Athea Junior B Team who won the West Final by beating Glin
Congratulations
to Athea Junior B team who beat Glin in the West Final
(see Sports for more info mon the match…)
Congratulations to Áine Ahern from Athea/Glin Community Games who medalled in the county U-16 swimming freestyle event. She will go on to represent Limerick at Munster level.
The Way I See It
By Domhnall de Barra
How time flies! It seems like only yesterday that we were celebrating Christmas and now the month of May is almost here. Maybe it is just me but I think time goes by more swiftly as you grow older. May always reminds me of the fishing days when the white trout would come up the small rivers like the Úalach in Cratloe. We would have been fishing since the first of March and the fish were plentiful but they were usually small brown trout, sprats and eels. The white trout was much bigger and gave us young anglers a bit of a challenge. We weren’t used to playing fish, we just pulled them out of the water as soon as we felt a bite but with trout weighing a pound or two this was not an option as we soon found out after breaking our lines and sometimes even the rod. My mother loved white trout and she cooked them as soon as we got home. What a taste!, she always said they were nicer than salmon and I agree with her. Those were the days but times have changed. Fish are very scarce in the river nowadays because of water pollution. Slurry, septic tank waste and other chemicals have destroyed the quality of the water completely but great work is being done by our local fishing club who are re-stocking the river and we hope that the future will see a return to the days when we looked forward to the arrival of the white trout.
This is also the time of year when people prepared for the bog. I n days gone by turf was the main source of fuel for heating the house and doing the cooking and baking. Every family in the area and beyond had a plot of bog to cut their own turf or else they leased a bank from somebody who had more than enough. On the day before going to the bog, the woman of the house would bake bread and boil bacon. The following morning they would be put in a bag with butter and milk, a gallon of water and a kettle and taken to wherever the bank of turf was. The first job to be done was the making of a fire. Bits of dry turf and “cippons”, left over from the year before would be gathered and carefully set on fire. This was a delicate operation because the fire, if it wasn’t in the right place, could spread and cause damage. Usually the bank would have been stripped before this day. Stripping involved taking a sod off the top of the bank at a depth that would expose the raw bog. This might differ from place to place but it was usually more than six inches deep. The width of the sod depended on the height of the bank. It was wide on a low bank and much narrower on a high bank to leave room for the spreading on top. These stripping sods were carefully laid in the bog hole next to the sod that had been removed the previous year. By doing it this way they left the surface as they found it so that when all the turf had been cut away, the surface of the bog had all its original grasses and plants. The arrival of the turf machine put a stop to all that. To begin the work the sleansman would dig down into the bank and drop the sod for the brancher to catch it with a three pronged pike and throw it up onto the bank where it was caught by another pike and spread evenly along the surface. On a wide bank a second spreader would be needed at the beginning. After going a certain distance the next layer would be opened and so on until they reached the bottom layer. The best of the turf was to be found in the bottom sod. This work continued until the Angelus bell sounded in the village. By this time the kettle would be boiled and everyone tucked into home made bread and butter with slices of cold bacon and steaming mugs of tea. There is nothing quite like the taste of tea in the bog. I don’t know if it is the air or that fact that we were really hungry but we would not be as happy in the finest restaurant in the world as we were sitting around that little fire in the bog. Back to work then until the Angelus bell again sounded at six. That did not mean tools were dropped straight away, oh no, the bench had to be finished first. In those days the bogs were full of people at this time of year and the work continued for the next couple of months, footing, re-footing, stooking and drawing out. The bog provided employment for lots of people who were professional at cutting and saving turf. My own father made a living out of selling turf by the lorry load to people down in the Golden Vale who had no bogs in their area. Local people would also cut an extra slean of turf and sell it by the horse and ass load in the local towns. We should never underestimate how important the bogs were to the people of Athea in times that weren’t as affluent as today. I used to hate the bogs because of all the time I worked in them every year but I now love to walk through them and see that beauty of the place. As I mentioned, the turf machine destroyed the bogs. There is such a contrast between the ones that were cut by the slean, which are level and full of growth and wildlife, and the aftermath of the diggers that filled the turf machined leaving nothing but large holes of water and heaps uncut turf everywhere. The day of the bog is fast coming to a close. It is not “eco friendly” to burn turf anymore and, anyway, a lot of the banks are cut away but we will always remember the open fire and the lovely flame from the sods that were saved on our own lands.
Att Milltown,Co.Kerry horse fair on Sunday were Tom Collins,Athea with Cathal Murphy and Katelyn Curtin from Abbeyfeale while Alan Egan was hoping to buy a donkey.
Photo Moss Joe Browne.
Church Notes
Priests: Fr. Tom Mangan 087-2348226, Fr. Willie Russell 087 2272825, Fr. Dan Lane 087 2621911.
Intentions this week Friday May 2nd 7pm: John O’Connor (Late of Dublin & Clash, Athea) Months Mind. Eileen Brosnan. Margaret White, Babe Ann Griffin & Birdie Ahern. Saturday May 3rd 12noon: Kathleen Atkins – Months Mind. Sunday May 4th 11am: Mary O’ Sullivan (Gortnagross), her granddaughter Chloe & parents Gerry & Birdie White. Dick Woulfe. Mai O’ Sullivan.
Irene Barrett. All masses are streamed live on https://www.churchservices.tv/athea
Trocaire; Thank you for supporting Trocaire this year, boxes can be dropped into the church during any mass. Baptisms take place on the fourth weekend of the month. Parents who wish to baptise their child in the next few months should contact Siobhan on 087-3331459.
Parish Administration: Tues-Fri 11am-1pm. call Siobhan on 087-3331459, outside of these hours text or email [email protected] Facebook: Athea Parish Church Community
Athea Community CouncilLucky Numbers Draw
28/04/’25 No’s Drawn: 7, 13, 14, 21. No Winner
Lucky Dips
Eve Upton, Rathcahill
Pádraig & Rian Horgan, c/o Lal Browne
Ann White, Cratloe
Bridget Mulvihill, c/o Collins’ Shop
Sellers Prize: E. Fitzgerald & Lal Browne
Next Draw: 05/05/’25 Venue: Brown Joe’s
Jackpot €25,400