June 20th, 2021

Adamstown Parish Newsletter

Weekend of Saturday 19th & Sunday 20th June 2021  

Volume 22.  Number 23

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TIDY TOWNS UPDATE

Adamstown Tidy Towns would like to thank everyone who contributed to our recent clothing collection.  The proceeds of which amounted to €608.  Please be mindful that Scoil Naomh Abbáin, Coláiste Abbáin and the G.A.A. also regularly hold clothing collections, so please support locally if all possible. We would like also to thank the Committee members and volunteers who took part in our recent village clean up. We will be meeting again on Sunday 20th from 6pm – 7pm. Everyone is welcome.

COVID-19 VACCINE CLINIC IN ADAMSTOWN

Adamstown Pharmacy will be commencing Covid-19 clinics in June 2021. For people over the age of 50 years old and who have not yet been vaccinated Adamstown Pharmacy will be administering the Johnson and Johnson one dose Covid-19 Vaccine.

For further information please contact 053 9240460

053 9240454. or email info@adamstownpharmacy.ie

U-13 BOYS WIN NEW ROSS STANDARD HURLING FINAL

After a very disappointing cancelled 2020 Final last year,

due to Covid-19 it was all guns firing for the Adamstown boys in Bree last Saturday, facing a determined Our Lady’s Island/St. Fintans in the U-13 Div 5 Hurling Final.

Winning on a score line of 2-15 to 3-08, the lads got down to scoring ways with Martin Sinnott hitting 2-1 in the first seven minutes. In all Martin Sinnott scored a total of 2-14 with

(0-14) from frees and Daragh Sinnott scoring 0-1.

Well done to mentors, team & all involved in this brilliant achievement. The team were as follows:

Alfie White, Matthew Myers, Tadhg Furlong, Patrick Dunleavy, Darragh Guinan, Frankie O’Brien, Watt Crean, Martin Sinnott, Ross English, Owen Purcell, Joe Whelan, Seán Murray, James Prendergast, Daragh Sinnott, Thomas McDonald. Subs: James Furlong, Jack O’Shea, Charles Kent, Tristan Martin, Luke Siggins, Paddy Connors, Paddy Cash & Michael Murtagh.

It was also nice to see former Principal of Adamstown N.S.

Thomas Cousins, who is the Coaching Officer for Coiste na nOg present, I’m sure he was delighted with the boys’ win.

TINY TIGGERS NURSERY BOYS & GIRLS (3-5 YEAR OLD ON SATURDAY MORNINGS IN GAA GROUNDS

Tiny Tiggers Nursery starting in Adamstown GAA grounds on Saturday 26th June for boys & girls 3 – 5 year old.

Time: 10.00am – 10.45am. No equipment needed, lots of fun & games. New friendships.

To register for free contact: Mairead (087 9487852)

Or Andrew (086 3614624)

A BIT OF HISTORY – The Phone Box on the Corner

(Ireland’s Own, 2000)

Since the beginning of history people needed to make contact with each other, and did so by many different means, including smoke signals, mirrors, jungle drums and carrier pigeons to mention but a few. Then in 1876 Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. The name telephone comes from the Greek word tele which means afar, and phone means sound or voiced sound. To make a call, firstly you had to leave home; rain or shine, making a call from the phone box was easier if you lived in a town where all that was required was a short walk to the corner of the street.  Then there was the cash in shillings and pence required to pay for the call. From 8.00am until 10.00pm they went through the local post offices. After 10.00pm the calls bypassed the post office and were made directly to the exchange. The operators were required to get to know the sound of each coin as it dropped in, so that each caller paid the correct amount for their calls. However, some of the callers were able to beat the system by jingling the coins on top of the metal coin box in a particular way. Calls from a public kiosk were supposed to be limited to 3 minutes and the operator would exact a bit of revenge by telling the dubious payers that their time was up a lot sooner than the genuine paying callers. The only calls that were legally free were emergency calls. Today, with modern technology the phone box on the corner is no longer the central point of communication that it used to be, and it is difficult for anyone that never had to use this means of contact to even remotely visualise how vital a role it played in peoples lives or to comprehend that it was once a major boost to a rural community to have a telephone kiosk erected in their area.

It was the place where you went to call the doctor, the priest, the vet, the hospital, the fire brigade or any of the public services and a place where tears were shed when the news from hospital was not good. Of course the phone box had a key role to play in the ongoing romance of couples who lived far apart….. and your happiness or lack of it for the coming week, or indeed farther into the future, depended on your luck on the phone call. Generally the service was reasonably good, and if you came to a phone box that was out of order, it was usually because it’s coin box was too stuffed with money to take any more calls. It was very rare to find one that had been actually vandalised. Pre-paid Smart Cards and Call Cards later replaced the coins. The famous Ronnie Drew from the Dubliners operated a switchboard in Dublin City but went to make a better living as a singer.

