Road & TT National Cycling Championship

The Road & TT National Cycling Championships will take place in Athea on June 20 -23rd hosted by Newcastle West Cycling Club. TT Head Quarters on Thursday 20th is Athea GAA Club & Race Head Quarters on Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd is Con Colbert Memorial Hall.
Expect cyclists racing on the routes Thursday 20th to Sunday 23rd June.
Thursday 20th June 6.30pm to 9pm, on all roads below –
Saturday 22nd June 9am to 3.30pm
& Sunday 23rd June 9am to 4pm on the shorter circuit – Carrigkerry to Glenbaun straight to Blaine Cross.
Except some congestion around Athea Saturday and Sunday, especially at race start and finish at above estimated times.

Duck & Swan Presentation

A presentation of €1,000  to the Carol Liston O’Connor fund, proceeds of fundraising by Athea Duck & Swan was made to Haulie Liston at last Friday night’s  session. The Duck & Swan committee had a session once a month to raise money to feed the ducks on the river and more will be needed now with the addition of 60 new ducks which were released into the river in the past couple of weeks.

At the Duck and Swan presentation were: Tesa O’ Donnell, Liam Broderick, Laura O’Donnell, Jack Quaid, Haulie Liston, Helen Barry and Jerry Brouder.

Listowel Blood Donation Clinic 
Listowel Arms Hotel
Monday 17th & Tuesday 18th June 2024
4.50 pm – 8.10 pm
New Donors welcome
Phone 1800 222 111 for appointment.
Existing donors have the additional option of booking online.

New and existing blood donors are welcome.
Appointments can be made by phoning 1800 222 111.
Existing Donors have the additional option of booking online.

I believe your support could greatly impact the success of our clinic. By spreading the word about this event, you can help us reach a wider audience and encourage more people to donate blood.

Please forward this email to your parishioners, colleagues, friends, and families to help us spread the word even further. It would be extremely helpful if you could also share in your other social media channels and newsgroups.

Your assistance in promoting this event would be immensely appreciated. Together, we can make a significant difference in our community by ensuring an adequate blood supply for those in need.

Thank you for considering this request. If you have any questions or need further information, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Kind regards,
Alex

Best of Luck

To Kathleen Mullane and her friends who are walking the Camino with Fr. Russell and a contingent from Limerick. They are doing The Way of St. James.  No doubt we will hear all about it when she gets back next week

West Limerick Mental Health Association Supporting Local Youth Mental Health

West Limerick Mental Health Association are proud to be partnering with Limerick Youth Service to continue a pilot programme for young peoples mental health in West Limerick. The pilot is a 6-week programme for 1 st year students designed to support their transition into

secondary school. The initial pilot was held in October 2023 and the results and feedback indicated that it was a successful endeavour. Following on from that success, and taking on feedback of students, teachers, parents and facilitators of the course, West Limerick were

delighted to continue funding the project for another two years. This will include a full evaluation of the programme.

The hope is that this programmes and other similar to it could be held up as examples of mental health support for 1 st year students in secondary school and will be used to encourage more funding to expand the programme in 2026 and beyond in West Limerick.

West Limerick Mental Health Association is a mental health promotion organisation based inWest Limerick which is run completely by volunteers from the local community.

Left to Right: Cora Mullane, Denis Casey, Frank Flynn & Brid Breen of West Limerick Mental Health Association presenting a cheque to fund the 1st Year Transition Wellbeing Programme to Eithne Stembridge, Lisa Quirke, and Dawn McCarthy Youth Worker of Limerick Youth Service with Claire Flynn of Mental Health Ireland.

