ed this Thursday morning.
The latest tranche includes three properties at Railway View, Knocklong East, a former schoolhouse in Kilmallock, Athenaeum Hall in the city centre and a number of homes in villages such as Murroe, Montpelier, Foynes and Bruree.
In a statement, Limerick City and County Council says the objective of the Compulsory Purchase Orders is to tackle dereliction which will allow towns and villages to be renewed and to provide much needed affordable homes for people.
“We want to create the conditions where we can build vibrant, strong and sustainable communities across Limerick, and tackling dereliction is part of this process,” said a spokesperson.
To date, the local authority, has started the CPO process on more than 100 properties and many of the CPOs already completed have been sold or are up for sale to interested parties.
The Way I See It
By Domhnall de Barra
Most of you know by now that I like to walk every day, or at least the days when I don’t play golf, and I like to change my route so that I don’t go the same way any two days in a row. Since I started doing this I have become more aware of the countryside around me and how much beauty we have in our parish. Last Sunday morning I walked from the council road in Coole East over to Keale Cross, back through Garrygloss and up the road past Cratloe School. Coming down from Keale Cross, there is a valley down to the left where the Úlach river flows. It rises a few hundred yards farther back in the foothills and it soon swells with the water from the drains and streams that flow to the valley from the slopes at each side. By the time it reaches Cratloe School it is big enough to justify the title “river”. It divides the parishes of Athea and Templeglantine as far as Cratloe creamery and then it goes through Knocknasna and joins the Feale just behind the mart in Abbeyfeale. That valley is one of the most beautiful you will find anywhere. There is a sense of peace and tranquility about the place with almost no sign of human habitation. When I was going t school there were two families living by the river in the valley over from the school; the Horan’s and the Foleys. Many years ago both families moved up to the road more than a quarter of a mile away. People built along the river long ago, I suppose it provided water for the animals and washing etc. Along with the Foley’s and Horan’s there were the Wrenn’s, two families of Roche’s, Willie Cotter, William Bill Broderick and Denny Will Broderick between Sugar Hill and Cratloe creamery. The Roche’s were a few hundred yards up river from the Metal Bridge in Cratloe and their only way of coming out was along the bank of the river which they then had to cross to get up to the road. If the river was in flood they were grounded. As youngsters we heard a story that one of the Roche’s was going to the creamery one morning and as he was fording the river, a flash flood came down like a Tsunami and swept him and the ass and cart away. Years later they built a passage up to the Balaugh road. Today there are only two houses by the river, both in Ballaugh, Tony Cotter and Tom Brouder. That river was a great place for spawning salmon. They would swim up river in the fall of the year in their thousands, in fact they were so plentiful that nobody noticed when the locals took one or two for the frying pan.! The fishing season closed at the end of August but that did not matter much to the poachers whose only problem was avoiding the bailiffs who patrolled the river at night as well as day. It was also full of trout, sprats and eels and we spent much of our youth trying to catch them with home made rods and bad equipment. We were in awe of people like Sonny Murphy from Athea who was a great fisherman and had a beautiful fly rod with a couple of flies on the line. The fish were so plentiful at the time that we often witnessed him catching a fish on both flies at the same time. That stretch of valley, from the school to Keale Cross, is so beautiful. In the middle there is a little lake like an oasis in the desert and it is alive with wildlife. It must have been what it looked like before man decided to make his home there. I am not too well up on plants but the hedgerows are full of wild flowers and herbs that are just beginning to bloom at this time of year and of course there is an abundance of native trees. It is well worth a visit but don’t be in a hurry, give yourself time to take it all in.
I got out playing golf yesterday and I have never seen so many people looking so happy. The weather was fantastic and , as one man said, we were “like calves left out to the fields after being housed for the winter”. It just shows that we don’t really value something until we are deprived of it. Let us hope that this is the start , or at least the beginning of the end of the restrictions that have held us all captive for so long. Life will never be the same again for many people who have lost loved ones or their livelihood but all this will eventually become a memory. We are so much better off than those who lived at the early part of the last century. Thousands lost their lives in two world wars, the war of independence and the civil war and then there was the Spanish Flu that swept through Europe. Ireland was in a bad state, just finding its feet in a world ravaged by war that left a scarcity of many items. Our story could be so much worse when we consider the state the poor people of India are in at the moment with hospitals overflowing, shortage of oxygen and funeral pyres in the street. The scenes on TV are heartbreaking so I suppose we should be thankful that, despite the inconvenience, the authorities here have done a good job managing the pandemic.
It’s nice to see the CE scheme back in action again. Great credit is due to the volunteers who helped to keep the village clean and tidy during their absence. From now on it will be a full time job keeping the grass cut in the parks and cemeteries and of course the Tidy Towns Committee will have plans of their own. We don’t know how lucky we are living in a place like Athea with people who are proud of their own place and willing to help make it one of the nicest villages in the country.