News – 6/2/24 « Athea & District Notes

Feb/24

News – 6/2/24

St. Brigid’s Celebration

Congratulations to all who were involved in the St Brigid Celebrations in the Church last weekend. It gave people a better incite into the life of one of our best-loved saints and it shows what can happen with involvement from the community. This is the way forward for the Church and it is to be hoped it is the start of many such productions in the future.

Margaret Carroll, Margaret Tierney, Eileen Brouder, Billy Crowley, Pat Higgins & Catherine Crowley making St. BVrigid Crosses

Safety First

In her column today, Kathleen Mullane is highlighting the use of hi-vis jackets by those walking our roads, especially at night. She has also mentioned the need for a footpath out the Glin Road where it is very dangerous for pedestrians at the moment. Walking is great exercise and should be promoted but we need safe places to do so.

The Way I See It

By Domhnall de Barra

It is good to see the Northern Ireland Assembly up and running again because it was the people of the North, republican and loyalist alike, who were suffering from lack of funding held up by the British government since they last sat. The DUP huffed and puffed and finally agreed to go back, putting a great spin on what they had achieved which was nowhere near what they had originally laid out as “red lines”. They got as much as they could and I sincerely hope they accept the fact that they are no longer in the majority and that they respect people with a different view to their own. Likewise I hope that Sinn Féin do not become triumphal and sour relations by talking too much about a united Ireland in the near future. Yes, it is their goal and something I hope I live to see but the reality is that the time is not right yet for such a move, not because it would be opposed by Unionists but rather by a majority of Nationalists who would suffer financially by such a move. The standard of living in the North is far better that down here and the cost of living is much lower. They are now also in the position of having the best of both worlds, having access to both the UK and Europe. I know that if I was living there I would wait until the situation improved down here before opting to join up. It will eventually come because it makes no sense to have one corner of a small island controlled by a foreign power and anyway, the British public don’t really care about the North at all and would be glad to see it under Irish control. In the meantime there is now an opportunity for elected representatives to do their jobs on behalf of all the people of the North, regardless of what persuasion.

Why are goods so much cheaper in the North than down here? I met a man lately who regularly goes up there, fills his van with booze, brings it down and sells it in his off-licence. Isn’t there something wrong when it is cheaper to buy retail in one part of a small island than to buy wholesale in another?. It doesn’t stop at the price of drink, the cost of groceries and other household essentials is much cheaper in stores like Tesco’s that operate in both jurisdictions. There is no justification for it and we are taking the hit down here without making much of a fuss. No wonder the multi-nationals call us “treasure island”.

We live in a world where we depend on medical help more than ever before. The very minute we get a sniffle we are at the doctor’s clinic and we are prescribed pills or bottles to cure us. No wonder the doctors of the country are overstretched catering for the many cases that could easily be treated at home if we had remembered the cures the people who went before us had. Many of theses cures of course are steeped in superstition and religion and have to be taken with a pinch of salt but, if people really believed they were being cured, it was half the battle. Some of them are funny as well. There was a cure for colds and flu that involved making a version of hot whiskey which included Jameson whiskey, 1 spoon of sugar or honey, 1 lemon and 6 cloves. The idea was, even if it didn’t cure you it would make you feel very good for a while anyway. There was a cure for a broken heart which involved making up your own prayer describing where you are and where you would like to be. Light two votive candles, one representing your heartache and the other your heart healing, and let them burn down together while you recite your prayer. I have never tried it so I have no idea if it works but people did use it in the past. The old people believed that nettle juice – yes, from the stinging plant – that’s harvested on May Day will keep arthritis away. Nettles also make a terrific soup for people who are judged to be too pale or suffering from iron deficiencies. My neighbour, Johanna Woulfe of the Glen, had a shop we used to visit when I was small and I often saw her boiling nettles. Sometimes she made soup by adding the giblets of a goose to the nettle water and people thought it was a great cure for colds. Why have we stopped doing this. Nettles are plentiful and it would be easier to sweeten the taste with all the herbs and spices available nowadays. There are, of course, a whole lot more old cures and remedies but I would need a whole book to go through them all. It would be no harm to do research and ask “Dr. Google” for a bit of help. We may all benefit from his wisdom.

The death toll on our roads is rising fast already this year even though we are only at the start of February. There are many reasons for this and it is difficult to see how we can change anything. Some will advocate reducing speed limits but those who regularly break limits will do so whatever number is on the signs. Not so long ago drink driving was one of the main reasons for crashes but that has dropped in recent years due to a change in culture where it is not now socially acceptable and frowned upon by friends. Drugs are now far more likely to be the cause of erratic driving and the Gardaí are only now getting to grips with it. When I say drugs, I am not just referring to the likes of cocaine and cannabis, a woman was driving along a country road lately and veered off into the ditch thankfully only causing damage to her own car and a couple of bruises on herself. She had taken Valium before driving and it had affected her judgement. When we get medicine from the chemist, there will be a leaflet attached telling us of the possible side effects we might experience which sometimes includes phrases like, “do not drive or operate machinery after taking this medicine”. Do we take any notice? More often than not we don’t even read the leaflet. There is also the fact that the standard of driving out there is very bad. I had a near miss the other day when a young man almost hit me on the roundabout going in to Tesco’s in Abbeyfeale. I was coming out, turning right, and he was coming from my left. I had the right of way but that didn’t bother him. He came straight through and if I didn’t have good reflexes and better brakes there would have been a smash. He proceeded to berate me and when I told him the rules of the road for roundabouts he told me to F—- off.

Church Notices

Ide Naofe Pastoral Area (Athea, Abbey Feale, Mountcollins, Templeglantine and Tournafulla).

Canon Tony Mullins 087 2600414, Fr. Willie Russell 087 2272825, Fr. Denis Mullane 087 2621911 and Fr Dan Lane 087 2533030 (retired).

Weekday masses this week Tuesday & Thursday morning 9.30am.

Mass Intentions: Sunday Feb 11^that 11am: Seamus Mahony (months mind). Edmond (Ned) O’Keeffe. Michael Enright. Eamon & Una Mulvihill. Michael Ambrose.

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

Eucharistic Adoration and The Devine Mercy Chaplet on Tuesday morning after mass.

Baptisms are on the fourth Sunday of the month, contact Siobhan for further details.

Parish Administration: Tues-Fri 11am-1pm. call Siobhan on 087-3331459, outside these hours text or email [email protected]

Thank you: Two special events to mark the Feast of St. Brigid were organised in our parish.

On Wednesday Jan 31^st(Eve of St. Brigid) we had a St Brigid’s Cross making workshop in the Church which was well supported by old and young alike – some learning for the first time how to make the St Brigid Cross under the guidance of Henry Moran and his helpers. Then on Sunday morning (Feb 4^th) at our 11am mass the story of St. Brigid was recounted in mime and song for the large congregation that attended. Thank you to Damien Ahern who organised/directed the pageant and to the following who put in a lot of hard work in the background, Pat Higgins, Theresa O’Halloran, Hannah Mai Collins, Mary O’Connor, Angela Brouder and Henry Moran.

Finally, a special thank you to the cast Madylin Brouder, Tara Collins Zgaga, Adelle O’Sullivan, Emma Scanlon, Even Curry, Thomas Barrett, Jade McMahon and Linda Hunt.