===================================

IRA:

 

Jim Breen December 14, 2011 at 1:10 pmLog in to Reply

 

 

 

Hi, My father was Patrick[Paddy] Breen from Ballyconry, His brother Jeremiah

 

[Jerry] lived in Ballybunion were he had a smal jewllers shop on main street ‘still there

 

I belive,he died in the early 1970s, I was told he was an active IRA member, he left no

 

family. His brother Daniel went to Australia, I don’t know in what year.

 

His brother Dennis had a small holding in Ballyconry I believe he never married, he died in the late 1960s or early 70s. James and Michael I know nothing about,only that

 

when was young I was told I had an uncle in the US. my Grandfather was also named James. My father never talked about his time as a young man in Ireland, My uncle Jack [Mums side] told me when I was a boy my dad was shot in the leg by the brits,

 

but when I ask my dad about it he would allways say ‘never you mind’ or ‘bad things

 

happend. He did however have a nasty scar on his shin and had a slight limp.

 

There was also a story about an escape from a place called spike Island with his

 

brother,but could just be a story to tell a small boy? My dad worked in Coventry

 

during the war my mum [molly]ran a small shop in Ahafona. My family moved from

 

Ballybunion after the war to County Down, were my sister and I were born in 1946

 

and 48. Move to London in the early 1950s. My father took me to ballybunion in 1963

 

I stayed with his sister Cathy and her husband Simon,in Ballyconry for 6 months

 

I met Jerry and Dennis. Sorry I can’t tell you anything about the IRA , but maybe

 

it help back up what you know, any way good luck and good hunting.

 

Regards J.P.Breen.

 

 

 

    munchie April 15, 2012 at 1:55 pmLog in to Reply

 

 

 

    Hi There,

 

 

 

    I think your Dad was my Grandfather’s brother James Breen. You are right Jerry did have a shop and died without children. He married twice his first wife died fairly young and his second wife came from a family called stack (I think). The shop was know as Limerick House. Don’t know a lot about my grand fathers involvement with the volunteers but the roof was burned of the cottage in Ballyconry I have been told. If you find out any more would love to hear from you.

 

 

 

    L Breen.

 

 

 

https://irishvolunteers.org/information-required-on-kerry-i-r-a-members-ballybunion-area/

 

---------------------------------------------

===========================

 

All but 1% of the world's population is exposed to unhealthy air that exceeds World Health Organization limits for pollutants. In parts of the world, air quality has rapidly improved through policies that aim to limit pollution. But elsewhere, gains in air quality are at risk of being lost.

 

 

 

More than 25% of the US population is exposed to air considered "unhealthy" by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), according to a report by the climate non-profit First Street Foundation. By 2050, the number of people exposed to "unhealthy" days is set to increase by more than half. The worst days of air pollution ("hazardous" or maroon, under the EPA's system) are expected to rise by 27%.

 

 

 

Wildfire smoke is one of the factors driving this trend. One study of PM2.5 (see fact box: What is PM2.5?) from wildfire smoke found that levels had increased by up to 5 micrograms per cubic metre in the western US in the past decade – enough to reverse "decades of policy-driven improvements in overall air quality", the authors concluded.

 

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240213-unhealthy-air-how-pollution-changes-your-body-and-mind

 

=================================

 

Japanese knotweed.

 

Introduced in the UK as a highly prized ornamental plant in the mid-19th Century, Japanese knotweed is widely considered one of the world's most intractable invasive species. With its creeping roots, the weed can smother gardens and parks and is the scourge of homeowners.

 

 

 

But at Silo, the zero-waste restaurant in east London where I'm dining, Japanese knotweed is a firm favourite. Head chef Doug McMaster has been cooking with the weed for years. "It's an amazing ingredient," he says. "It's incredibly versatile; it can be grilled, it can be cooked, it can be turned into beer, fermented and pickled. (Read more about the alien shrub that can't be stopped).

 

"When you cook it, it tastes like rhubarb. When it's raw, it's more like asparagus, with a slightly sour flavour," he says.

 

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240212-squirrel-and-japanese-knotweed-the-chefs-cooking-with-invasive-species

 

==================================

 

It is also a peatland area, making it an important carbon sink. While they make up just 3% of the global land surface, peatlands store twice as much carbon as all the world's forests. Over the past century, an increased demand for forestry and agricultural land has led to the drainage of peatlands worldwide.

 

---------------------

 

Heavy losses

 

Between 2001 and 2022, Ketapang district lost 879,000 hectares of tree cover, resulting in 588 million tonnes of CO2 emissions, according to Global Forest Watch data. A total of 1,340 sq km (517 sq miles), 15% of total tree cover, were lost due to fires, equivalent to 80% of the area of Greater London. According to data from Indonesia's Ministry of Environment and Forestry, wildfires during January-July 2023 resulted in 9.6 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent (CO2e).

 

-----------------------------

 

Indonesia is home to the most carbon-dense peatlands in the world. The majority of these peatlands have been severely degraded to fuel the world's demand for oil palm, a common household ingredient. (Read more about the everyday ingredient that harms the climate.)

 

Once they are drained and dry, peatlands are more susceptible to severe wildfires, which pose a major risk

 

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240214-the-power-of-mama-fight-forest-fires-in-borneo

 

==========================

 

FILM: For more than half a century, motion picture film was made from a substance once touted as an explosive. When plant cellulose—typically from cotton—is treated with nitric and sulfuric acids, it becomes cellulose nitrate, which is also known as guncotton. With six times the bang of standard gunpowder, guncotton was eyed as a replacement for gunpowder. But guncotton turned out to have too much bang: it was unstable, unpredictable, extraordinarily inflammable.

