20th March, 2022

Adamstown Parish Newsletter

Weekend of Sat 20th & Sun 21st March 2022    

Volume 23.   Number 12.

______________________________________________________________________________________________

ADAMSTOWN NATIONAL SCHOOL NEWS

Our school has recently been granted DEIS which means the school can avail of a range of targeted supports.

This includes additional classroom teaching supports, access to home school community liaison, DEIS grant funding, and access to the School Completion Programme.

One of the most exciting supports that our school can now apply for is the School Meals Programme, which provides funding towards the provision of food services in the school.

We look forward to learning more about this programme and how it can improve our school even further.

(Principal – Mrs. Claire Kickham)

Confirmation Ceremony St. Abban’s Church 16th March

In lovely sunshine on Wednesday last 5th and 6th Class children from our School received the Sacrament of Confirmation.  We would like to thank Celebrants Fr. Robert Nolan P.P. and Fr. Bernard Cushen P.P. for the lovely ceremony and for the inspiring words, kindness and making it such a memorable occasion.  Thanks to the children for the wonderful art work displayed throughout the Church, and to Catherine and John Hanley for the beautiful floral displays in the Church, also the parents who helped to prepare the Church for the occasion. Thanks also to Cáit and Joe for their continued help on all occasions in St. Abban’s Church.

Thanks to Class teacher Mrs Claire Kickham, school staff, parents and in particular the choir with musicians Claire and Joeleen and children from 3rd & 4th class who provided the lovely hymns. The following children received the Sacrament of Confirmation.

(5th Class) Tom Connors, Éabha Cullen, Pauraic Doran, Darragh Duggan, Emily English, Rory Kelly, Kelly Ann Mahon, Kayla Moran, Sean Moran, Jamie O’Reilly, Harry Whelan   –   Michaela Jones.

6th Class: Abigale Hurley, Ava Kelly, Louise Mahon, Cian Murphy, Orlaith Nic Gabhann, Alanna O’Shea, Katie Rochford, Brody Whelan, Emma Whelan, Kerina Whitty –

Megan Cawthorne, Leon Martin.

We hope they all had a lovely day with family and friends.

ADAMSTOWN GAA CLUB

Huge congratulations to Agnes Whelan who received her New Ross District Award on Sat 12th March in the Horse & Hound.  Agnes had put in Trojan work as club treasurer for a number of years, particularly during our recent expansive phase of development. Richly deserved and recognition of a huge contribution to the betterment of Adamstown GAA Club. She was always ably assisted by her husband Nick so great to see them both enjoying the night with family and friends.

ADAMSTOWN LOTTO

The next draw in the Adamstown Lotto takes place this Monday 21st March in the Community Centre for a Jackpot of €12,600 – Do buy a ticket and be in with a chance

A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY –

The Old Steam and Threshing Engine

Thinking back on the tractors and cars in the 1930’s and 40’s one should never forget the arrival of the old steam engines and threshing days. The steam engines were used for ploughing, harrowing, harvesting and threshing the corn. Four families in Adamstown got such engines. Delaneys of the Barracks, Jackmans, Raheenduff, McCabes, Ballyvergin and Leo Tector, Ballyshannon. Leo had a great story to tell of how he got his first new engine. He purchased the engine in Leeds, England and on its arrival in Ireland the trouble was to get it to Ballyshannon. There was no other way only to go and collect it. He drove the machine at five miles per hour for four days, driving from early morning to night, as there was only a train station in Bansha, Tipperary that could carry the twenty-ton machine, and that was of little help to Leo. He set off and had to get coal and water on the way in order to get the steam up. Prior to the threshing days the farmers had to cut down a tree with a cross cut saw and then split it with wedges and sledges to keep the steam up all day. It was one man’s job for the day drawing water from the nearest river by horse and cart. Threshing was very hard work with plenty of refreshments of porter and light drinks freely given to quench the thirst, children looked forward to it as they were allowed to stay home from school. Often the day ended with a dance to celebrate the harvest end, some years good, others not so good, depending on the weather.

1947, the year of the big snow the harvest was almost lost; corn was not cut until September. The Government asked people from towns and villages to give a hand to save the grain, which was much needed food for man and beast.

Compulsory sowing of extra grain was introduced, Wexford was a good grain growing county, and others were not. Meath and such counties farmers were into livestock rearing and not sowing grain; land was taken from them and given to grain farmers free of charge. Five or six farmers from Camross took such land, but only for one year, as they were not welcome. Inspectors were appointed to see it was carried out. People are thinking that compulsory growing of grain could come again very soon, due to the war in Ukraine where the majority of grain is imported from there.

The steam engines went out of use with the arrival of the combine harvester. Steam engines are now a novelty to be seen in use at vintage field days.

(Kindly given by Danny Doyle, Glenour, Adamstown)

ADAMSTOWN ATHLETIC CLUB

Well done to Ciara Mooney who came 4th in the National Junior 3k walk in Athlone on Sunday last.

Well done also to all our athletes who competed in the winter league over 3 Fridays, congratulations to Grace White who received a Star Award for winning her 3 races in the U-10 girls section.

