Happy 86th. Birthday to Seanie Hanrahah
Tractor Run
A tractor run with tractors and vintage cars will take place from Ardagh to Ardfert on Easter Saturday. They will stop in Athea at 10 a.m.
**GOOD FRIDAY
LITTER CLEAN UP**
Athea Tidy Towns will again take part in the Annual Team Limerick Good Friday clean up. Anyone with a few hours to spare on Friday morning is asked to get involved in order to clean up our roads!
All equipment will be provided, subject to availability. Pre registration essential by texting/whatsapp 087 9042477.
Scrap Metal Fundraiser
Athea GAA Spring into recycling mode. What we need: Household items. Bicycles, go-karts, goal posts, swing sets, pots, pans, cutlery etc. Stoves, coal buckets, shovels, radiators, sinks, tanks, taps, copper & brass products. Farmyard & other items (examples) Gates, feeders, metal wiring, wheelbarrows, tanks, barrels, buckets, engines, scrap parts, batteries, RSJs, metal sheeting, & other scrap metal, old cars, farm machinery. Contact: Tina 087-9355667, Diarmuid 087-6986798. Liz 087-6699783
The Way I See It
By Domhnall de Barra
We are in Holy Week, the last week of Lent and the lead-up to the biggest festival in the Roman Catholic year – Easter. There isn’t the same fuss about Easter as there is at Christmas but it is nevertheless the cornerstone of the belief that Jesus died, rose again from the dead and ascended into Heaven. It is a week that covers all the emotions from the suffering leading up to the crucifixion to the joyous resurrection. I remember going through the whole story at school and there was a belief that the sky would darken at 3pm on Good Friday, the time Jesus was supposed to have died. It was a very sombre time long ago when everyone attended the services throughout the week. People would do the Stations of the Cross many times during that time and there would be no unnecessary work done or shops open on the Friday. I have an early memory of walking to Mass with my grandmother on a misty Holy Thursday morning. The church was full with the women on one side and the men on the other. All the mature women wore shawls in those days and the men wore their suits. The suits were mainly two colours, brown and navy blue and the shawls were mostly black. Later on in life I began to wonder about the sky darkening on Good Friday or the sun dancing on Easter Sunday when they were on a different date every year. Maybe Easter would be a far bigger festival if it was a fixed date each year and people could plan ahead. It would make it easier for everybody especially if people needed to travel. Is there any real reason why it couldn’t be a fixed date? I don’t think so. Anyway, the churches won’t be so crowded this year as there is a big fall-off in those attending, especially since the pandemic. Life is changing and younger people are not the same believers as those that came before them. Along with the lack of attendees there is also a shortage of priests. There are very few vocations nowadays and as priests retire there is no one to take their place. Because of all these changes many churches will close their doors for good in the near future. It, simply, will not be viable to keep them open so more and more believers are going to depend on the live webcams for their services. It is a pity to see things changing so fast but that’s the world we live in today and I’m not really convinced we are in a better place.
This week will also see the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement that ended the troubles in the North and saw the establishment of the power-sharing executive that runs Northern affairs. Anybody old enough to remember that time will know what a great achievement that was and the amount of work done to make it happen. It was not universally accepted by all with factions on the right of both sides of the political and religious divide rejecting it, some even to this day. Yes we have peace but there are still disturbing signs that it wouldn’t take a whole lot to start the bombings and killings again. I had first had experience of life in the north during the troubles as I worked there every week for a long while. I was living in Coventry at the time and delivered automatic telephone equipment from G.E.C. to all parts of the North. I would get the ferry on Sunday night and go from exchange to exchange dropping off equipment and return on Thursday night. In those days we had a little book with lists of places we could stay so I would ring up in advance to book a bed for the night. You had to be careful because you never knew whether it was a Catholic or Protestant house you were entering. I soon got used to reading the signs, looking up at the walls on entering to see what pictures were hanging. If they were of John F. Kennedy or the Pope I could relax but is it was King Billy and the Queen it was wise to keep a very low profile. I had a few brushes with roadblocks etc. and I saw a couple of shootings and a group of IRA lads once tried to take my truck for a road block but I suppose I was lucky because they were scared off by the sudden appearance of a British army Saracen car and they fled. There was always tension in the air, especially in Belfast when you never knew when the next bomb might go off. Social life was very limited so it was a great relief when John Hume and David Trimble shook hands on the agreement. Brexit hasn’t helped matters but there is hope that the protocol will work in everyone’s favour and things may get back to normal. We must never take peace for granted and nobody should plunge us back into the dark old days, a period in our history better forgotten.