 

https://daily.jstor.org/combustible-cinema-the-nitrate-film-issue/?utm_term=Combustible%20Cinema%20The%20Nitrate%20Film%20Issue&utm_campaign=jstordaily_02152024&utm_content=email&utm_source=Act-On+Software&utm_medium=email

 

 

 

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Naples, Fla. — February 9, 2024

 

 

 

Not everyone can run a half-marathon. And it's probably a safe bet that even fewer can do so in a habit.

 

 

 

But in a January half-marathon in Naples, among runners dressed in tank tops, short running shorts or even shirtless were two consecrated women religious wearing white, long-sleeved habits and black athletic shoes.

 

 

 

And they crossed the finish line in 2 hours, 21 minutes, with smiles on their faces, cheered by family and students of St. John Neumann High School.

 

https://www.globalsistersreport.org/salesian-sisters-race-habits-half-marathon?utm_source=Global+Sisters+Report&utm_campaign=4e951ad73e-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2024_02_13_02_21&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_86a1a9af1b-4e951ad73e-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D

 

==============================

 

 

 

=================================

Mark Barcus

 

eoSrpsnodt2g,02it 0a2b3138o4mtf0u376mrlgiOl63f etacc026426g6  ·

 

A young woman was about to finish her first year of college.  Like so many others her age, she considered herself to be very liberal, and among other liberal ideals, was very much in favor of higher taxes to support more government programs, in other words redistribution of wealth.

 

She was deeply ashamed that her father was a rather staunch conservative, a feeling she openly expressed.  Based on the lectures that she had participated in, and the occasional chat with a professor, she felt that her father had for years harbored an evil, selfish desire to keep what he thought should be his.

 

One day she was challenging her father on his opposition to higher taxes on the rich and the need for more government programs.  The self-professed objectivity proclaimed by her professors had to be the truth and she indicated so to her father.  He responded by asking how she was doing in school.

 

Taken aback, she answered rather haughtily that she had a 4.0 GPA, and let him know that it was tough to maintain, insisting that she was taking a very difficult course load and was constantly studying, which left her no time to go out and party like other people she knew.  She didn't even have time for a boyfriend, and didn't really have many college friends because she spent all her time studying. 

 

Her father listened and then asked, "How is your friend Audrey doing?"  She replied, "Audrey is barely getting by. All she takes are easy classes, she never studies and she barely has a 2.0 GPA.  She is so popular on campus; college for her is a blast.  She's always invited to all the parties and lots of times she doesn't even show up for classes because she's too hung over."

 

Her father asked his daughter, "Why don't you go to the Dean's office and ask him to deduct 1.0 off your GPA and give it to your friend who only has a 2.0.  That way you will both have a 3.0 GPA and certainly that would be a fair and equal distribution of GPA."

 

The daughter, visibly shocked by her father's suggestion, angrily fired back, "That's a crazy idea, how would that be fair!  I've worked really hard for my grades!  I've invested a lot of time, and a lot of hard work!  Audrey has done next to nothing toward her degree.  She played while I worked my tail off!"

 

The father slowly smiled, winked and said gently, "Welcome to the conservative side of the fence."

 

If you ever wondered what side of the fence you sit on, this is a great test!

 

If a conservative doesn't like guns, he doesn't buy one. 

 

If a liberal doesn't like guns, he wants all guns outlawed.

 

If a conservative is a vegetarian, he doesn't eat meat.

 

If a liberal is a vegetarian, he wants all meat products banned for everyone.

 

If a conservative is down-and-out, he thinks about how to better his situation.  A liberal wonders who is going to take care of him..

 

If a conservative doesn't like a talk show host, he switches channels.  Liberals demand that those they don't like be shut down.

 

If a conservative is a non-believer, he doesn't go to church.  A liberal non-believer wants any mention of God and Jesus silenced.

 

If a conservative decides he needs health care, he goes about shopping for it, or may choose a job that provides it..  A liberal demands that the rest of us pay for his.

 

If a conservative reads this, he'll post it.  A liberal will delete it because he's "offended."

 

https://www.facebook.com/

 

===============================

 

Brett & Kate McKay • January 08, 2024

 

 

 

The social theorist Charles Taylor says that part of what characterizes a secular age is that there are multiple competing options for what constitutes the good life.

 

 

 

The sociologist Hartmut Rosa argues that modern citizens most often locate that good in optionality, speed, and reach, which creates a phenomenon he calls “social acceleration.”

 

 

 

Professor of theology Andrew Root explores the ideas of Taylor, Rosa, and social acceleration in his work, including in his book The Congregation in a Secular Age. While Andy largely looks at social acceleration through the lens of its effect on churches, it has implications for every aspect of our lives, from work to family. We explore those implications today on the show, unpacking the way that seeking stability through growth leads to feelings of depression, exhaustion, and discombobulation, how we collect possibilities while not knowing what we’re aiming for, and how we’ve traded the burden of shoulds for the burden of coulds. We discuss how social acceleration has shifted the horizons and significance of time, how time has to be hollowed out to be sped up, and how the solution to the ill effects of social acceleration isn’t just slowing down, but finding more resonance.

 

https://www.artofmanliness.com/character/behavior/podcast-956-feeling-depressed-and-discombobulated-social-acceleration-may-be-to-blame/?mc_cid=d161bc35a2

 

---------------------------------------

 

https://www.artofmanliness.com/character/advice/podcast-238-life-secular-age/

 

=============================

 

Ethel’ the cleaning lady entertaining the crowd in St John's Theatre & Arts Centre in Listowel, for the inaugural group exhibition entitled ‘New Beginnings’ by the Listowel Visual Artists’ Collective.

