Maurice Horgan, of Horgan’s Garage, presenting a set of junior jerseys to junior soccer team manager Shane Mullvihill at the Top of the Town. Maurice very kindly offered to sponsor this new set of jerseys supplied by Adreniline Sports in Newcastle west.
Also in picture is Maurice’s son David,  Athea United player Kevin Murphy, committee members Tim O’Riordan, Kevin O’Keeffe, Ger Ahern and Bobby Barrett. Far right is club legend and grounds keeper Ned Black, nee White.

DANCING AT LUGHNASA RETURNS

Aaaaaaand we’re back! Excitement is building before the return of ‘Dancing at Lughnasa’ to the stage on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday this week (March 3rd,4th, 5th & 6th)! Tickets are selling fast with Thursday sold out & Saturday almost sold out. There is availability for Friday & Sunday night.

To avoid disappointment & get to see this play you must get your tickets. To book text/whatsapp 087 6926746. Show starts at 7.30pm sharp!

Carol Noonan & Donal Lucy at launch of Knockdown Vintage Run 2022

Knockdown Vintage Club … We’re Back.

After a two-year absence Knockdown Vintage Club is back with its Annual Charity Vintage Run taking place on Sunday 27^th March 2022.  This year the proceeds are in aid of the Irish Community Air Ambulance.

Based in North Cork the Irish Community Air Ambulance offer vital lifesaving services, bringing advanced paramedics from the National Ambulance Services to the roadside, farm or home within minutes of the incident.  Most critically, the Air ambulance can then transfer the casualty to the hospital that best suits their needs.  They also have a network of ground services including Volunteer Doctors and Rapid Response vehicles that respond to emergencies in their community.

The Irish Community Air Ambulance is not receiving government funding and so they rely heavily on fundraising efforts.

Knockdown Vintage Club chose this worthy cause as it is aware first hand of the lifesaving work carried out by members of the Irish Community Air Ambulance at local, regional and national level. Locally some of the club’s family members have been beneficiaries of the swift response from this service so as a group we are both delighted and proud to support this very worthy cause.

Registration for Vintage Cars and Vintage Tractors will commence at 12 noon at the Knockdown Arms.  The Vintage Runs will commence at 1pm.

Light Refreshments will be served from 12 Noon.

The Vintage Club welcomes all Vintage Cars, Vintage Tractors, Vintage Trucks, and Vintage Bikes. Unfortunately, on this occasion the Club are unable to accommodate Modern Tractors. This is due to Health & Safety issues.

A raffle and Auction will also be held on the day with numerous prizes including

1^st Prize:€150.00 Hotel Voucher for O’Donoghue/Ring Hotels.

2^nd Prize: €100 Voucher for Home Heating Oil sponsored by Macoil.

3^rd Prize: Monster Hamper

And numerous other prizes.  Tickets €2 each or 3 for €5.

A special draw for all those who participate will take place immediately after the Runs. An Auction will also take place, and we hope that this too will add to the entertainment.

Big Maggie & Billy will provide the entertainment between 4 and 6pm.

To date the Club has raised in excess of €43,000 for various charities, and this year’s chosen charity is one that is very close to our hearts.

Since its foundation in 2010, Knockdown Vintage Club has gone from strength to strength.  This could not have been done without the help of our sponsors, participants and the general public. Your continued generosity is much appreciated. This year we are taking our fundraising drive on line in the hope that we can reach more people who are willing to help raise funds for the Irish Community Air Ambulance.  Donations can be made at

www.idonate.ie/KnockdownVintageClub2022

We look forward to welcoming you all on 27^th March. Come along for a Fun Day out with all the family.

ST. BARTHOLOMEW’S CHURCH, ATHEA 

Lent begins on Wednesday next (Ash Wednesday) – Mass and distribution of ashes as 9.30am.

A prayer service will be held at 7.30pm Wednesday evening with distribution of ashes also.

During Lent the ‘Stations of the Cross’ will take place each Friday evening at 7pm prior to mass.

The Rosary will be recited on Sat evening at 7.15pm and on Sun morning at 10.15am before mass.

All masses are streamed live on https://www.churchservices.tv/athea

If you wish to book a mass etc., text/phone Siobhan on 087-2237858 or email the parish office at [email protected]

Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and The Devine Mercy Chaplet will take place in the church every Thursday from 3-4pm commencing this Thursday Mar 3rd.

Ministers of the Word and Ministers of the Eucharist 

Sat 5/3     Angela Cafferky / Majella Dalton   Sun 6/3 John Redmond / Eilish Geoghegan

Baptismal Information: Any parent wishing to baptise their child must have completed the baptismal course. Next course Tues Mar 8^th – Please contact Theresa for further details 087 1513565.

