News-07/09/2021 « Athea & District Notes

Sep/21

News-07/09/2021

Wishing Jim Cleary, Templeathea, a very happy belated 70th Birthday. Hope you had a wonderful day Jim.

Children from Athea National School who celebrated their First Communion on Saturday last pictured with Fr. Duggan.

Athea Drama Group

Athea Drama Group AGM will take place on Thursday September 23rd at Con Colbert Hall at 8pm. We will discuss plans to hopefully stage a production in early 2022. Please spread the word!

St. BARTHOLOMEW’S CHURCH, ATHEA

Readers: Sat – Kathleen Mullane Sun – Yvonne Roche.

Eucharistic Ministers: Sat – M Enright & M O’Donoghue Sun – M Dalton & M Hunt.

Mass Intentions: Fri. 10/9 Mairead Danaher and Tadhg Danaher. The Danaher family, The Guiney family & the Rigg family.

Sat. 11/9 Ita Shine – 1st Anniversary. Patrick Hayes and his grandparents Bill & Mary Hayes, and his granduncles Michael & Tom Hayes. Jim O’Sullivan and his sisters Nan O’Sullivan & Maureen Keane.

Sun. 12th Sept Mary Broderick.

All masses and funeral masses are live streamed on the Church Services TV network via the following link https://churchservices.tv/athea

The Church is open daily for private prayer. If you wish to book an anniversary mass, a wedding or get a mass card signed please contact Fr. Brendan on 087-0562674 or Siobhan on 087-2237858.

Baptismal Information Any parent who wishes to baptise their child must have the baptismal course completed – for further details please contact Theresa on 087 1513565. Next course date: Tues 14^th September.

The Way I See It

By Domhnall de Barra

“Ní thaggan ciall roimh aois” is an old Irish saying. The version in English is “you can’t put an old head on young shoulders”. It recalls a time when the elders of the tribe were renowned for their wisdom and were consulted by younger members to gain the benefit of their experiences. Things are a bit different today as times have changed, none more than in the last 70 years. People of my age group who grew up in the pre-electricity era have very little to pass on to the young people of today who live in a totally different world. It was not easy for us to keep abreast of all the changes that have taken place and we now have a situation where we might be consulting them when it comes to modern technology and the use of smart phones and tablets etc. My youngest grandchild is far more savvy than I am when it comes to dealing with the setting up of phones, watches and other gadgets that seem so confusing to us old codgers. They also have the benefit of education which many people did not have in the past. It is great to see and I hope it will continue into the future but where will it all end? My daughter Bríd bought a new electric car the other day. It is as quiet as a mouse and will do over 400 klm without recharging. There are various driving aids that take some bad decisions out of the hands of the driver. It has lane discipline which means that, on a main road or motorway it will not stray outside the lanes if you haven’t indicated your intention to do so and has a cruise control that can be adjusted to automatically reduce speed to the car in front if it is travelling at a slightly slower speed. It also has parking cameras and many more bells and whistles which leads me to think that we are not far away from cars that drive themselves. I know they are there already but not for everyone. It gives me the shivers to think I would not have control and was depending on a machine that might break down but it is a fact that machines are far more reliable than human beings. Young people will take it in their stride though and good luck to them. So, do we have any wisdom at all to pass on to those who are following in our footsteps? We may not be any good to them in their careers or lifestyles but, no matter how things seem life has it’s problems and we all are affected by them. I look back on my life and I now can see the mistakes I made and would not make again if I had a second chance. After I got married it was all about catering for the family, getting a house and paying the bills. We didn’t start with nothing, we started with less than nothing because we had to borrow from the bank, money that had to be paid back with interest – a lot of interest. That meant working all the hours I could. I would work during the day and teach or play music at night. Back in the ‘70s I had a group that played in pubs every Friday, Saturday and Sunday night and a Céilí band on the road as well. I remember coming in from playing at Céilís in places like Portlaoise, Bantry or Waterford, having a quick wash, changing the cloths and going straight to the day job. Then, in the ‘80s, recessions hit and I had to go to work in Libia and afterwards in Carlow and Dublin to earn a living. Two of the boys were in college at the same time and, as I was getting no grants at the time, I had to have lots of money for them every Sunday to cover their digs and tuition fees etc. Thank God they both did well and are in great jobs today but, because I was away from the home so much, I missed out on their growing up. That they turned out so well is down to Noreen who was most of the time on her own. I regret missing out on those important years but I can’t go back and change it now. People talk about success and the pursuit of happiness through accumulating wealth but there is nothing more important than family. When you have no money, winning the lotto would seem like the answer to all your problems but we have seen time and again that, more often than not, sudden wealth brings more problems than it solves. A woman who won 23 million a few years ago took her own life just last week. If I had any advice to give to young people it is to appreciate family. For those lucky enough to have children, enjoy every moment of their growing up because time flies and soon they are grown-ups themselves. I also regret I didn’t spend more time with my own father and mother before they passed away. True, I saw quite a bit of them but I could have spared more time to talk to them while I could. We don’t get second chances so, look after the family unit and savour every incident. Don’t be too carried away with material acquisitions – they don’t matter in the long run.

I mentioned time flying by and it seems like only yesterday that I was getting used to writing 2021 instead of 2020. Already the swallows are gathering and the leaves are starting to fall so we come to, what to me is, the saddest time of the year. Everything seems to be dying off and the winter is fast approaching with shorter days and longer nights. September was the bridging month when the summer ended before winter started. It was traditionally the time when the local farmers went for a week to Ballybunion after the harvest, the hurling and football finals took place and Listowel Races were held. It was a time of celebration and thanksgiving for the hay that was in the barn, the turf that was in the shed and the vegetables and fruit that the land produced. The fishing season closed and, at the end of the month the shooting season opened for ducks. Times have changed and now local farmers are as likely to go the Costa del Sol as Ballybunion and Listowel Races are no longer the big attraction they once were but we still have the hurling and football finals. Limerick had a great win but, who would think at the beginning of the year, that neither Kerry nor Dublin would feature in the final this year? It is great for the game and I fervently hope that Mayo, who have come so close over the years, will finally make the breakthrough. They have given us such entertainment over the years and have the best supporters in the game. Fingers crossed!!