 

‘Ethel’, also known as Priscilla Donovan, actress, singer, writer, director, poet, teacher and valued LVAC member, was our Master of Ceremonies for the official opening of our exhibition on Saturday.

 

Priscilla’s alter ego Ethel, had the audience in stitches with her witty one liners, but it was Priscilla herself who had the audience enthralled with her beautiful singing voice and heartfelt introductions.

 

A huge thank you to Priscilla for being such an important part of the day and for organising the entire entertainment programme, and to Amanda Mannix for accompanying her on piano.

 

Kerry County Arts Creative Ireland Listowel

 

Kerry Writers Museum

 

#ListowelVisualArtistsCollective #LVAC

 

#NewBeginnings #ArtExhibition #StJohnsTheatreAndArtsCentre #TheSoulOfListowel #Listowel #WhereStoriesBegin

 

https://www.facebook.com/stjohnstheatrelistowel

 

 

 

================================

 

POLICE: As a patrol cop, Walter Fox spent a great deal of time building relationships with community residents to earn their trust.

 

“He always shared with me how he was the first one in the precinct that found out from talking to people that there was a civilian patrol in the neighborhood,” Joseph Fox said, adding that the fledgling group went on to become Shomrim of Crown Heights, one of the city’s most well known civilian patrol organizations.

 

Fifteen years after his retirement, Walter Fox watched with pride as his son Joseph joined the NYPD. He was even prouder as he watched his son move up the ranks and eventually becoming a three-star chief in charge of Patrol Borough Brooklyn South and then the Transit Bureau.

 

Father and son would often talk shop. “He used to give me good, practical advice. It was logistical advice and fatherly advice,” Joseph Fox recalled.

 

“One of the things he always told me was to check the train stations if you’re looking for a perp. My partner and I caught a guy that way. He robbed a cab driver on Ocean Parkway and ran into a train station on MacDonald Avenue,” he said, adding that his father’s advice came in handy.

 

 

 

Walter Fox passed away in 1998. His NYPD legacy lives on in his son Joseph, who served for 37 years, and in his grandson, Joseph, who is currently a sergeant at the 70th Precinct in Midwood.

 

https://thetablet.org/like-father-like-son-like-grandson-the-fox-familys-nypd-legacy/?utm_medium=email&_hsmi=289327272&utm_content=289327272&utm_source=hs_email

 

===========================

 

Lough Derg

 

https://www.facebook.com/loughderg

 

 

 

========================

 

Castleisland

 

https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/castleislanddistrictheritage

 

==============================

 

 

 

This place explains why geologists see the climate change from a different perspective.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx0am8PdoOs

 

 

 

================

 

In 1902 it is likely that a fair proportion of the older people west and north of Dunmanway were either Irish speakers or bi lingual

 

 

 

1902 Irish Day Dunmanway addressed by Pádraig Pearse

 

 

 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1epwrrLWqweGO7gQJF-xycNKqqBwaeD9a2B6wFShhqfU/edit

 

 

 

================================

 

 

 

 

 

A new book examines and celebrates the 50-year-plus history of Network, the sister-founded Catholic social justice lobby.

 

Called to Action: NETWORK's 50 Years of Political Ministry is written by Sr. Mara Rutten, Network's historian and a Sister of Mercy.

 

The book chronicles how 47 Catholic sisters, inspired by Catholic social teaching and the reforms of Vatican II, came together in 1971 to "build a more just world," said promotional material for the new book, published in December.

 

 

 

https://www.globalsistersreport.org/news/monday-starter-new-book-chronicles-history-network?utm_source=Global+Sisters+Report&utm_campaign=ef3f3a5603-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2024_01_09_02_59&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_86a1a9af1b-ef3f3a5603-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D

 

 

 

=====================

 

Sidney M. Wolfe’s legacy

 

 

 

A Cleveland-born doctor and son of a workplace safety inspector, Wolfe saw how important concerns about public safety were from a young age. He attended Cornell University and earned a degree in chemical engineering, but he decided that a career in the field wasn’t in his future after receiving chemical burns at a summer job. He went on to Western Reserve University (now Case Western Reserve University), where he earned a medical degree in 1965.

 

 

 

Wolfe went into research and joined the National Institutes of Health in 1966. After meeting consumer advocate Ralph Nader, Wolfe joined forces with Nader to get contaminated intravenous fluids recalled from the market. For decades, Wolfe made an impact on public safety by advocating against pharmaceuticals he believed were dangerous, often sparring with major drug companies and the FDA in the process. For example, he led a long campaign to remove the opioid propoxyphene – the primary component in the drugs Darvon and Darvocet – from the market for causing heart issues. He waged similar efforts against Oraflex, Zomax, Vioxx, and Baycol, among other prescription drugs.

 

https://www.legacy.com/news/celebrity-deaths/sidney-m-wolfe-1937-2024-physician-who-challenged-drug-companies/?utm_source=JTA_Maropost&utm_campaign=JTA_Life_Stories&utm_medium=email

 

 

 

================================

 

 

 

It’s a very Catholic practice to make reparation for the wrongs of others.

 

Every day the holy name of our Lord is blasphemed. Insults are hurled at our Lord. Churches and Catholic Statues are vandalized. And so, we have this Act of Reparation to the Blessed Sacrament.

 

Unfortunately, many of us are currently unable to even do a holy hour. Some parishes are closed due to the dictates of tyrannical government. However, some of us do have access to the Blessed Sacrament.

