No Newsletter Next Week

Due to the fact that I will be in America all week for a family re-union, there will be no hard edition of Athea & District News on sale next Tuesday.  The online edition will be available as usual on

Athea.ie so please send any articles, photos etc. and they will be included. We will be back to normal the following week providing I make my way home!  It is going to be strange to be in shorts in Orlando next week but, sure, someone has to do it?

Domhnall de Barra

CFR AGM.

The CFRs would like to thank everyone who contributed to their annual church gate collection. The amount collected was €1,006.40.  Our AGM was held on the 25th January. The sitting committee were thanked for their services. The newly elected committee are Chairperson: Rodge Byrne, Secretary: Siobhán Moroney, Treasurer Eilish Geoghegan, Quarter master Pat Mulvihill and Training Officer Richael Griffin. New members are always very welcome.

The Way I See It

By Domhnall de Barra

Man’s inhumanity to man knows no bounds. Just when you think you have heard the worst, another item on the news makes you despair even more.  There have been a few incidents recently, especially a case of an assault on a woman in Limerick city that was in the courts last week.  The attacker was no stranger to the woman as he used to stay with her on occasions. On one visit he got her to ask an elderly friend of hers to drive them to Charleville. On the trip he attacked to woman, hitting her repeatedly with a bottle. When they got back to the house in Limerick he pulled a fridge across the door so that nobody could leave and continued his attack. The elderly man explained that he was afraid to intervene due to his frail condition and told how the man hit and kicked the woman, threw acid in her face three times and poured a kettle of boiling water over her before leaving her for dead. She recovered consciousness to find herself in a burning building and managed to make her escape despite her horrific injuries. It is hard to fathom how anyone could be so cruel and depraved but it shows that there are a lot of people out there who have the capacity and the will to do evil deeds. Then there was the case in England of a couple who neglected their 16 year old daughter who was found dead in her room. She was 16 stone weight at the age of 13 and incapacitated due to being in a wheelchair. Despite this the parents kept feeding her fatty foods until she was over 22 stone when she died. By this time she had outgrown the wheelchair, which was never replaced, and was unable to go to the toilet. When the police found her in the room she was lying in her own excrement covered in sores which went right into the bone. She was covered in flies and maggots that were feeding off her flesh and the stench was so bad that seasoned police offers got physically sick. Before she died she was screaming and when her father was asked what did he do he said he texted her twice to stop  it. Both parents were found guilty of manslaughter by neglect but is there any sentence long enough for them?  To leave any human being in that condition is unthinkable but how could you do it to your own daughter especially when she was handicapped. In many of these cases the excuse of drink or drug abuse or socially deprived background is presented as a mitigating factor but I don’t buy that for a minute. There simply is no excuse for inhuman behaviour and the full rigours of the law should fall on any perpetrators.  Long ago, when there was a row, the worst you could expect was a split lip or a bloody nose. Nowadays  you would be lucky if you weren’t knifed or even shot in an altercation. The world is becoming a very dangerous place and we have to do all we can to ensure evil is rooted out and dealt with. If we don’t, what will there be for our grandchildren?  We all deserve to live our lives without looking over our shoulders all the time.

On a much lighter note, somebody asked me the other day if I knew when dartboards first appeared in pubs. I remember the first one I saw was in Mick (The Cheeser) Collins’ pub in Abbeyfeale in the 1950s. It was a novelty at the time but it wasn’t the first game that used to be played in bars at the time. For years previously the game of rings was played in any pub that had a little bit of room. “Rings” were played on a flat board attached about eye level to a wall and had 12 little hooks numbered from one to thirteen. Each player threw six rings from an agreed distance from the board and if a ring settled on a hook, the player was given that number of points. The first player to reach an agreed amount, usually 100, won the game but it had to be ended on an exact amount. The rings could be thrown under or overhand and there was great skill in getting the rings to hit the board at the correct angle so that they caught the hook and fell downwards. There was usually a net underneath the board to catch the rings that didn’t land on a hook but if the rings hit the board in a certain way they could fly all over the place. Rings is an Irish game that spread throughout the world, especially after the famine when millions had to emigrate. After the 1950s, darts took over. They had been very popular in English pubs and quickly took off here.  I remember as a teenager, walking into Abbeyfeale at night with my neighbour Jack “Davy” O’Connor, to play darts at Jim Lane’s pub which was, I think, only the second establishment to have a dartboard. It was a four mile walk both ways but we thought it was worth it because of the enjoyment we got out of it. I actually became quite good at darts and played in a senior league while I was in Coventry. When we went to different pubs to play other teams in the league there was always refreshments on offer. These included Scotch eggs, pickled eggs, black puddings and jellied eels!, quite a mixture. It may seem strange but they were lovely with a nice pint of beer and didn’t last long on the counter. I don’t know if too many today would be tempted by the eels but I can personally vouch for them.

St. Bartholomew’s Church Athea

Mass Intentions next weekend Sun Mar 12^th at 11am – Mass Pro Populo

Ministers of the Word:  First Communion Programme

Ministers of the Eucharist:  Mary Dalton & Angela Brouder O’Byrne.

Weekday Mass this week:  Tuesday Mar 7^th 9.30 am and Thursday Mar 9^th 7pm.

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 4^th Sunday of the month at 12noon. Next baptism course on Tues Mar 14^th.

Parish Office: Mon-Fri 11am-1pm. Call 087-3331459 or email [email protected]

A selection of Mass Bouquet Cards is available through the Sacristy/Parish Office – the list

Includes mass cards for the dead and the living, Get well, Special Occasion, Exams, Communion and

Confirmation.

Requiem Mass for Frank Sheehy (London and late of Templeathea) will take place next Saturday Mar 11^th at 12 noon with burial afterwards in Holy Cross cemetery.

Lourdes Youth Pilgrimage 2023 (22^nd – 27^th June). For booking details contact Karen at 061-350000 or email at [email protected]

Limerick Diocesan Pilgrimage to Lourdes 2023. Led by Bishop Brendan Leahy.  Direct return flights from Shannon to Lourdes. For booking contact Joe Walsh Tours, Telephone 01-2410800 or email [email protected] €879 per person, full board, all taxes included. Full religious programme.