30th October, 2022

Adamstown Parish Newsletter

Weekend of Sat 29th & Sun 30th October 2022 

Volume 22.   Number 43

ADAMSTOWN LOTTO

The next draw in the Adamstown Lotto takes this Monday 31st October in the Community Centre for a Jackpot of €15,000. Keep on buying the tickets and be in with a chance

ADAMSTOWN COMMUNITY CENTRE NOTICE

We are hosting a Community Awareness Evening this Thursday 3rd Nov at 8pm. This event is a chance for people to express the areas that need extra attention from Local Gardai. In attendance will be members from our local Garda Station along with Margaret Quinn, who will be there to discuss and give advice around aspects of community alert.

REMINDER – 20th Anniversary of First Threshing Day

The postponed 20th Anniversary of 1st Threshing Day for Sr. Helen will now take place in Cullen’s following 7.30pm Mass on next Saturday night 5th November.

Refreshments will be served, also video of 1st Threshing Day and lots of photographs & memorabilia.

Everyone welcome to come along.

ADAMSTOWN GAA, LFGA & CAMOGIE

Are having a CLOTHES COLLECTION on Friday 4th November at the Old School in Newbawn. We will take your clothes, sheets, blankets, towels, curtains, shoes, boots, handbags, school uniforms. We will not take DUVETS or PILLOWS. If you can’t make it on the day please contact Michelle O’Brien on 086 8597528 and we will organise opening the Old School at a time that suits you. Thank you for your continued support.

Congratulations to the Adamstown Footballers who won the first round of the AIB Leinster Club Junior Football Championship on Saturday last by defeating Stabanon Parnells, Co. Louth by 1-10 to 0-11. They play in the quarter final on Saturday 5th Nov in Dublin at 1.30pm. (opposition not known yet)

HALLOWEEN OR SAMHAIN

Halloween is a three-day festival that encompasses Halloween, All Saints and All Souls Days. It is the threshold time, marking the end of the bright days of summer and the beginning of the dark half of the year. At such threshold times, the veil between worlds is thin. This means that the beings that inhabit the Otherworld can walk among mortals. The Sídhe, also known as the Fairies, the Good Folk, Little People or Tuatha De Dannann, move from their summer residence to their winter quarters. They can be seen riding in procession from one rath (fairy fort) to another across the land. It is traditional to put a bowl of milk or porridge or a piece of cake for the fairies as they pass by your house. All crops are gathered; the last sheaf of the harvest left standing in the field was called the Cailleach or Hag. Weather forecasts for the winter were made according to the direction and strength of the wind at midnight on Halloween or by the movement of the clouds over the moon.

ADAMSTOWN I.C.A. NEWS

Sponsored Walk in aid of Senior Citizens Christmas Party this Sunday Oct 30th at 2pm. Please support or come along and join us for a cuppa & a chat in the Community Centre.

November meeting Wed 9th at 8pm in the Community Centre. Competition on the night is for a Christmas tree decoration made from recycled materials. Max size 8cm x 12cm. New members always welcome.

The Senior Citizens Christmas Party will take place in the Horse & Hound on Sunday 11th and not on the 4th as advertised in last week’s newsletter, apologies for my mistake. Invitations will be out in the coming weeks.

A BIT OF  HISTORY – ‘THE CITY’

Older parishioners will be familiar with an area of Adamstown affectionately known as ‘the City’.

The City was located in the townsland of Oldcourt, originally called the Street of Oldcourt. Tobar Pádraig was a Holy Well, adjacent to the City, and a Pilgrimage took place to the well every year, which was the only supply of water to the houses in the City, nearby was Rathlár. Tradition would suggest that the ruler of the area lived there, in pre Norman days and was dispossessed. The Rath remains intact to this day and is about an acre in area.

The Kane family in Courthoyle have been associated with this place for many years. The Norman rulers eventually built a stone Castle behind the residence of Jim & Margo Doyle, Breezemount, Oldcourt. Later they built a more substantial Castle in Knockreigh 1556. Translated from Cnoc na Crabhai, the hill of the gnarled oak trees. A Tower House and a walled area enclosing one acre were built to secure the site and the domestic animals. The Devereux family were in residence from the 12th century and were succeeded by the Downes family. The stone walls were eventually demolished by Mr. James Downes. With these stones he built Rothwells, Mooneys, Cullens and Furlongs Castleview. 

The last person to be born in the City was Pat Lawlor, Knockreigh.

Other families associated with the City were: Furlongs, Barrons, Lawlors, Roches, O’Neills and Currans. The latter have left their name in Curran’s Lane.

(With thanks to Pat Delaney, Brocurra  – It is important for items of local history like the above be recorded for future generations – if it’s not written down – it’s gone forever)

Note: We would be very glad to receive other items of local history from anyone interested in preserving our history going forward. Thank you.

MISSION SUNDAY ENVELOPES

Please remember to return the Mission Sunday envelopes, which were available in the Church last weekend.

You can drop them into the envelope box in the Church porch, thank you for your donations, every euro counts.