 

Surely it is an act of charity to pray an extra act of reparation to make up for those who cannot? We have so much reparation to do for all the acts, insults and aggression toward our Lord and his Church.

 

So, if you can make an act of reparation to the Blessed Sacrament, please do.

 

               Act of Reparation to the Blessed Sacrament

 

Jesus, my God, my Saviour, true God and true Man, with that most profound homage with which the faith itself inspires me, I adore and love Thee with my whole heart, enclosed in the most august Sacrament of the Altar, in reparation for all the acts of irreverence, profanation, and sacrilege, which I may ever have been so unhappy as to have committed, as well as for all such like acts that ever have been done, or which may be done, though God forbid they should be, in ages yet to come.

 

I adore Thee, therefore, my God, not indeed as Thou deservest, nor as much as I am bound to adore, but as far as I am able; and I would that I could adore Thee with all the perfection of which all reasonable persons are capable.

 

Meantime I purpose now and ever to adore Thee, not only for those Catholics who adore Thee not, and love Thee not, but also in the stead of, and for the conversion of all heretics, schismatics, impious atheists, blasphemers, impostors, Mahometans, Jews, and idolaters.

 

Jesus, my God, mayest Thou be ever known, adored, loved, and praised every moment, in the most holy and divine Sacrament. Amen.

 

 

 

==============================

The Way I See It

 

 

 

By Domhnall de Barra

 

 

 

The ability to read is probably the greatest talent we can develop in our lifetime.  Not that long ago there were only certain members of the community who had the ability to read and write and they were greatly valued but, with the advance in education, everybody now gets the opportunity to learn. Books were a big part of my upbringing. The first one I got was from my mother before I started national school. It was  a picture book of animals and I remember being fascinated by the different colours, shapes and sizes. I knew the cow, the pig and the goat because I could see them in the local fields and we always had pigs but I had no clue what a sheep looked like not to mention lions, tigers, giraffes and all the other wild, exotic animals. Mom explained to me they  came from far away lands so I assumed these lands were somewhere beyond Sugarhill, because that was as far as I could see and the sky came down behind it. When I went to school I began to learn letters and words and I was fascinated by them. I was lucky to have a really great teacher, Maggie Collins, mother of former TD and Government Minister Gerard Collins, who saw how interested I was and “fast tracked” my learning. She gave me extra work to do and I loved it. Every time I recognised a new word it was like getting a present from Santa. I moved on to books that had both pictures and words and I was quite happy until I saw my aunt Nora reading a book one day and when she laid it down I was surprised to find that there were no pictures but all words, most of which I couldn’t understand. My father used to get the Irish Independent every day and I used to look at the cartoons and strips in it. I got to know Rip Kirby and Curly Wee, a pig dressed in human clothes. They had words as well that I soon got the hang of. Then, of course there were the comics we got every Sunday like The Beano, The Dandy and The Topper. There were also cowboy comics with characters like Roy Rogers, who had a horse called trigger, and The Lone Ranger who, not only had a horse  called Silver  but an Indian side=kick called Tonto. They really fuelled our imagination and gave us endless entertainment, not only reading them but acting as them in the playgrounds. Some had toy guns but the most of us had bits of tree branches that resembled revolvers. “Cowboys and Indians” was the order of the day and we repeated the words we had  read in the comics.  We had no Idea what an American accent sounded like so the words  came out in our best West Limerick brogue. I remember also getting my first book that didn’t have any pictures. It was called “Gulliver’s Travels” and was a Christmas present from my aunt Nora. It took me a while to get used to it and to find the meaning of some of the bigger words but it fuelled my imagine with the tales of the people in the countries he visited. One place had tiny people and another had giants and I was hooked on books from then on. Books are the best medium for telling a story because they stimulate the mind and fuel the imagination. Today everything comes with all the bells and whistles and there is nothing left to visualise. This is especially true of films where we can see and hear everything. Listening to a play or story on the radio gives us the sounds of voices and we have to make up our own minds about the appearance and bearing of the  characters. When reading a book you have to visualise in your own mind the characters, what they look like and what they sound like as well as their surroundings. This really good exercise for our brains and could be instrumental in our mental well being, as they say “use it or lose it”.

 

 

 

Doing crosswords is another great way of keeping the mind active. Readers of this newsletter will know that I am a crossword fanatic and love both setting them and solving them. As I mentioned before, my father bought the Independent every day and he used to do the Simplex crossword when he came home at night.  I was in secondary school at this stage and I would be doing my homework, waiting for him to go to bed , for two reasons. Like all the other young fools I had started smoking at the time so when my father went to bed, leaving his coat over the back of a chair, I would go to his pocket and get a cigarette out his packet of Players. Sometimes I would be in hard luck because if there were only a few cigarettes left I could not take the chance that he wouldn’t miss one the following morning. Then I would find the crossword and try to fill in ant clues he hadn’t answered. Sometimes he would have them all done so I would take a look at the cryptic crossword on the same page. At first I could not make hog nor dog of them until one night I spotted a way of solving the clue and that started me off “thinking outside the box” as it were, to find answers. A good setter of cryptic crosswords will try to send you down the wrong path and make use of language in a different way.  Things aren’t always what they seem. One of the best cryptic clues I ever saw was  “a number of fingers”, five letters.  Immediately you would think of eight  because we have eight fingers and two thumbs and maybe you got another word that gave you the last letter  T  but you would be wrong. The answer was  “frost” because it would make your fingers numb.  I try to do the Irish Times crossword every morning but I very seldom finish it in one sitting. It may be hours later that I find an answer that was eluding me and sometimes I never get it but there is great satisfaction in beating the setter in a game of wits.  We need to keep our minds active and , to my mind, there is no better stimulus than reading a good book so, if you are looking for a present for the person who has everything, why not give them a book or a book token. Who knows, you might get them hooked.