CHURCH NOTICES

IN MEMORIAM

Sat 19th – Bridie and Nicholas Wickham, Tomgarrow (A)

Sun 20th – People of the Parish

Sat 26th – Mary Furlong, Tomgarrow (A)

Sun 27th – Peg Roche, Ballyshannon (Month’s Mind)

Pray for Peggy Grafton (née Thorpe) Newtown (A)

May they rest in peace.

Mass at 9.30am each week morning

Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament every Thursday following 9.30am Mass – 3.00pm.

READERS OF THE LITURGY

Sat 19th – Eoghan Greene.   Sun 20th – Ann Ryan

Sat 26th – Ellie Walsh.          Sun 27th – Nessa Cloney

Sat 2nd April – Liam Whelan. Sun 3rd – Callie Doyle

Sat 9th – Anthony McGee      Sun 10th – Sheelagh Delaney

SPECIAL COLLECTION FOR UKRAINE

The Irish Bishops have asked for a Special Collection to be taken up at Masses on the weekend of Sat 26th/Sun 27th March to support humanitarian efforts in Ukraine and especially the families and children who have had to flee their homeland in advance of the Russian invasion.

The proceeds of this Special Collection will be directed to Caritas Internationalis, which is the helping hand of the Church on the ground in the Ukraine and surrounding region. Please be as generous as you can. Thank you.

A PRAYER FOR THE SYNODAL PATHWAY:

Lord of all hopefulness, as we embark on this journey together, may we listen and discern and be guided by the Holy Spirit, who constantly breathes new life into our world, our hearts, our families, homes and parishes.

May renewal and reform, fresh hope and healing come for all people of God in Ireland.

By virtue of our baptism may we each play our part in transforming the church through a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit which is your gift and promise, upon our land.

Grant us the encouragement we need to bring faith, hope and love in abundance to meet the challenges before us and to fulfil the Church’s mission of proclaiming to the world, God’s love and salvation in Jesus Christ.

A Mhuire Mháthair, mother of the Church, guard and guide us on our pilgrim way. Amen.

FROM THE DIOCESAN PASTORAL COUNCIL

We continue to reflect on synodality

We are called to witness by our lives to the gifts of freedom, truth and love offered by Christ. These gifts are greater than any problems we face today and help us to overcome challenges with courage.  What would help you to overcome your fear of speaking out?

POPE FRANCIS

Pope Francis will consecrate Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on Friday 25th March in St. Peter’s Basilica during the Celebration of Penance at 5pm.

March 25th is the Feast Day of the Annunciation.

THE FLYING GEESE –

(Fr. Alan Hilliard, Messenger Magazine)

Nature can be one of our finest teachers. On a walk down to Bull Island in Dublin last October I spotted the Brent geese arriving for their annual visit. They’d flown more than 4,000 miles from Canada, stopping off at Iceland along the way, to spend their winter on these shores. Geese have incredible moral and physical resources to assist them on their journey. For instance, their ‘V’ formation allows for shared leadership and energy conservation – the one out front will drop back allowing others to take the lead. Their constant honking reminds those leading the flock that they haven’t lost their fellow geese who follow behind. Scholarship reveals that when creatures, like geese, migrate they don’t adopt the casual Irish attitude of ‘ah sure lads we’ll see how it goes’.

They stick to a direct flight path without veering left or right for the goose equivalent of a quick pint, a party or having the craic! Any stop off on the route is purposely designed to further the journey’s progress. Detours, if they are made, are taken if the weather takes a turn for the worst. Some people worked through the pandemic without interruption, others are being invited to return in a phased way to what they left behind in March 2020. There is no doubt that this transition is more difficult if we have lost purposefulness for our life.

Furthermore, biblical accounts of plagues and pestilences tell us that when they are over humanity has to reorder relationships and reconnect. I recall the words of a wise man who once encouraged us to ‘look at the birds of the air’.

If we find it difficult to take direction from the wisdom of our Christian traditions  – maybe we can look to the geese for inspiration!

THE FINAL EXAM!  

It was a week to the school examinations, and the English history class were lamenting to the teacher, Mr. Smith, that there wasn’t time to do everything and history was likely to suffer. “Hope you’ll make them easy questions this time, sir” one boy said. “I can’t guarantee to do that”, said Mr. Smith.

“Please, sir”, said the class-comedian, “couldn’t you leave the questions on your desk today, just by accident”
Mr. Smith was one of the unpredictable sort. “Well, you know, that’s quite an idea. Still, you needn’t have the trouble of copying them out. Here they are, pass them round. You’ll find all the answers in the library somewhere. Help each other as much as you like”.

The result of Mr. Smith’s cunning was that they all did quite a lot of work that week. The exam came round, and sure enough the questions were the same, so they all did pretty well. As they said to each other: “You’d have to be a proper fool to fail an exam when you know all the questions beforehand”

That is a fair description of Judgement: an exam which we have to sit for some day, and to which we know exactly what the questions will be. What are they?

 See the Ten Commandments.  Also Matt. 25.13-46

(3rd Book of Catechism Stories E.H. Drinkwater)

TIPS FOR A BETTER LIFE

Don’t compare yourself with others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.