CHURCH NOTICES

IN MEMORIAM

Sat 29th – Tom Furlong, Jnr, Castlelodge (A)

Sun 30th – Patrick & Kathleen Murphy, and deceased members of the Murphy family Coolnagree, also

Babs Carr (A)

Also:           Johnny Bradley, Ballyvergin (Month’s Mind)

Sat 5th Nov – Kathleen Kidd, Oldcourt (A)

Sun 6th – Aunty Campbell, née Lawlor, formerly the City, Oldcourt whose funeral Mass will take place in England on 11th November – stepsister of Pat Lawlor, and we extend our sympathy to all the Lawlor family.

Pray for Bríd Ryan, Nash (A)

Pray for Margaret O’Neill, Rathsilla (A)

May they rest in peace.

Mass Mon 9.30am & Vigil Mass of All Saints 7.30pm

Tue – Feast of all Saints Mass at 10.30am

Wed – Feast of All Souls Mass at 10.30am & 7.30pm.

First Saturday  Nov 5th – Mass at 9.30am

Visitation of the sick and housebound on Friday 4th

 & Saturday 5th November.

Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament every Thursday from 10.00am – 3.00pm.

READERS OF THE LITURGY

Sat 5th Nov – Cáit Bradley.      Sun 6th Nov – Kay Whelan

Sat 12th – Eoghan Greene.     Sun 13th – Ann Ryan

Sat 19th – Annette English.     Sun 20th – Betty O’Shea

GOVT NOT TREATING CHURCH EQUALLY OVER EMERGENCY ENERGY GRANTS, say priests.

In an article in the Irish Catholic Oct 27th by Ruadhan Jones,

Fr. Michael Toomey, Adm. in the parishes of Ardfinnan, Ballybacon and Grange, Co. Tipperary, criticised the Government for its unequal treatment of churches.

“We pay business rates on our electricity and gas.”

Fr. Toomey said. “We should be automatically getting business grants, we should be treated equally”.

He stressed that the Church isn’t looking for “special favours”, adding that the Government should offer the same grants to other faiths. “We should be treated just like everyone else”.

Fr.Toomey pointed out that churches in Great Britain are already receiving emergency funding, and some are offering their buildings as ‘warm hubs’ to the poor. “We are facing the real prospect that we will have to close churches over the winter, or churches will be very cold. We can’t have the heating on for 20-30 people coming to Mass, it’s just not possible”. Fr. Toomey finished.

PRAYER FOR THE WEEK – Divine Mercy Publications

O God of infinite goodness and mercy, fill our hearts with a great confidence in our Most Holy Mother, whom we invoke under the title of Immaculate Heart of Mary, and grant us by her most powerful intercession all Thy graces, spiritual and temporal, which we need.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

ADAMSTOWN NATIONAL SCHOOL PARENTS ASSOC.

The AGM of the Adamstown NS Parents Association took place recently in the school; there was a good attendance present. The new Committee are as follows:

Joint Chairpersons: Yvonne English & Liz Moran.

Secretary – Lisa Traynor.

Committee Members: Michelle Payne, Caroline English, Margo O’Reilly, Sharon Whelan, Elaine Stafford, Bridget Colfer, Annette Doran, Lisa Egan, Mark Mernagh, Susan O’Shea, Janita Smit, Karen Monje & Katezyna.

Welcome to the new committee members and thank you for putting your names forward. Orlaith Doyle and Hannellie Cawthorne have stepped down from the committee and we would like to thank them for their time over the past year.

We wish the Parents Association all the best for the coming year.

DISCRIMINATION CONFRONTED

Kay Whelan of Kellystown was a student nurse at Fulham Hospital, St. Dunstans Rd, London from 1959 – 1962. Most of the students were Irish; they frequented a small grocery store nearby for their various purchases. One day a student nurse from the hospital was visiting the shop when she saw an offensive notice. APARTMENT TO LEASE NO Irish or Blacks need apply. On her return to the hospital the young nurse informed her fellow Irish colleagues of the objectionable notice. A unanimous decision was made to confront the owner.  A group of the student nurses made their way to the store and demanded a meeting with the owner who was of Asian background. They made it clear to him that unless the offensive sign was removed they would no longer patronise his store. The next day when they returned – the sign had been removed.

It is better to light a candle then curse the dark.

OUR HEAVENLY MOTHER

Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen was a young priest studying in Belgium. He was coming up to the fifth anniversary of his priestly ordination, and he decided he would go to see the Blessed Mother in Lourdes. He has just about enough money to make the 24-hour train journey, but he didn’t have enough money for a hotel, food, or to get back. So, he decided to leave all that up to the Blessed Mother. When he arrived in Lourdes, he stayed in a hotel for nine days. He said he would make a nine-day novena of prayer. On the morning of day nine, nothing had happened in relation to his hotel bill, and by afternoon and then the evening nothing had still happened. He decided to go to the grotto to pray. When he was there a man came up to him and asked him if he was an American Priest. He then asked him could he speak French, and he said he could. The man then asked him if he would accompany him and his family around, and Fulton Sheen smiling said he would. Then on their way back, the man asked him a very important question. He said, “have you paid your hotel bill yet?” Fulton Sheen smiled again and said he hadn’t. Our Lady took care of everything

CLOCKS GO BACK!

Don’t forget to put your clock back this Saturday night as we welcome ‘winter time’