 

 

 

https://www.athea.ie/

 

============================

Prayer

 

Christ Our King!

 

Lord, we pray that our Church may not stand aloof from the world,

 

But willing like Jesus to share the fate of the poor.

 

Lord, we pray for those who feel excluded, from positions

 

of power, because they have  failed in their professional or personal lives.

 

from the Church, because of failures on their personal relationships.

 

We pray that they will discover greatness and holiness in themselves.

 

By contemplating Jesus on Calvary

 

A king with no royal throne,

 

a priest with no temple or altar of sacrifice.

 

Just himself and good people who share in his integrity,

 

Willing each other into paradise.

 

=====================================

 

World day of the Poor;

 

We are living in times that are not particularly sensitive to the needs of the poor.

 

The pressure to adopt an affluent lifestyle increases, while the voices of those dwelling in poverty tend to go unheard. The poor have become a film clip that can affect us for a moment, yet when we encounter them in flesh and blood on our streets, we are annoyed and look the other way.

 

If we want to help change history, we need to hear the cry of the poor and commit ourselves to ending their marginalisation. We cannot remain passive. Blessed are the hands that reach beyond every barrier of culture, religion, and nationality, and pour the balm of consolation over the wounds of humanity. Blessed are the open hands that ask nothing in exchange, with no ‘ifs or buts’ or ‘maybes.’ They are the hands that call down God’s blessing upon their brothers and sisters. Pope Francis.

 

======================================

Prostate Cancer breakthrough | Professor Louisa Emmett

 

St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney

 

1.67K subscribers

 

13,578 views  Premiered Apr 26, 2022  #ProstateCancer #Cancer #PSMA

 

Professor Louise Emmett explains PSMA-PET imaging, a new diagnostic approach being trialled at St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney.

 

 

 

PSMA-PET scans are the most sensitive scans available for detection prostate tumours - meaning that they are able to see small tumours where other types of scans miss them.

 

 

 

Visit our website: https://www.svhs.org.au/

 

  / stvincentshospitalsydney 

 

  / stvincentshospitalsydney  

 

  / st-vincents-health-network-sydney 

 

 

 

0:00 - Introduction

 

0:18 - How common is prostate cancer in Australia?

 

0:56 - What is PSMA-PET?

 

1:32 - How did PSMA-PET come about?

 

 

 

#ProstateCancer #Cancer #PSMA

 

=====================================

KENNELLY: An illustration shows a teenager looking over her Facebook page. The internet facilitates sexual exploitation, a category of child abuse, experts in this field told Catholic News Service. (CNS photo/Mariana Bazo, Reuters)

 

Internet, online porn seen as enabling sexual exploitation of children

 

Eleanor Kennelly Gaetan Nation Thursday 7th of February 2019

 

 

 

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The internet facilitates sexual exploitation, a category of child abuse, according to experts in this field interviewed by Catholic News Service.

 

 

 

The internet also, they say, enables near universal access to violent pornography, with a range of negative implications, including normalizing sexual aggression and the dramatic increase in children abusing other children.

 

 

 

In a recent report on the role of technology in sex trafficking, as reported by the Justice Department's Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking studies and based on interviews with 260 survivors, Vanessa Bouche, a political science professor at Texas Christian University, found the internet facilitated prostitution, through online ads, in 75 percent of the cases.

 

 

 

The average age of entry was 15. Young victims, under 1 through age 10, were exploited by family members (76 percent), while older minors were exploited by members of their social network or strangers, far more often than by family.

 

 

 

According to Mary Anne Layden, director of the sexual trauma and psychopathology program in the University of Pennsylvania's Department of Psychiatry, our society is at the point of "almost universal exposure" of children to pornography, which gives them "massive mis-education about intimacy and sexuality."

 

Advertisement

 

 

 

Children "learn that sex is non-intimate, violent, adversarial, that it is non-relational, it is degrading and it is narcissistic," she told CNS. "Almost 90 percent of pornography coded by researchers is violent, so boys are being taught: Women like to be forced, women like to be raped, fisted, choked, gagged and slapped."

 

 

 

Women are depicted as enjoying, or having a neutral response, to maltreatment.

 

 

 

"Everything pornography says is a lie, but it is a massively effective teaching tool -- of toxic learning," Layden explained.

 

 

 

The U.S. Catholic bishops addressed these harmful effects on children in their 2015 pastoral letter on pornography, "Create in Me a Clean Heart."

 

 

 

"Being exposed to pornography can be traumatic for children and youth. Seeing it steals their innocence and gives them a distorted image of sexuality, relationships, and men and women, which may then affect their behavior," they wrote. "It can also make them more vulnerable to being sexually abused, since their understanding of appropriate behavior can be damaged."

 

 

 

One result of exposure to this violence of pornography is an "explosive" increase in children who are assaulting other children.

 

 

 

Layden said it is more likely for a daughter to be assaulted by her brother than by her stepfather in a "blended" household.

 

 

 

Dawn Hawkins concurs with Layden. Hawkins is senior vice president and executive director of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, or NCOSE, known as Morality in Media until 2015.

 

 

 

"NCOSE believes the increase in children with 'harmful sexual behavior' -- a term that includes rape -- is due to early exposure to hard-core porn," said Hawkins.

