December 19th, 2021

Adamstown Parish Newsletter

Weekend of Sat 18th & Sun 19th December 2021 Volume 22. Number 48

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ADAMSTOWN PHARMACY NOTICE
Adamstown Pharmacy is currently running daily Covid Booster Clinics for all individuals over 50 and for all individuals over 40 from 27th Dec 2021. Please phone
053 9240460 or 053 9240454 for details or email
info@adamstownpharmacy.ie for an appointment.
Christmas opening hours:
Friday 24th Dec – 9.00am – 3pm.
Closed December 25th, 26th & 27th.
Tues 28th, Wed 29th, & Thurs 30th Dec – 9.00am – 6.00pm
Friday 31st Dec – 9.00am – 3.00pm.
Wishing all our customers a Peaceful and Happy Christmas, and please stay safe.

CULLEN’S GALA CHRISTMAS TRADING HOURS
Fri 24th – 8.00am – 6.00pm. Christmas Day – Closed
Sun 26th – 9.00am – 1.00pm.
Mon 27th, Tue 28th, Wed 29th, Thurs 30th, Fri 31st –
Open 9.00am – 6.00pm.
Sat Jan 1st – 9.00am – 2pm.
Sun Jan 2nd 9.00am – 6.00pm.
Season’s Greeting to all our Customers.

COLAISTE ABBAIN NEWS
Congratulations to our Senior Girls Basketball team who
defeated CBS New Ross 58-26. Another top class performance by Coláiste Abbáin students. Well done to their coaches Ms. McGrath and Ms. Lawless.
Well done also to Jack O’Shea 2nd year on winning a Special Merit Award for competing at National level. Also to Donny McDonald TY, who was awarded Club person of the Year at the Adamstown Athletic Club Awards night.
Well-deserved boys.
The rescheduled South Leinster Senior Football Final
Coláiste Abbáin vs Coláiste Ráithín, Bray will now take place this Monday 20th December at 11.30am in St. Patrick’s Park, Enniscorthy. Best wishes to players & management.

COMMUNITY CENTRE THANKS
The Committee of Adamstown Community Centre wish to thank everyone who supported their Christmas Craft Fair on Saturday last. A big thank you to all those who rented a table to sell and display their wonderful crafts. Thanks also to the ICA members who supplied tea, coffee, sandwiches, it was a much-appreciated addition to the day. Congratulations to Michelle O’Brien, Carrigbyrne who won our ‘guess the weight of the Christmas cake’, winning with a guess of 11lbs 7oz.
Finally, our Christmas Raffle draw will take place this Sunday morning in the Community Centre after 10.30am Mass.
Still time to buy some tickets, great prizes on offer.

LOCAL LINK WEXFORD
Check out all the TFI Local Link Services across County Wexford on www.locallinkwexford.ie or call
053 9196276

MESSAGE FROM A LOCAL SEARCH, RESCUE, RECOVERY WORKER
Christmas is known as a time to rejoice, be merry & thankful for our family and friends. This isn’t always the case for some. Loosing a loved one to suicide doesn’t just devastate the immediate family, it affects the whole community. The emotional cuts run deep for families who have lost loved
ones to suicide. Every time they hear of another life gone too soon it reopens old wounds. This time of year can be difficult for most with dark nights and feeling very isolated with the fear of Covid. Never be ashamed to ask for help if you’re feeling down. Asking for help is a positive step to feeling yourself again. Talk to your doctor, to Samaritans 116123.
Pieta House 053 91 22787. Talk to Tom 0818 303061
I am the team leader of K9 Wexford Search Rescue Recovery. I’m fortunate not to have lost a loved one to suicide. I’ve met families standing around riverbanks awaiting news on their loved ones from the river. It’s the hardest thing they will ever go through. It’s devastating for them. Our job is to go looking for the victims with my dogs Rocky & Rocco, they are both victim recovery dogs. At times we link in with other search agencies and volunteers. Let’s look out for one another and curb this silent thief. Check in on family and friends, make that call. If your worried about someone make that call, get advice from those who can help.
Let’s start looking our for one another

HOW THE IRISH RE-INVENTED SANTY
(Michael Murtagh – Intercom Magazine)
‘Santy’ – the man of the moment, the great salesman of the season, has come a long way – and I do not mean from Lapland. He was born in an obscure country town along the coast of southern Turkey close to a significant port called Andriake. In the 4th century when Bishop Nicholas became St. Nicholas, sailors and dockers sought his protection.
In the second half of the first millennium he became Patron Saint of children, seafarers; bakers, travellers. In 1822, an Irish-Dutch professor, Clement Clarke Moore, at a seminary in New York, wrote for the entertainment of his own children, a poem called ‘A Visit from Saint Nicholas’. His image of a reindeer-driven Santa in a red fur-trimmed suit with a bundle on his back, fresh from a dusty, sooty descent through the chimney caught the imagination of the public. Thomas Nast, drew the now familiar image and the modern ‘Santy’ was born out of a poem and a picture.
Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound,
He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot.
A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a pedlar just opening his pack.
His eyes – how they twinkled! His dimples how merry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow.
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook, when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly.
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself.
CHURCH NOTICES
IN MEMORIAM
Sat 18th – Kit O’Connor, Newtown (A)
Josie Thorpe, Newtown (A)
Sun 19th – Jim Connors, The Hill & Mooncoin (A)
Sat 25th 10.30am; Kitty, Edward & John Buckley, Brocurra (A
May they rest in peace.

