7th August, 2022

Adamstown Parish Newsletter

Weekend of Sat 6th & Sun 7th August 2022 

Volume 22.  Number 31

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ADAMSTOWN LOTTO

The next draw in the Adamstown Lotto takes place this Monday 8th August in the Community Centre for a Jackpot of €14,600. A huge amount of money on offer, do buy a ticket and be in with a chance.

Please leave books back to Cullen’s Gala by 8pm on draw night.

NOTICE  FROM CEMETERY COMMITTEE

As our funds are totally depleted, due to not being able to hold the Annual Patron over the past three years and therefore having no income, the Parish Committee kindly agreed to our request for a loan of €5000. We are hopeful that the Patron this year will help to clear the loan and improve our financial position. We have had to buy a new push lawnmower at a cost of €800 to help maintain the cemetery grounds in a manner fitting to the memory of our departed families and friends. A new concrete path is also necessary and hopefully will be put in place in the near future. Necessary maintenance work has also been carried out in the ladies toilet in the cemetery.

The Cemetery Committee is very grateful to the Parish Committee for this loan.

ADAMSTOWN GAA CLUB

“The strongest people aren’t always the ones who win – they are the ones who don’t give up when they are beaten!”

Thank you to the Wexford Ladies Football panel and mentors for the great memories of championship 2022. Defeat is never easy but hopefully seeing the joy you brought to local peoples faces and happy families having great days out will offer some consolation. These memories will never fade and there were children in Croke Park on Sunday last who now harbour ambitions to one day grace that field too. That inspiration shines brighter than any medal and is a lasting legacy, which you should be all very proud of. Congratulations on your achievements this year and there is no doubt you will rise again.

To Lizzie, Katie, Ellen, Cathy and Leah we are all so proud of you. There is a day coming in the future when any tears shed will be those of joy so stay with it and we are behind you all the way.

ADAMSTOWN ATHLETIC CLUB

To promote sport and exercise for ladies, Adamstown AC are hosting a 5K trail/walk/run on Carrigbyrne Hill, meet at Mass Rock Y21K8W5 on Friday 12th August at 7pm for a walk or a run with the girls. Our team of caches will help you set the pace.  Ladies come join in the fun run/walk, refreshments served and music provided.   All welcome.

ADAMSTOWN COMMUNITY CENTRE NOTICE

Walking Track Membership:

Walking Track Membership for 2022 is still being collected. We would ask that any person using the track to please pay their membership as soon as possible. Envelopes are available in Cullen’s Shop or money can be given to Shane Walsh, Geraldine O’Shea or Ann Marie Dunphy.

Individual Membership – €25.00

Buddy/Membership (2 adults) €40.00

Family (2 adults, 2 children U-16) €40.00

The committee would like to thank all those who have paid membership to date. This money helps with the upkeep and upgrading of the Community Centre and the walking track, both of which are an integral part of our community.

FORTUNE FAMILY THANKS

Bessie Fortune, together with daughters Mary, Helena and Cait, daughter-in-law Bridget, son-in-law Pax and our families would like to express our sincere gratitude to all who sympathised with us on our heart-breaking loss of Dick on his 80th birthday, 4th July 2022.  Words can never express our gratitude to Fr. Nolan who came so faithfully to pray with us, bringing the Blessed Sacrament, offering us comfort and support and for celebrating Dick’s funeral Mass.

Thank you to our neighbours and relatives who were so supportive and helpful to us. Thank you to those who travelled to be with us, visited our home, brought food, those who joined us in the church, sent cards and flowers and left condolences. Our most sincere thanks to Ryan’s Funeral Directors for their guidance and professionalism during this difficult time. We are also immensely grateful to the gentlemen who looked after Dick’s grave and those who operated parking in Adamstown and Galbally. Many thanks to the wonderful teams at Taghmon Health Centre and Adamstown Pharmacy who showed us such compassion over the past number of years. Thank you so much to Catherine, you were so good to us and thank you to Cáit and Joe. It would be impossible to thank everyone individually, so please accept this acknowledgement as an expression of our deepest, whole-hearted gratitude. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass will be offered for your intentions.

CONTROVERSIAL LAW COULD BAN PRO-LIFE MARCH IN CAPITAL   (Chai Brady -Irish Catholic Aug 4th 2022)

The country’s largest pro-life rally could be banned or face re-routing in the capital under controversial proposals being drawn up by Fianna Fail Health Minister Stephen Donnelly.

He has vowed to ban any pro-life events within 100 metres of where abortions are carried out in so-called exclusion zones.

The All Ireland Rally for Life usually starts at Parnell Square and part of the traditional route passes the Rotunda Hospital which carries out abortions. The ban could put gardai in the position of trying to impose restrictions on what signs people can carry or the wearing of  t-shirts with pro-life slogans as it passes.

CHURCH NOTICES –

IN MEMORIAM

Sat 6th – Bob Barron, The Leap (A)

Also:      Richard (Dick) Fortune, Doononey (Month’s Mind)

Sun 7th – James Dalton, Raheenduff (A)

Sat 13th – Tom (Tiddler) Byrne, Kellystown (A)

Sun 14th – Tom Walsh, Coonogue (Month’s Mind)

Pray for Jim Hayden and deceased members of the Hayden family, Brocurra (A)

May they rest in peace.