 

 

 

Hawkins said there's little data, for one reason, in school settings sexual abuse between children is not reported, but the damage to victims is real.

 

 

 

The lawyer for an 8-year-old girl raped multiple times by a 13-year-old male neighbor, consulted NCOSE recently. The boy -- a consumer of violent pornography -- had lined up his younger siblings, and the victim's sibling, to serve as an audience for his illicit performance.

 

 

 

"We know child sexual abuse leads to depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, self-harm, PTSD, risky sexual behaviors, poor physical health and other difficult struggles," summarized Hawkins. "It often predates an individual's entry into prostitution."

 

 

 

"So the trauma experienced by that group of children, caused by an immature brain's exposure to pornography, could take years, even decades, to unravel," she added.

 

 

 

Hawkins recommends the website Protect Young Minds, protectyoungminds.org, for guidance on inoculating them from harmful imagery online. Another such site is www.faithandsafety.org, created by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Department of Communications and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.

 

 

 

A data set released Nov. 30 by Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, found that in almost half of its 2017 child abuse cases, boys ages 11 to 15 years were the perpetrators, physically and sexually attacking girls ages 4 to 8 years old. Nurses traced the phenomena to exposure to pornography.

 

 

 

One potentially positive note in the disturbing trend regarding peer assault is that, unlike adult perpetrators, young offenders who receive treatment do not appear to re-offend into adulthood.

 

 

 

"The good news on treatment means we need mandatory reporting of these cases, so kids get help," observed NCOSE's Hawkins.

 

 

 

She also is excited that after "many meetings" with Google, the internet giant has quietly added a "safe search" feature, allowing a setting that automatically screens out graphic sexual imagery from popping up.

 

 

 

Private companies as well are beginning to respond to evidence of the harmful impacts of pornography and to federal law enforcement crackdowns on it.

 

 

 

The social networking site Tumblr, now owned by Verizon, announced in early December it would block all pornography and "adult content" from its site beginning Dec. 17, as a result of child pornography -- a federal crime treated with great severity-- getting past its filters.

 

 

 

And Starbucks announced it will block customers from perusing pornography while on the store's free Wi-Fi, as a result of pressure from the South Carolina-based advocacy group Enough is Enough.

 

 

 

Some of these changes are a result of consumer pressure, according to Hawkins.

 

 

 

"The general public is becoming more aware of the public health harm," she told CNS. "Parents are concerned about the harm to their young kids."

 

 

 

She added, "There is a connection between pornography and violence against women. ... The general public is becoming aware of this and demanding an end to the violence and sexual abuse of children."

 

 

 

Hawkins also cited 40 peer-reviewed studies since 2001 that stated the detrimental impacts of pornography. "There is much more widespread awareness of the harms, which have been swept under the rug and not talked about," she said.

 

 

 

Mark Pattison contributed to this story.

 

https://thebostonpilot.com/article.php?ID=184332

 

===================

 

Waste not; Give your items a second life. Less waste = less damage to the planet.

 

https://olioapp.com/en/

 

=======================================

Everyone involved is betting Scotland will soon pass a law that forces companies to make up for their environmental impact by funding protection elsewhere. Similar regulation is due to take effect in England early next year. They’re also eyeing a global, unregulated market for the credits that’s gotten a boost from a commitment by almost 200 countries to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030, and new guidelines for business to address nature-related risks.

 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-09-28/scotland-rewilding-project-looks-for-the-money-in-biodiversity?srnd=green

 

 

 

=================================

 

On 14th May 1970, Mickey Doherty died, great fiddle player, storyteller, tinsmith, much loved figure in his native Donegal. 50 years ago today, as far as we know this is the only video footage of Mickey Doherty.

 

https://www.facebook.com/mainevalleypost

 

 

 

Fiddle Players; https://www.facebook.com/cairdeas.bhfidileiri

 

 

 

===================================

 

 

 

Horse Fair Listowel 5 Oct 2023

 

https://www.facebook.com/mosejoe.brown/videos/1961782860874260

 

======================================

At Sinai, Israel entered a covenant relationship of love with God. The commandments handed down by Moses expressed a way of life, consummated by blood ritual. Moses sprinkled half the blood on the altar and then sprinkled the people. After ratifying the covenant, Moses and the priests and the elders ascended the mountain where they saw God and ate and drank. The effect of covenant is communion: seeing God, eating and drinking. Our Lord’s precious blood, the blood of the Eucharist, is the blood of a New Covenant. This New Covenant unites us to God intimately, allowing us to draw near to him. The blood of Jesus is nothing less than divine life, poured out for all who receive him in the Eucharist.

 

LET US PRAY

 

Heavenly Father, send forth your Holy Spirit, that the people of the New Covenant may be united completely to you. May the blood of Christ, poured out for the redemption of sins, wash away every evil that keeps hearts from you. Amen.

 

=========================

 

St Johns Listowel

 

https://youtu.be/TOgvyNjDnBg

 

 

 

===========================

 

Dorothy Day admits in her diary that she does not always approach the Eucharist “with need, or joy, or thanksgiving.” But her decades-long routine of daily Mass was for her as natural as taking food. Without the Eucharist, she doubted whether she could carry on. Like any meal, the Eucharist sustains. We need the Bread of Life to

 

nourish our souls, to give us strength. The Eucharist nourishes us because it bestows upon us a share of God’s own inner life. As Jesus says in the Gospel, “Just as the living

 

Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me” (Jn 6:57). The Lord’s Supper is the meal of divine life, the feast of grace, feeding our hungry souls.

