by Peg Prendeville

Last week I asked for prayers for Lucy who was due her spinal surgery last Friday BUT IT WAS CANCELLED! So upsetting for the family especially Lucy. No further date given at the moment. So we wait … and we wait.

A little bit of good news though. Granddaughter Saibh Prendeville, has qualified for the Irish Pony club National Eventing Championships in Tattersalls in August. Saibh is a complete horse lover who gets up early every morning before school to feed her pony. We are delighted to see she is living her dream and wish her well

A lively weekend is in store for the village of Ballyhahill who will be celebrating the 150^th anniversary of the old school which is now the Parish Hall. On Saturday evening Mass will be celebrated by Fr Mikie O’Connor at 5pm after which everybody will be invited back to the Hall for refreshments and music. But the main emphasis will be on old school pals meeting up and exchanging stories – good and bad. A little booklet has been put together also to commemorate the occasion.  Well done to the committee members who have been working hard in the background to organise the event.

We are all in mourning after Limerick losing to Cork at the weekend but all good things come to an end at some stage, I suppose.

There have been lots of tributes to Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh since he died; all well deserved as he had such a wonderful voice and personality. Back in 2010 he was the guest speaker at the Awards night in Tarbert school. At the time we had a German student staying with us; she had come to Ireland to learn English! Micheál stood up and spoke fluent Irish for about fifteen minutes. Sophie, our German girl  – who had more English than we had German – looked at me in horror and said she could not understand a word. She thought he was speaking English and that she was so bad she could not understand. Needless to say she did not really appreciate his long Irish speech. Below is a photo with Micheál, Sophie and our daughter Sarah Prendeville.

By Peg Prendeville

“The best laid plans of mice and men gang aft awa.”

This was made plain in our house last week. Jim and I had plans to visit his sister for a week in Co. Meath and had been looking forward to it but, as I told you last week, he had a fall. We thought it was not too serious but after three trips to A&E a broken shoulder and hip was diagnosed! Then we had to wait four more days for the hip operation. The shoulder will heal in a sling we are told. So it has been a rather tense, worrying week. However his hip has had a rod and 3 screws inserted so now we are working on getting him on to his feet again. We hope and we pray.

Having been in the hospital every day would not inspire any sense of confidence in getting older. It is sad to see so many waiting on operations or recovering from operations. There are not enough nurses to go round and many patients, who have nobody to speak for them, can get ignored for long periods. It can be a very frightening experience for some. There is not enough communication between the staff regarding patients either. I had to tell each person that Jim cannot speak for himself, that he can do very little for himself.

In spite of all that, life goes on. Ta is busy clearing out the burned remains of his shop. We are all trying to get used to the idea that Marian, our great friend and neighbour, is no longer with us.

All the young children are looking forward to the school holidays. Not sure about the parents!

The recent great weather has ensured that silage and turf is saved with little bother but the deluges that are falling this week will soon have the ground sodden again.

By Peg Prendeville

There seems to be a curse on Knockdown this past week. First we had Marian Cummane’s funeral, where she got a lovely send off and heartfelt tributes from her family, who will miss her so much; then we were shocked to hear that the shop had gone on fire to be followed by Jim Prendeville getting a bad fall. So things have been rather hectic. Jim is sore but hopefully will be better soon. Maybe next week will bring more joyful news. Enjoy the fine weather.