READERS OF THE LITURGY

Sat 13th – Liam Whelan.       Sun 14th – Betty O’Shea

Sat 20th – T. J. McDonald.  Sun 21st – Sheelagh Delaney

CHRISTIAN MEDIA TRUST PROGRAMMES ON

South East Radio 95.2-96.4fm Sun 7th – Tue 9th Aug

Sounds for Sunday 7th – 9.04-10.00am

Presented by Patricia McNally with reflection from Rev. Canon Ian Cruickshank and includes listeners requests, hymns and sacred songs.

Text line for requests 089 2700688

Sunday Mass 7th Aug 10.00am from St. Aidan’s Cathedral.

Sunday Reflection 7th Aug – 8.30pm – 9pm.

Rev. Conor O’Reilly shares a reflection and music on

‘waiting patiently in faith’

Mon 8th Aug 8.04pm – 8.30pm: Nan Furlong treats us to a selection of musical favourites.

Mon 8th Aug 8.30-9.00pm – Faith Matters

Panel discussion focusing on ‘the woman at the well’

Tues 9th Aug 8.04 – 8.30pm – Diocesan Diary

Martin Colfer & Betty Breen speak with The Rev. Norman McCausland, newly appointed Church of Ireland rector in Wexford. Fr. Chris Hayden on his new book, and details of an upcoming youth 2000 summer festival.

THANK YOU FROM SISTERS OF ST. ELISABETH

Dear Father and all parishioners of the parish.

We would like to express our sincere gratitude and appreciation for the decision to kindly grant us permission to visit your parish. We heartily thank the Lord for you and your parishioners’ hospitality and precious help during the visit of our sisters. We do appreciate all your efforts, concern, assistance and kind-heartedness greatly. Our sisters are incredibly grateful for the donations collected in your parish which will allow us to continue our outreach services and programmes for orphanage children with psychophysical deficiencies, for people who were led astray by the rough and tumble of life (the homeless, drug and alcohol addicts, ex-prisoners and the less able) including food, shelter and clothing distributions. Let us assure you that you are always welcome her at St. Elisabeth Convent.  With deep gratitude and love in Christ. Sister Olga and sisters of St. Elisabeth Convent, Minsk, Belarus. obitel-minsk.org

ANNUAL PATRON

The Patron in St. Abban’s, Adamstown  will take place on Sunday 4th September with Mass at 1.30pm followed by blessing of graves in the cemetery..

A BIT OF HISTORY – ‘THE COAT OF ARMS OF IRELAND’

The Coat of arms of Ireland is emblazoned as ‘Azure a harp Ór, stringed argent’ (a gold harp with silver strings on a blue background) The arms or the harp has long been a symbol of Ireland and has been used by English Monarchs to represent their claim to the island of Ireland since the time of Henry VIII.  When King Henry VIII of England became king of Ireland in 1541 he disposed of the previous coat of arms (three golden crowns on a blue background with a white border) and created a new coat of arms – a gold harp on a blue background. Reference to the harp as the coat of arms of Ireland can be found in one of the oldest medieval roll of arms. The Wijnberger roll, a French roll of arms dating back from c.1280 and preserved in The Hague, Henry used the harp on his coinage, and as a result the country’s coinage was introduced featuring a harp with a crown, the crown reminding Irish people they were subjects of the British Crown. The harp on a green background symbolising Ireland, first appeared in July 1642 when Eoghan Rua O’Neill, a 17th century exile and soldier in the Irish brigade of the Spanish army, returned to Ireland in 1641 to head the Ulster armies in the Irish Confederate War (an uprising by Irish Catholics who wanted and end to anti-Catholic discrimination, Irish self-governance and fully reverse the plantations of Ireland)

He flew a green flag with a yellow harp on it in the rebellion. Gradually the flag came to be seen as the emblem of Ireland. Wolfe Tone and the United Irishmen used the flag with a yellow harp on a green background during the 1798 rebellion.

The flag was flown atop Liberty Hall in Dublin the week before the 1916 Easter Rising. The Irish Free State adopted the harp as a symbol of Ireland when it separated from the United Kingdom in 1922. The Guinness family had registered the harp in 1876 as a trademark for their brewery. The Guinness Harp has the straight edge (the soundboard) on its left and the curve edge on the right. The strings slope upwards from left to right. When the Guinness family refused to yield on its trademark, the Irish Free State turned the Harp the other way round – the straight edge on the right and the curved edges on the left and the strings sloping slightly from right to left. This was to distinguish the official government Harp from the Guinness Harp. The harp is the emblem of each President of Ireland whilst in office. The golden harp on a blue background flag is flown over Árus an Uachtaráin, the President’s residence, and whenever the President is in attendance in Dublin Castle. It is used on vehicles used by the President. The harp is on coins, Irish passports, official documents and seals of Office in Ireland.  Why the harp became the national symbol of Ireland is unclear.

Whatever its origin, the harp is recognised worldwide as a symbol of Ireland.    (Sheila O’Kelly – Ireland’s Own)

WEXFORD PARISH CARE FOR THE EARTH GROUP

During summertime, let us learn how to take a break, turn off the mobile phone to gaze into the eyes of others, cultivate silence, contemplate nature, and regenerate ourselves in dialogue with God.