 

LET US PRAY

 

Lord Jesus, in the Eucharist you give us a share of the life of the Father. Nourish my weary soul, that sustained by your grace I will always have the strength to go on. Amen.

 

==========================

 

 

 

By Nicholas Elbers / The B.C. Catholic

 

Vancouver, Canada, Oct 7, 2023 / 07:00 am

 

 

 

Eastern European floral prints were resplendent next to elaborate Asian headdresses at this year’s Mass celebrating the annual World Day for Migrants and Refugees on Sept. 23 in Richmond, British Columbia.

 

 

 

The event’s attendance was back to pre-COVID numbers, and St. Paul’s Church in Richmond was packed to capacity. An African choir provided music during Communion, and several hundred people attended a post-Mass reception with ethnic food served from many of the cultures present and performances by cultural choirs and dancers.

 

 

 

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255601/migrants-and-refugees-mass-the-universal-church-in-all-her-splendor?utm_campaign=CNA%20Daily&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=277426322&utm_content=277426322&utm_source=hs_email

 

 

 

=====================

 

Weekly Newsletter

 

19th Sunday after Pentecost

 

8th October 2023

 

Dear Friends of Sacred Heart Church,

 

Today's Gospel (Mt 22,1-14) outlines the sad story—so true even today—of human ingratitude which rejects God's mercy, and is indifferent to His gifts and invitations. “The kingdom of heaven is likened to a king, who made a marriage for his son, and he sent his servants to call them that were invited to the marriage; and they would not come.” The king is God the Father, the son is the eternal Word who, becoming incarnate, espoused human nature in order to redeem and sanctify it. God invites all men to the great banquet of the divine nuptials at which they will find their salvation; but submerged in the materialism of earthly things, they reject the invitation and the messengers. “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee” (ibid. 23,37), will one day be the lament of the Son of God as He denounces bore he pot, not on that bst alteresis ance the stubbornly and ungratefully rejected His love and His grace. The prophets, St. John the Baptist, and the apostles are the “servants,” the messengers sent by God to call men to the banquet of the Redemption, but they were all taken and killed. They “laid hands on his servants, and having treated them contumeliously, put them to death,” the Gospel says. Today's parable ends there, but unfortunately, human ingratitude has gone much further: not only the servants and messengers were killed, but even God's very Son. Yet God's mercy is so great that it cannot be vanquished; He still invites all men to His feast, and even offers this divine Son whom they have killed, to be their Food. The banquet is prepared; Jesus, the divine Lamb has been immolated for the redemption of mankind and, if many fail to accept the invitation, others will be invited. “The marriage indeed is ready, but they that were invited were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as you shall find, call to the marriage.” We too have been invited. How have we responded to the invitation? Have we not also shown more interest and concern for earthly matters than for the things of God? Have we not been like the men in the parable who “neglected, and went their way, one to his farm, and another to his merchandise?”

 

 

 

All the Canons from the Irish Province spent a few days together at our convent in Ardee and also in SilverstreamPriory. It was a time of fraternal charity and recollection with spiritual conferences.

 

Our seminarians were also present to help to make fresh juice from the apples in the convent property.

 

 

 

We remind you of the recitation of the Holy Rosary with the Blessed Sacrament exposed during the month of October. What better to sanctify the day of Our Lord than to come at 5 pm today and to honour the life of HisMother and to pray for Holy Mother Church.

 

Canon Lebocq

 

Prior of Sacred Heart Church

 

 

 

================================

 

DAY 16: WEDDING FEAST

 

 

 

“Were it your wedding day before you, would you not have disregarded all else, and set about the preparation for the feast? And on the eve of consecrating your soul to the heavenly Bridegroom, will you not cease from carnal things, that you may win spiritual?” — Saint Cyril of Jerusalem

 

In the Gospels, Jesus likens heaven to a wedding banquet, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son” (Mt 22:2).

 

The tragedy of the parable, as Jesus tells it, is that many who are invited don’t heed the invitation. It’s not simply that they could not attend the wedding, rather, they would not. They refused. To turn away from the Eucharist is to turn away from the invitation to celebrate and rejoice with friends. Would we miss the wedding of those we love? Still less, would we show up unprepared and disheveled? The Eucharist offers the joy and mirth of a wedding feast — more even because the joys and mirth are spiritual! Let us prepare our souls for each wedding feast.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LET US PRAY

 

 

 

Heavenly Father, drive from my heart any sin that would preclude me from being united to you in the Eucharistic feast. May I be washed and ready for the happiness and delight in your offer, hidden in the sacred Host. Amen.

 

=================================

On July 30, I flew from my home in New York City to Anchorage, Alaska, to hitchhike to the Arctic Ocean.

 

I am not mentally imbalanced. I am a reporter who covers the trucking industry. Let me provide some more context: Back in May, with my colleague John Paul Hampstead, I wrote a story about the controversial growth of drilling in Alaska and its effect on the $800 billion trucking industry.

 

There’s a nasty freight recession slamming U.S. trucking fleets, but Alaska seems to be experiencing the opposite. Alaskan trucking executives told me in May that they’re planning on doubling in size. They want to hire not just Alaska residents, but folks from the Lower 48.

 

Sourdough Express, which was founded in 1898, is one of those companies looking to lavish pay raises on employees and hire more. Just this month, President Josh Norum gave his linehaul truck drivers a 25% pay bump. “[W]e are building the team for all the work the next 4 years,” he recently told me over text message.