The Irish phone service was originally part of the General Post Office, and later, were managed by the Department of Post and Telegraphs, known as the P & T.  This department controlled all post office services, of which the phone service was a part. This changed when the Government split the department in 1984 and created two semi-state bodies, the post office counter service became An Post and the phone service became Telecom Eireann

CHURCH NOTICES

IN MEMORIAM

Sun 20th – People of the Parish

Sat 26th – Mary Thorpe, Newtown (A)

May they rest in peace.

Feast Day this week:

Thursday 24th – St. John the Baptist.

John means ‘The Lord has shown favour’. This feast relates to the summer solstice, when the days begin to grow shorter, recalling John’s words, ‘He must increase, but I must decrease’

REFLECTION FOR WEEKEND 19th & 20th JUNE 2021

What is Prayer?

Prayer doesn’t just happen when we kneel and put our hands together and focus and expect things from God.

Thinking positive and wishing good for others –

That is prayer

When you hug a friend – That is prayer

When you cook something to nourish a family & poor people

 – that’s a prayer

When we send off our near and dear ones

 and say ‘Drive safely’ or ‘Be Safe’ – that’s a prayer

When you are helping someone in need by giving of your

time and energy – that’s a prayer

Prayer is a vibration – A feeling – A thought

Prayer is the voice of love, friendship and genuine relationship.

Brought to you by the Diocesan Pastoral Council

SYMPATHY

Our deepest sympathy to Catherine & Liam Kelly, and family Doononey on the death of Catherine’s mother Mrs. Margaret (Maggie) Kelly, Hayestown, Taghmon in her 95th year.

Our sympathy also to Gerald, Denis, Owen, Marie, Doris, Brigit, Rita, Noel and Sheila, extended family neighbours and friends. A private family funeral Mass for Maggie was celebrated in St. Garvan’s Church, Caroreigh on Thursday last followed by burial in Whitechurch Cemetery.

May her gentle soul rest in peace.

PARENT’S ASSOCIATION CLOTHES COLLECTION FUNDRAISER

Adamstown National School Parents Association are having an end of school year clothes collection fundraiser on Wednesday next 23rd June from 9.00am – 9.30am outside the Hall opposite Adamstown National School.

Have a clear out and drop a bag of clothes on Wednesday next. Thank you in advance for your support.

ONLINE QUIZ FOR MARY’S MEALS

The next monthly Online Quiz for Mary’s Meals, which feeds almost 2 million hungry children every school day, will take place on Friday next, June 25th at 8pm.

To enter/donate go to www.bit.ly/quizforMM or ring Martin Colfer at 087 2596159.  Thank you very much for all who have helped to date.

A THOUGHT – I HAVE LEARNED

That it’s not what you have in your life, but who you have in your life that counts.

BEST POEM IN THE WORLD – ‘Judge Not’

(Tony Gray – Ireland’s Eye 2020)

I was shocked, confused and bewildered,

As I entered Heaven’s door,

Not by the beauty of it all, nor the light or its décor.

But it was the folks of Heaven who made me splutter and gasp,

The thieves, the liars, the sinners, the alcoholics and the trash.

There stood the kids from seventh grade,

Who swiped my lunch money twice.

Next to Him was an old neighbour,

Who never said anything nice.

Bob, who I always thought was rotting away in Hell.

I nudged Jesus, “what’s the deal”

How did all these get up here,

God must have made a mistake and why

Is everyone so quiet, so sombre – give me a clue.

“Hush child” He said they’re all in shock

No one thought they would be seeing you.

Remember just going to Church doesn’t make you a Christian,

Anymore than standing in your garage makes you a car.

Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future,

Now it’s your turn to share this poem –

Life without God is like an unsharpened pencil – it has no point.

A FATHER’S DAY PRAYER

Our Father who art in heaven

I am a father on earth.

You have given me this gift and responsibility.

Grant me the wisdom to carry it out.

Let my fatherhood be one of encouragement and support,

not of expectations and control.

Let me protect my children, but not too much; advise them but just a little.

Let me respect them as individuals; not as extensions of myself.

Let me be honest about my feelings towards them – including my anger, disappointment, hurt, excitement, joy and love.

Let me be firm without dominating them.

Let me be sensitive to their feelings without trying to change them.

Let me be there for them when they need me and get out of their way when they don’t.

Let me offer them the roots of belonging and the wings of freedom.

Help me, Father in heaven, to be a father on earth.

(Fr. John Catoir, New York)

We extend a happy Father’s Day to all Fathers

IT HAPPENED IN JUNE (Pioneer Magazine)

25th June 1938

Dubhglas de Hide – Douglas Hyde as Bearla  was inaugurated as Ireland’s first President. He served in this office until June 1945