The Way I See It

By Domhnall de Barra

As the years go by changes occur on a regular basis. Some of these are caused by advances in technology which means that there isn’t as much manual labour as there used to be and, of course, we can now communicate with anywhere in the world at the touch of a button and fly half way around the globe in a day. At one time it took six weeks to sail to Australia, now people fly backwards and forwards all the time. When I first went to England it took just over 24 hours from the time we left on the train from Abbeyfeale to the time we arrived at Coventry station. Nowadays I could have my breakfast at home, have dinner in Coventry and be home again for supper!  We also now have entertainment available 24/7 unlike long ago when we basically had to make our own entertainment. In the days before the gramophone and radio, many households in Ireland kept singing birds in cages to keep them amused and entertained. They were mostly canaries, linnets, and finches but many other types also finished up in captivity. It was cruel to those birds who were trapped in the cage, like a prisoner in a cell. Sometimes, when the weather was fine the cages would be hung outside the door. This must have caused great anxiety for the birds when they could see other birds flying free. As time went on, many of the songsters were born into captivity and there was good money to be made breeding singing birds for sale. This did not stop the trapping of wild birds. One method used was quite simple, especially when there was snow on the ground. A stick, about six inches long, would be put standing upright in the snow. This stick would have a piece of string attached to it, long enough to reach inside a nearby door or window in the house. A basin, the one usually used for mixing the dough for baking, would be placed, upside down, with one edge of the rim on the ground and the other resting lightly on the upright stick. A piece of food would be left under the basin and the trapper would go indoors, out of sight, and wait. Eventually a bird would come along and try to get the food. As soon as the unsuspecting creature  went under the basin, the trapper pulled the string, dislodging the stick and the basin fell down imprisoning the bird inside. It was a horrible practice but I don’t suppose the people of the time gave it much thought. We never kept songbirds at home but I remember having a budgie for a short time. As youngsters, we were fascinated by this little bird who could imitate whatever was said. He didn’t last long because his cage door was left open by mistake one day and he flew out. I would like to tell you this story had a happy ending but alas the poor bird was domesticated and flew too near the cat who duly ate him!. I haven’t seen a bird in a cage for years and I hope I never will again.

There is another item you won’t see now that was common in every house long ago. It was very necessary  in the bedroom in the days before electricity and piped water which made indoor toilets impossible. It was the chamber pot or the “po” as some people called it. One woman went into a shop one day and asked for a “goes under”. The shop keeper hadn’t a clue what she was after until she explained that it was “the yoke that goes under the bed”.  The pots were on sale in several shops and came in different sizes and materials. The more opulent in the community tended to favour china pots while most people got the white enamel ones which were more durable and easily cleaned. Another woman asked a shopkeeper for a pot one day. When he asked her what size she wanted she stopped for a moment and after a bit of thought said, “one to hold the piss of four”.  These pots had to be emptied every day  and it was usually the women of the house who got this chore. They would take great care to make sure the coast was clear before venturing outside with their cargo and even then they would cover it up with a cloth just in case somebody might suddenly pass by and see what they were doing. An exception to this practice was a lady in Abbeyfeale called Kitsy Cotter. She lived across the street from the old church (now the boys school) and she would march out the door with her chamber pot as people emerged from Mass. She would engage passers by in conversation as she empted the contents into the gutter and rinsed the pot under the tap that was at the side of the street. Wasn’t she absolutely right not to try and hide something that was a necessary undertaking. Kitsy became famous in the early days of television when she was interviewed by the late Frank Hall for his weekly TV programme, Halls Pictorial Weekly.  She was indeed one of the great characters of her time and would have all around her in fits of laughter. Yes, the chamber pot was part of my youth when there were always a few in the bed and more than one bed in the room. The smell of urine was strong in the morning but, like the farmer with cow dung, we got used to it and hardly noticed it after a while. The smell was made worse by the fact that young boys did not have a very good aim and overshot the pot at times!  The great story teller, Daisy Kearney, tells the story of a young man who was sent to hospital in Croom many years ago. He wrote home to his mother saying he missed her, he missed the home made bread and he missed the pot under the bed. She wrote back saying he wouldn’t be missing her for much longer as she would be in to see him the following Tuesday and that she would bring a cake of bread for him. She finished with the line, “as for the pot under the bed, you always missed that anyway”.  I can’t say I miss those days but they were normal to us as we didn’t know any different.

Another practice that went on in years gone by was the regular drowning of pups. Dogs would roam free around farmyards and, in those days, there was no talk of having them neutered so bitches were regularly made pregnant and produced large litters of pups. They could not all be kept because there was nothing to stop them from inter-breeding so most of them were put into a bag and drowned in some nearby water hole. It sounds pretty savage now but it was quite normal at that time. The same fate befell cats and their kittens, or “puisíns” as we called them. Animals like cats and dogs were not pets on the farm, they were workers, the dogs to herd the cows  and the cats to keep down the rats and mice. In most cases they were treated well but there was the odd place where they were malnourished  and did not survive for too long. Pets have a great time of it today by comparison and it is no harm. Maybe it has gone a bit too far though. I cringe when I see little dogs peeping out of handbags dressed up in clothes that should only be for human beings. This is not natural as animals have their own protection and can easily become over heated and uncomfortable. I also have a big problem with the creation of “designer dogs” by cross breeding different species. Maybe I am too long in the tooth to adopt all the new habits but I do think that we should not try to change the way dogs have been bred for centuries and it is wrong to try and make humans out of them. Leave nature alone.