5th February, 2023

Adamstown Parish Newsletter

Weekend of Sat 4th & Sun 5th February 2023  

Volume 23.   Number 5.

______________________________________________________________________________________________

ADAMSTOWN LOTTO

The next draw in the Adamstown Lotto takes place this Monday 6th February in the Community Centre for a Jackpot of €15,000. Well worth a €2 ticket. If you’re not in you can’t win.

COLAISTE ABBAIN NEWS

Great excitement in Coláiste Abbáin this week as we welcome our first baby Pygmy goat of the year. A little girl and a brazing boy. A special thanks to Ashling Ní Chualan for her on hand expertise. Beautiful pictures on the Facebook page.

Adamstown Community Development Association

Public Meeting

Do you have a desire to make a difference in the area where you live? Do you want to see your community grow to its full potential? ACDA invite you to attend a Public Meeting for the election of new officers for the ACDA

Date: Thursday 16th February 2023 Time: 9pm

Venue: Adamstown Community Centre

GAA CLUBS DINNER DANCE

Wishing all the Clubs under the umbrella of Adamstown GAA every good wish for a great night on Sunday next as they celebrate their achievements over the past year. The night will include the various victorious ladies & men’s teams being presented with their medals. A lovely meal and dancing ’till late.  Best wishes to all involved.

Don’t forget our Tuesday nights ‘Ireland Lights Up in conjunction with RTE Operation Transformation show.

On the Walking track in the Community Centre at 7pm.

BOOK LAUNCH

On Friday 3rd March 2023 at 8pm approx in Adamstown Community Centre there is a Book Launch. This book is about the ‘Rise and Fall of the Dance Halls of Ireland’ and also the hundred years Anniversary of the Civil War in the Adamstown area. It was written by local man Danny Doyle, Glenour. This event was scheduled to take place on Friday 17th February but had to be postponed due to printing delays. All proceeds are gong to Sister Helen’s Uganda Fund. On stage on the night will be ‘Theresa and the Stars’. 

Light refreshments will be served and it’s open to anyone free of charge.

More details to follow in the next few weeks.

AN ODE TO THE ASS –  A LOYAL FRIEND 

Once there was a boy called Michael living on a small farm in Co. Clare in the 1940’s. He was only 5 years old, a wee bit small for his age but a sprightly lad, full of activity and curiosity. He and his brother, a year younger, were a legacy of difficult times. Their parents were trying to make a go of running a pub in Limerick and they decided – because the father was struggling with alcohol-related illness and the mother was at her wits’ end trying to cope – that the two boys would be better off being sent to live on the fathers’ unmarried uncle’s and aunt’s farm near Newmarket-on-Fergus in Clare. The childless uncle and aunt suddenly found themselves with a newfound family and treated the two boys with great affection. Yet many times Michael was lonely, craving a normal family life, wishing, waiting, longing, for his father and mother to come and take him home. When that didn’t happen, when sadness crept over him and he yearned for somewhere to secretly confide his gnawing anxiety and creeping uncertainty, he would cling to the mute, unquestioning attention and affection of the animals on the farm for consolation. They became his friends: the loyal dog with his searching amber-dotted eyes, the faithful cow and the ass, for which he had a particular fondness, with ears that had the comforting feel of soft velvet. He didn’t know it then, but he was not alone. For so many boys and girls growing up in rural Ireland, filled like all children with the growing adolescent pains of anxiety, uncertainty and longing, the animals – the dog, the cows, the horse, and the ass – were often the only ones you could tell your secrets to.

In Ireland, for centuries, it was the poor man’s horse, the loyal beast of burden that dragged in cocks of hay, carried milk churns to the local creamery and many more jobs.

Of course, it will always have a cameo role in the Christmas story, as the figurine at the back of the crib, and the animal a pregnant Mary rode on her way to Bethlehem. The ass or the donkey is frequently mentioned in the Bible, the ass up to over 150 times and the donkey close to 100 times.

In Ireland, I sense the faithful, proud ass or donkey is now a bit of an embarrassment, a reminder of harder times, our struggling peasant past. In a strange twist of fate, that little boy who grew up with his aunt and uncle and who turned to the animals for comfort is today helping to deepen our appreciation of the humble ass. He grew up to be an academic, a poet, and champion of the deprived, isolated and dispossessed around the world. Later he became a leading figure in Irish politics. That little boy is now our esteemed President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins

(Excerpt from Tom Rowley, Sun Independent)

Footnote: Here in Adamstown when strawberries were grown by locals in small plots, many of these delivered their strawberries by donkey & cart to the depot at Cullen’s in the village to be taken by lorry to Dublin for Lamb Bros. It was their only means of transport & helped to keep food on the table for their families – A very different time!

CHURCH NOTICES

IN MEMORIAM

Sat 4th Feb – Margaret Comerford, Oldcourt (A) and

                      Tony Comerford, who died recently.

