Athea Drama Group

Athea Drama Group take to the boards with this year’s production “The Anniversary” on February 9th, 11th, 12th, 16th, 18th  & 19th of February.

Booking lines open.  087 6926746

Preferably by Text or Whats App.

The Countdown is on! Get booking those tickets!

Text or What app 087 6926746

Joe Aherne, Glenagore, Athea is taking up the challenge of walking 100 miles in February in aid of Cardiac Care in the Mater Public Hospital.

The vital funds raised by this walk will help equip the hospital with life-saving equipment, which will allow the staff to diagnose and treat patients with serious heart conditions.

If you would like to sponsor Joe, please contact him on;

086 8155614

The Way I See It

By Domhnall de Barra

They’re at it again!  The “right to privacy” brigade are up in arms, this time about the possibility of Gardaí wearing body cameras and using face recognition technology. These are the people who were responsible for having hundreds of CCTV cameras taken down around the country to the delight of the criminal fraternity who can now go undetected. There is also a possibility that a man serving time for murder may be released shortly because a major part of his conviction rested on his location which the Gardaí got by using information from masts that placed his mobile phone calls in that area.  This is total madness. Very recently, we saw in America the brutal beating of a young black man who was pulled over for a traffic violation and somehow fell foul of the arresting officers. The man died of his injuries in hospital later but would we have known all the facts if it wasn’t for body cameras and CCTV in the area?. It was one of the hardest things I have watched on TV and I just couldn’t believe that police officers, who were also black,  could be so sadistic. They punched him, kicked him in the head and beat him with a steel baton, all caught on the very cameras that the “right to privacy” brigade want to ban here. Police wearing body cams can only be a good thing both for the public and the police themselves. They give a true account of what actually happens and could be a great deterrent to those on the police side who like to throw their weight around and the public who may react in a violent manner to arresting officers. I don’t understand what people are afraid of. If I am not doing something illegal or suspicious, why should I mind if I am caught on CCTV or on a body cam?  The alternative is that many criminals will slip through the net so, please, let common sense prevail and allow the authorities to use whatever modern technology is available to them to apprehend those who are the real threat to us, not some notion of our civil liberties being violated.

Is it the silly season already?  Two balloons were seen floating over north and south America in the last few days. The Americans got very upset and cancelled a trip to China by Secretary of State Anthony Blinken because they thought this was a spying mission by the Asians. The Chinese apologised immediately saying the balloon was there for collecting weather data and had been blown off course. It doesn’t take a genius to work this one out. Why would China use something as primitive as an air balloon to spy on America when it has the most sophisticated satellites in the world at their disposal. There is something else going on here and we will have to wait and see what transpires but the decision by the President to shoot the balloon down may have consequences that we don’t want to know about. China is a far greater threat to the world than Russia ever was and America would do well to try and co-exist with them rather than provoking them by trips to Taiwan and shooting down air balloons.

As I have often alluded to in this column, the greenway is a great boon to those who want to walk and cycle without the dangers of doing so on the public roads. You can now go from Limerick to Kerry along the old railway route with a state of the art tarmac roadway all the way. It is used by walkers and cyclists with many people using it to exercise their dogs. There are many notices telling dog owners to keep them on a leash at all times and to “scoop the poop” in bags provided at the entrances. In the beginning they were very good but as time has worn on, I see more and more evidence of dogs wandering off the leash and doing their business all over the roadway. This is not good enough and it spoils a great amenity for all who use the greenway to keep themselves fit and enjoy the benefits for a walk or cycle through beautiful countryside. There is also the problem of people dropping litter on our roadways. I do a good bit of walking and I like to vary my routes as much as possible so I have first hand knowledge of the amount of chip cartons, bottles, cans, nappies and other waste products that are deposited in the ditches beside the roadways.  There will probably be a clean up day in the not too distant future and tons of rubbish will be picked up by local volunteers. Unfortunately it will be as bad as ever in no time. We have the best educated people ever in this country but, unfortunately common sense and civic awareness seem to be in short supply. I don’t know what we can do to get the message across. We have a lovely countryside and we all have to do our duty to keep it clean and tidy.

The other day I caught a glimpse of something moving in the field below the house. It was in the morning and the light was not so good but as my eyes adjusted to the greyness I could make out more moving objects. It was a large herd of deer, over twenty strong, grazing away on the grass at the edge of the forest. As they filled their bellies one at each end had their heads in the air on the lookout. After a while they began to graze and two more heads were raised so they were well organised to spot danger. What amazed me was the actual size of them and how quickly they could move when eventually they got startled and fled. These are Sitka Deer and they are not native but an invasive species that were brought into the country and have multiplied very quickly indeed. They are a huge problem to farmers in other parts of the country who have a job stopping them eating the grass they need for their cattle and destroying their fences. Once a year there has to be a cull and this raises problems for animal rights lovers who want them to be left to roam wild without hindrance. I think some of these people would like us all to go away and leave the country to animals, especially the ones they want to free from captivity, like cows, pigs and sheep. Unfortunately, most of us have to live in the real world and it is necessary to control certain species to maintain a balance. That does not mean we should not treat our animals well and look after them properly but we could do without suggestions like bringing back the wolf to the Irish countryside and letting large herds of deer take over our meadows.

St. Bartholomew’s Church Athea

Mass Intentions next weekend Sun Feb 12th at 11am  Hannah & Liamie Murphy.
Una & Eamon Mulvihill and deceased members of the Mulvihill family. Jim Larkin and
Anne Larkin. Alice O’Sullivan. Joanne Mullane (nee Murphy – Knockfinisk) .
Ministers of the Word:  Paul Curry & Jade McMahon.
Ministers of the Eucharist:  Pat Higgins & Majella Dalton.
Weekday Masses this week Tuesday & Thursday morning at 9.30 am.
Eucharistic Adoration and the Devine Mercy Chaplet after mass on Tuesday morning.
All masses are streamed live on https://www,churchservices.tv/athea
Baptisms on the 4th Sunday of the month at 12noon. Next baptism course on Tues Feb 14th.
Parish Office: Mon-Fri 11am-1pm. Call 087-3331459 or email [email protected]