St. BARTHOLOMEW’S CHURCH, ATHEA
Athea Parish Church Notices
Mass Intentions next weekend Sept 10th
Sat 27th at 7.30pm: Jim O’Sullivan, Nan O’Sullivan, Maureen Keane and Dan O’Sullivan,. Mary Ita Shine and her husband Donal, Patrick Hayes and his grandparents Bill & Mary Hayes, Michael & Tom Hayes, Tommy Danaher and Johnny Collins. Margaret Broderick.
Thursday 8th 9.15 – Joseph O’Connor (recently deceased in Tipperary)
Readers: Linda Hunt & Caroline Pierse.
Eucharistic Ministers: Yvonne Roche & Margaret Enright.
Weekday masses this week on Tuesday & Thursday morning at 9.15am. Eucharistic Adoration and the Devine Mercy Chaplet after mass on Tuesday morning.
All masses can be viewed online via the following link https://www.churchservices.tv/athea
Parish Office hours: (Mon – Fri) 11am to 1pm. Contact Siobhán on 087-3331459 or email [email protected] – outside of these hours please leave a voice/text message.
We remember in our prayers this week Timmy Murphy, Knockfinisk RIP – whose funeral takes place in Athea on Wednesday at 12 noon.
The Way I See It
By Domhnall de Barra
There is a line in a film called “Wall Street” in which the CEO of a financial institution says “greed is good”. Well, greed, good or bad, has taken over and is now driving the bus. Greed is defined as: “intense and selfish desire for something, especially wealth, power, or food “. We can see ample examples of it everywhere like the cost of fuel, rent, shopping and almost every item for sale. Why is the cost of renting a house so high? Most of the houses for rent were bought many, many years ago when they cost a fraction of what they do now. A gradual increase, in line with normal inflation might be acceptable but, even though landlords were quite satisfied with rents they were getting in recent years, they now seize on an opportunity to exploit their tenants, just because they can, due to the high demand for their commodity. The same applies to hotels who have doubled, tripled and in some cases, quadrupled their room rates this year despite the fact that, before the pandemic, they were making a good profit at normal rates. It’s the old “supply and demand” situation where prices go up when there is a scarcity and come down when there is an abundance. People in business will try to maximise their profits so we are stuck with the situation at the moment. The danger is that, with the cost of living rising so rapidly, workers will look for more wages and when employers are not able to meet their demands strikes are in the offing and we are heading for tough times. There is no use expecting the government to compensate everybody for rising prices as there is only so much money to go around and the fact that most of our disposable revenue comes from multi-nationals, who could pack up and leave at any time, means there are limits to what can be done. No good shutting the stable door now; the horse has bolted. Houses should have been built by local authorities over the years in sufficient numbers to house all those who need them. The fact that they were not leaves us in the situation we are in today. There is also a lack of common sense as in the energy scarcity for the winter months. The government went gung ho for alternative energy, mainly from wind farms, but foolishly closed down the peat-burning generating stations in the country, yielding to the pressure from the Green Party and environmentalists, before the alternatives were ready to replace the supply. Of course we should have wind farms and wave power instead of burning fossil fuels but we shouldn’t put the cart before the horse. We are all encouraged to buy electric cars but what is the use if there is a power outage and we are all grounded. There is no Dart or Luas in Knocknaboul or Dirreen. Independent TD for Roscommon, Michael Fitzmaurice, the other day called on the government to reopen the peat-burning power plants immediately. I don’t know how feasible that is but, one thing I am sure of, they should never have been closed so quickly. We need a back up so that is why I fervently hope that the gas terminal on the Shannon estuary between Ballylongford and Tarbert, gets the go ahead from An Bord Pleannála this month. The Greens will be dead against it, as will others, but it makes perfect sense to “keep a guard to the knave” as it were. Maybe recent developments will encourage the board to make the right decision and not leave us in years to come without power at the worst time of the year.
Only the other week I was writing about the increasing violence in the country and how evil is in our midst and thriving. The brutal murder of three young people in Tallagh over the weekend brings matters to a new low. What kind of depraved individual stabs children to death? Then, this morning, we heard about two men who killed 15 people and injured many more in an attack on two remote communities in Canada, again with the use of knives. It doesn’t bear thinking about. I have always thought that the carrying of knives should carry a far heavier penalty than it does at the moment. There is no need for anybody to have a knife on their person when they go out. If they have it, they intend to use it if necessary and don’ listen to the “I need it to defend myself” story. This is the same line that is trotted out by the gun lobby in America who believe everybody needs to be armed to protect themselves. They even want to arm teachers in schools and even older pupils. This is crazy. If nobody has a gun then nobody needs one to defend themselves. The same goes for knives. Anybody found with one in their possession should face the full rigours of the law and be locked away for a long time otherwise we are going to have more tragedies like the one in Tallagh over the weekend.
The Vintage run in Athea on Sunday last was a great success due in no small part to the great weather that sadly is coming to an end. Well done to the organising committee who give of their time, year after year, to raise money for local charities. It is committees like these that keep rural Ireland alive and they deserve our full support.