Also –     Jack, Patrick & Annie O’Gorman, Kellystown (A)

Also –       Kathleen Furlong, Raheenduff (A)

Sun 5th –     Tom Lacey, Woodview Drive (A)

Sat 11th-      Lizzie Byrne & deceased members of the Byrne 

family, Tomgarrow and Robert & Margaret Furlong, 

The Bullawn, Misterin Lane (A)

Sun 12th –      People of the Parish

Pray for Fr. Aidan Redmond, Adamstown whose anniversary occurs at this time. 

May they rest in peace.

Morning Mass each weekday morning at 9.30am

Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament every Thursday from 10.00am – 1.00pm.

READERS OF THE LITURGY

Sat 11th – Anthony McGee & Liam Whelan

Sun 12th – Sheelagh Delaney & Callie Doyle

Sat 18th – Eoghan Greene. Sun 19th – Ann Ryan

Sat 25th – Ellie Walsh         Sun 26th – Kathleen O’Connor

FEAST DAYS THIS WEEK

Sat 11th Feb – Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes.

On this day in 1858, Our Lady first appeared to the fourteen-year-old Bernadette Soubirous. Later Bernadette was to learn that the mysterious lady was the Blessed Virgin and to hear from her lips, ‘I am the Immaculate Conception’. 

In 1992 Pope John Paul 11 instituted the World Day of the Sick to be held on t he commemoration of Our Lady of Lourdes. Our Lady of Lourdes pray for us.

THE FOOTPRINTS OF ALLAH

A French scientist was travelling in the desert and sat outside his tent in the cool of sunset, talking with his young Bedouin guide about religion. ‘Nobody knows’ said the Frenchman, ‘nobody can know for certain that there is a God’. The lad pointed to a smooth stretch of sand across which went a track of footprints. ‘When I see those footprints in the sand’, he said, ‘I know for certain that some man has passed this way. Only a man could have made them’. 

He pointed to the fading colours of a glorious sunset in the west, and then overhead to the dark blue sky in which t he great stars were coming out one by one. 

‘And when I see the sun, and the moon, and the starry heavens in their beauty, I know for certain that the Creator has passed this way. They are the footprints of Allah.’

The Bedouin was right. From the works of God which are seen we can know, even without revelation, that God exists.

The heavens tell forth the glory of God.’

DID YOU KNOW?  (Ireland’s Own)

The world’s largest aeroplane had 6 engines, 32 wheels was 6 stories high and as wide as Croke Park. During the Pandemic, it brought medical supplies to Ireland, Shannon has the only runway capable of facilitating the plane, which was designed and built in the Ukraine! 

It was destroyed in the conflict there.

FERNS DIOCESAN PILGRIMAGE TO LOURDES

Led by the Bishop of Ferns, Most Rev Ger Nash.

Pilgrimage Director: Fr. Matt Boggan

Spiritual Director : Fr. Brian Broaders

Details: 16th May 2023.  5 Nights.  From €879 per person.

• Direct return flights from Dublin to Lourdes
• Airport transfers & assistance in Lourdes
• 5 nights’ accommodation |Hotels Agena, 
• La Solitude, Eliseo & Padoue
• Full board: breakfast, lunch & dinner each day
• Sanctuary Levy
• Airport taxes
• 20kg check-in-luggage
• Full service at Joe Walsh Tours representatives throughout
• Full religious programme.

For Booking contact: Joe Walsh Tours – 01 2410800

or info@joewalshtours.ie  – www.joewalshtours.ie

PASTORAL VISITATION

Bishop Ger Nash will make a Pastoral Visit to the Parish of Adamstown next weekend Sat 11th & Sun 12th for the celebration of Mass. He will present the BENE MERENTI MEDAL to Mrs Frances Doyle, Ballyvergin & Mrs Ellie Walsh, Tomgarrow in recognition of their service to the Church and the Parish. We congratulate Frances & Ellie on this well merited award. 

Refreshments will be available after both Masses in Coláiste Abbáin and Bishop Ger looks forward to meeting you all there. Donations of confectionary will be gratefully received and may be left in Coláiste Abbáin between 3pm – 4pm on Saturday afternoon. We are very grateful for your support and look forward to your attendance.

We thank Principal Mr. John Nolan for the use of their facility.

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK – The Sound of Silence

A group of teenage boys from an urban high school have been invited to spend a day in the country at a nearby convent. The elderly sisters are anxious, not without good reason, as the school is notorious for the antisocial behaviour of its students. All through the day they kept an eagle eye out for any signs of trouble, but the boys seem to settle in well enough and respect the prevailing silence and stillness. At the end of the day – a day blessed with sunshine and blue skies – one of the guests, a burly six-footer, sidles up to the mother superior. “Can we come again, sister?” he asks, gruffly. She smiles her assent, and he continues.

 “I never heard silence before in all my life. And I never heard the birds singing, till today”

(Margaret Silt – Compass Point).

PRAYER FOR THE WEEK – St. Brigid

May Brigid bless the house wherein you dwell.

Bless every fireside, every wall and door.

Bless every heart that beats beneath its roof.

Bless every hand that toils to bring it joy.

Bless every foot that walks its portals through.

May Brigid bless the house that shelters you.