CHRISTMAS MASS TIMES
Fri 24th – Vigil Mass of the Nativity at 7.30pm
Sat 25th – Christmas Day: Mass of The Nativity of the Lord at 10.30am
Sun 26th – Feast of the Holy Family & St. Stephen’s Day Mass at 10.30am.

ADORATION NOTICE
Please note Adoration in St. Abban’s Church will finish
at 12 noon this Thursday 23rd December.

ST. VINCENT de PAUL COLLECTION
Many thanks for your generosity to the St. Vincent de Paul collection last weekend, the amount donated came to €826.00.

Blessing for a Christmas Meal
God of every nation and people, your word made flesh is a child born for us, a son given to us. Bless us as we share the Christmas meal. Be good to all who have been good to us.
Be close to those who are absent today and allow your people to share the gifts of your goodness. Amen.

SYMPATHY
The death occurred on Saturday 11th December
of Pat Furlong, Raheenduff Lane, Adamstown, we extend
our deepest sympathy to his wife Kathleen, son Nicky,
daughters Maria, Denise, Gerri and the late baby Mary.
His sisters Mary, Ann, brothers Michael, Aidan, Nicky,
Brendan, extended family, neighbours and friends. Pat’s funeral Mass was celebrated in St. Abban’s Church
on Monday last followed by burial in Adamstown Cemetery.
May he rest in peace.
The death occurred on Sunday 12th December of James (Jim) Prendergast, Raheenakennedy, Adamstown, we offer
our deepest sympathy to his wife Mai, children, Marie,
Seamus, Suzanne and Kathryn, extended family,
neighbours and friends. Jim’s funeral Mass took place in the Church of St. John Paul, Raheen on Tuesday last, with burial in Adamstown Cemetery. May he rest in peace.
We extend our sympathy also to Jackie Rossitor, staff member in Adamstown National School, and all her family, on the death of her mother Mrs. Maeve Doyle, Berkeley, New Ross on Monday 13th December. Her funeral Mass took place in St. Anne’s Church, Rathgarogue, on Wednesday last with burial afterwards in the adjoining cemetery. May she rest in peace.

CHURCH ALTARS & DECORATION
Thanks to the ladies from Kellystown for looking after the Church & Altars for the month of December. It is now the turn of parishioners from Tomgarrow for the month of January.

CONGRATUATIONS TO MOLLY & MAISIE O’REILLY
Congratulations to Molly & Maisie O’Reilly, who had one of their songs selected for the Aldi Christmas FM Song 2021 Competition. While they didn’t win, they finished up in the final four, which was an amazing achievement.
They were very grateful for the support they received.
The video for the song can be viewed on YouTube.
Continued success for the future girls & well done.

EULOGY READ BY DENISE FURLONG AT HER FATHER
PAT’S FUNERAL MASS ON MONDAY LAST.
Dad’s legacy began on 13th Sept 1946 in Brocurra. The eldest of Nicholas & Annie Furlong, he was never a lover of school, especially Irish… a claim he would strongly refute in latter years. Dad’s hardworking gentle and loving personality shone through from the beginning, he used to proudly tell me how he’d been driving since he was 9 years old, and that Grandad had trusted him to park the car in the shed, with only 6 inches of clearance on either side, and about all the baby tarriers they had growing up on the farm. With his suitcase packed for boarding school, toothbrush and all, Dad refused point blank to go, insisting that Grandad needed him to help with the farm and that he was staying to help him.
And that was Dad, always putting other’s needs before his own. A truly amazing man, he could turn his hand to anything, welding and metal fabrication, building, plumbing, carpentry & joinery, mechanics … and was happiest up to his elbows in a project. He loved animals and would always have a smile and a rub for any dog or cat he met. Dad was the most clever innovative man I’ve ever known, and could find a way around the seemingly impossible… I remember when I was around three or four, a thunder & lightening storm had fallen a tree onto the ESB wires out in the back yard and we had no power as a result. So, while we were inside with Mam saying the rosary by candlelight, Dad was outside with the tractor and a heavy chain, pulling the tree off the live wires, wearing only a pair of gardening gloves to protect himself from the electricity. I could talk all day about all the other stories, there are so many of them, but his “Never give up” spirit was never more evident than after his accident … so many others would have given up or become resentful at the hand fate had dealt him, but Dad just accepted it and made the most of things with his happy positive outlook, and Mam on his side, the love of his life and his soulmate for the last 50 years, and between them they weathered a storm that would have beaten anyone else. Whenever I asked him how he had slept in the morning, Dad would always say, “Great, thanks Dini bear, I died and went to heaven” Well this time you haven’t come back to us Pops, and that’s ok. You lie-shy down now, rest your little head, and sleep tight with the angels. It has been an honour and a privilege to know you and call you my Dad.

A THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK
Only two classes of people found the Babe: the shepherds and the Wise Men; the simple and the learned; those who knew that they knew nothing, and those who knew that they did not know everything. He is never seen by the man of one book; never by the man who thinks he knows. Not even God can tell the proud anything! Only the humble can find God.
(Fulton J. Sheen – Pioneer Magazine)