Is it my imagination or is there a scarcity of the common fly? I haven’t seen one for ages and it is strange because the house used to always be full of them. I remember the old sticky roll, the fly catcher, that hung from the ceiling or the bottom of the “Tilly” lamp. It would be plastered with flies that landed on it and got stuck. Is it because there are so many spiders? I didn’t realise how many were in my back garden until one morning recently when there was a misty air and all the webs could be plainly seen with the drops glistening. They were on every available branch, leaf and twig, must be thousands of them. Another absentee is the honey bee. There would be hundreds flying from wild flower to wild flower long ago but now, along with the flowers they have become very scarce indeed. Will they go the way of the Corncrake, snipe and so many other species that have fallen to what we call progress. I hope it is not too late for us to try and provide the proper environment for all these creatures to survive. They all play a vital part in our world and it would be a poorer place without them
St. Bartholomew’s Church Athea
Athea Church Notices Easter Ceremonies
Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper 7.30pm.
Good Friday Stations of the Cross at 3pm (See below for full details).
Celebration of The Passion of the Lord 7.30pm.
Holy Saturday Vigil Mass 7.30pm
Easter Sunday Mass 11am.
All masses are streamed live on https://www,churchservices.tv/athea
Baptisms. on the 4th Saturday of the month 2.30 from April to Oct incl.
Next baptism course on Tues evening April 11th at 8pm.
Our weekend mass will be switching to Saturday evening on April 15th for summertime
Parish Office: Mon/Wed/Fri 11am-1pm. Call 087-3331459 or email [email protected]
Church post box just inside the main church gate (on the pier) for any church related post.
Athea Community Carries the Cross Together’ –
On Good Friday April 7th at 3pm, an outdoor Stations of the Cross Trail through the village will take place as a first for our parish.
The Walking Trail will begin inside St. Bartholomew’s Church (Station 1) and finish at the
altar at Holy Cross Graveyard (Station 14). Each of the stations along the route will be
marked with a small wooden Cross. We are inviting people to get involved by offering to
read, or to help carry a large Cross (which will be carried by the congregation throughout
the trail). A copy of the route is available in the church. We would like to extend a warm
welcome to everyone in the community to join us on Good Friday, weather permitting, and
if you are happy to volunteer to read or help carry the cross, please contact the parish office
on 087-3331459 before Saturday.
Confessions after ceremonies on Thursday and Friday night.
Athea Basketball Club
As another season draws to a close we’d like to look back on our success and the elation at being back playing our sport. The year began with international success when we took 28 u18 boys and girls to play in Barcelona where they won both their tournaments..This gave us a great boost starting out the year when we entered 7 teams in C O. League from our 100 strong membership ..we played at the highest divisions with every win or loss teaching valuable lessons..
At the end of the year it was our U18s again winning their leagues and the girls had the added success of winning their plate competition.
We’d like to mention how proud we are of all our members from the boys competing in their all final in Dublin to Rebecca Collins training and playing on the Kerry Co. Team ..being awarded MVP of our cup competition..and herself and Aoifa Sheehan being chosen to play on the southwest schools competition..a great achievement indeed.
We would like to thank all the parish for their continued support from everyone buying tickets on our fundraising efforts to the drama allowing us to run the shop at their annual performance. To the hall committee who always support us with the use of the finest hall in the county.
Ailísa Ahern, Bríd Hunt and Ryan Woulfe of Coláiste Íde agus Íosef, Abbeyfeale and Athea who attended the Barretstown Residential TY Programme 2 weeks ago.
These 3 students raised over €5,000 for Barretstown and would like to thank everyone who donated or contributed in any way to their fundraising events.
They spent a fulfilled 5 days at the Barretstown camp where they, along with other Abbeyfeale students, got an insight into the wonderful work undertaken by Barretstown where this organisation support children and families affected by serious illness. Barretstown organise and run therepeutic recreational programmes/camps for children with serious and life threatening illnesses and their families. All money fundraised by the students help to enable this to happen.
On behalf of Ailisa, Bríd & Ryan….A MASSIVE, MASSIVE THANK YOU to all who helped make this happen and who helped bring a smile to the faces of these children and their families.
“Kindness is making someone smile, if only for a moment.”