The Way I See It

By Domhnall de Barra

The recent fish kill in the Arrow River near Freemount in Co. Cork was a disaster for the area since great work had been done previously to rebalance the eco system in the locality.  Salmon. trout, lampreys, eels and many more species were wiped out by a spillage at a local treatment plant that must have been really caustic because it stretched to about eight kilometres. I listened to one of the local anglers who had been fishing that river for over 50 years and you could feel the emotion in his voice as he described a river that had been totally sterilised. He recalled a time when, if he got thirsty, he could take a drink of water from the river but those days are gone.  I remember my own young days fishing along the banks of the Ullach with a home made rod and line and a safety pin bent as a hook. Though they were rough and ready they did the job but you had to be extremely quick to pull out a fish as soon as you got a bite because there was no barb on the hook to keep it stuck. I fished that river for hours, sometimes losing track of time as I went from hole to hole, every moment expecting that tug on the line. The river was full of sprats and small brown trout as well as eels that I tried to avoid because they were very difficult to handle to get the hook out and sometimes would wriggle so much that they snagged all the line. On one occasion I pulled one out and it was twisting and turning on the end of the line. I noticed an electric fence nearby and, in my innocence, thought it a good idea to electrocute the eel. I manoeuvred the rod until the eel touched the fence and then a I got a mighty shot of electricity up my arm. It didn’t seem to bother the eel but I was in terrible pain. I didn’t try that trick anymore !  In those days the water in the river was as pure as spring and I often drank it. In the summertime we used to swim in a big natural pool in the river below Woulfe’s land. Of course we swallowed some of the water as we tried to swim and float and it never did us any harm. What has happened to our waterways?  They have all become polluted by run offs from farm land treated with slurry and other fertilisers,  domestic septic tanks and water treatment plants. Nobody does it intentionally and a lot of it could be avoided but the end result is that many of our rivers no longer can sustain fish life. There was a big push on, a few years ago, to upgrade all septic tanks and countrywide inspections were to take place but Covid got in the way and I haven’t heard too much from that plan lately. Some towns and villages have problems with ribbon development along approach roads. There are simply too many houses near each other with septic tanks. The ground is not able to cope with the sheer volume and local waterways are polluted as a result. These houses should be connected to the local sewage system but most of them are not fit for purpose and haven’t got the capacity to take any more. It is only in the last few years that our own system in Athea was upgraded but it still does not service many of the houses near the village. Great moves are being made by farmers to minimise the run off from fertiliser with new methods of spreading slurry and a cut back in the use of artificial fertilisers.  It is hard to blame them for what is happening because they have followed the advice of the government agencies in how to maximise output from their farms.  They were advised to remove hedgerows to make fields bigger  and to use fertiliser to boost growth. Now they are being told that is all wrong so I think that they deserve to be compensated  if they now do what is being asked of them to try and keep our planet alive for a long as possible. Water is the most precious commodity we have and sometimes we take for granted. Remember the old saying: “you’ll never miss the water ‘till the well runs dry.”

Going back to my days on the river, I smile now when I think of some of the things that happened. If the fishing was slow I would start praying that I would get a bite. One day I was on the bank and praying away to God to let me catch a fish. It wasn’t working so I said “please God, let me catch a fish and I will say a rosary when i get home”. There was a hole just behind Cratloe Creamery that was home to a fine trout. We would often see him jumping but could never catch him so, on this occasion , I promised two rosaries and then I spotted the elusive trout. Then, all of a sudden I got the tug on the line and I knew straight away that I had something big because I was unable to pull it out. I had to play it and hope it would not escape. Two rosaries quickly became three, then four and eventually five as the trout fought against me up and down the river. It was a good tussle and there was nobody prouder than me when I had him on the bank. I was over the moon on the way home until it suddenly dawned on me that I would be up all night saying rosaries!  There is no questioning the power of prayer.

How many vacant houses are there in the parish?  I know there are plenty in the village and it is a crying shame that, in a time when houses are scarce in other parts of the country, we have an abundance that could be used to house people. The more people we have in the place the better the community becomes and the more services that are required. There would e no problem with school numbers into the future and a bigger population means more shops etc.  Perhaps Limerick County council should consider buying these properties and restoring them. Anything is better than leaving them idle.

Church Notices

Parish Pastoral Unit (Athea/ Abbeyfeale/ Mountcollins/ Templeglantine/ Tournafulla).

Canon Tony Mullins 087 2600414, Fr. Willie Russell 087 2272825, Fr. Denis Mullane 087 2621911.

Masses this week- Tuesday morning 9.30am and Friday evening 7pm.

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

Mass Intentions: Fri June 21st 7pm: Bridget Keane (months mind).

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

Baptisms take place on the fourth weekend of the month. The next baptismal preparation meeting takes place in the sacristy Templeglantine on Tuesday evening June 11th at 8pm.

Parents who wish to baptise their child in the next few months should contact Siobhan on

087-3331459 for further details.

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

Fitzpatrick’s Listowel are travelling to Lough Derg on June 28th-30th.Call 087-3249822 for details.

Athea Community Council Lucky Numbers Draw

17/06/2024  No’s Drawn: 5,  10,  14,  23.  No Winner

Lucky Dips

Billy McKenna,                  Upper Athea

Donal Cotter,                     Coole West

Allanah Cummane,  Knockdown

Ann McAuliffe,    Donal & Ann’s

Sellers Prize:  Collins’ Shop & Lal Browne

 Next Draw:  24/06/’24    Venue:  Brown Joe’s

Jackpot €21,300

Congratulations

to Julie Murphy, Kostal who won the Jackpot of  €7,300 in the Athea Utd weekly draw

Draw will be held on Monday next at Batt’s Bar,    Jackpot €5,000

 

Photos from Corpus Christi Procession               

Submitted by Damien Ahern