 

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/i-rode-with-an-ice-road-trucker-to-the-arctic-circle-heres-what-it-was-like?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=catholic_news_vatican_secretariat_of_state_frozen_out_on_climate_change_doc_laudate_deum&utm_term=2023-10-06

 

=======================

DAIRY Farming: Michael Healy Rae T. D., said: “Rural Ireland has depended on the family dairy farm system that built Ireland’s multi-billion euro dairy system with so much of the run-off income spilling into the local economies throughout Ireland.  “Dairy farmers, many of them carrying on a tradition and a family way of life, simply cannot take another body blow.

 

“Farmers always faced challenges face on and implemented and changed, but the constant blow after blow from this government and especially parts of it who seem to be very ‘anti farming,’ are putting people at a crossroads.”

 

https://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/drop-to-220kg-of-n-is-attack-on-irish-dairy-farmers-healy-rae/

 

==================

 

Video link

 

https://youtu.be/WP57SVaQKXE

 

Filename

 

Tralee Trade Stands August 2023.wmv

 

============================

Reflection

 

Almudena Martínez-Bordiú/ACI Prensa/CNA World

 

August 7, 2023

 

 

 

“I opened my eyes and I could see perfectly,” said Jimena, a 16-year-old Spanish World Youth Day (WYD) pilgrim who said she miraculously recovered her sight after receiving the Eucharist at Fátima, Portugal, during a Mass there.

 

 

 

This possible miracle has moved hearts and filled with hope all those who have been following the events at WYD, which brought together more than a million young people in the Portuguese capital last week.

 

 

 

Jimena travelled   to Lisbon from Madrid with a group from Opus Dei. During the days prior, relatives and acquaintances of the young woman organized a novena to pray to Our Lady of the Snows, whose feast day is commemorated Aug. 5, the same day she recovered her sight.

 

https://www.ncregister.com/cna/miracle-at-fatima-world-youth-day-pilgrim-receives-her-sight-after-communion-at-mass?utm_campaign=NCR&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=269476531&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9czwYA_js0PPlMMNX4fgpNTuuXzXJWEg92VFeINgNuQbyY_78FW4vlMlR9iSflM2enM5bVP4C_FF5w-cQSqMiW0QvvlQ&utm_content=269476531&utm_source=hs_email

 

 

 

=======================================

 

The journalists in the mainstream press have never known what to do with this event. This is, after all, a positive gathering that brings together millions of people, mostly young Catholics. This is not an everyday thing. It shows young Catholics happy to embrace the church, while celebrating its teachings — a stark contrast to the secular world and the messages of hopelessness and sin we get each day. 

 

 

 

As a result, the mainstream press covers World Youth Day and the pope’s appearances through a lens of scandal and (#ShockedShocked) politics.

 

 

 

Doctrine, as is often the case, is simply swept aside. Anything positive that can be gleaned from the gathering of so many young people is tossed aside. World Youth Day is a snapshot of the church’s future — but you wouldn’t know it from much of the coverage of the last week. For example, going to confession (with the pope helping out) is a major part of the World Youth Day experience. Valid story?

 

 

 

For great — and complete — World Youth Day coverage, the Catholic press did its job, once again. Places such as Crux, The Pillar on Substack and Catholic News Agency created pages where all their stories could be found. In other words, a one-stop-shop for all things World Youth Day.

 

https://www.getreligion.org/getreligion/2023/8/6/elite-press-skips-doctrine-at-world-youth-day-in-favor-of-surprise-scandal-and-politics?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=catholic_news_miracle_at_fatima_world_youth_day_pilgrim_regains_her_sight_after_receiving_holy_communion_at_mass&utm_term=2023-08-08

 

 

 

========================

 

Reflect

 

Generosity

 

If you give sparingly, you will receive a sparse harvest. The more generous you are in giving, the more generous the Lord will be in blessing you.

 

 

 

NOTE FROM FR. JIM Lenihan .....

 

My note today is very much inspired by the amazing experience that myself and

 

90 others had in Medjugorie over the past week. How would I describe it? As one

 

of our pilgrims so rightly said ‘it would be like trying to explain to someone the

 

sensation of getting an electric shock to a person who never had such an

 

experience', impossible. But for those who were fortunate enough to go they were

 

truly blessed in so many ways. In light of the past week and today’s Gospel it’s

 

clear that every person goes through a storm in life but it is only Jesus that can

 

calm those storms with His amazing power of love and mercy. We’ve also learnt

 

that one needs to step out of the boat of ones comfort zone of everyday life to

 

see what’s spiritually possible. With God you can walk on water because nothing is

 

impossible to Him. We also mentioned during the week that Peter in today’s Gospel

 

did amazingly well while gazing upon Jesus but once he turned away from Jesus

 

and focused on all the problems around him he began to sink. How often do we

 

gaze upon the problems and only glance at the solution? Let us set our gaze upon

 

Jesus and only glance at our problems. May we reach up to Jesus and let him take

 

our hand and save us.

 

-------------------------------

 

Pro Life Leaders

 

https://legacyoflifebook.com/

 

 

 

---------------

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prayer for our Deceased

 

Grant them eternal rest O’ Lord and let perpetual light  shine upon them.

 

 

 

Lord God, whose days are without end and whose mercies beyond counting,

 

keep us mindful that life is short and the hour of death unknown.

 

Let your Spirit guide our days on earth in the ways of holiness and justice,

 

that we may serve you in union with the whole Church, sure in faith, strong in hope, perfect in love.

 

And when our earthly journey is ended, lead us rejoicing into your kingdom, where you live for ever and ever.

 

Amen.

 

------------------------

 

Father, I pray, you pour out your blessings on our parish,

 

               so that, fired with the gifts of your Spirit,

 

each of us may be filled with a passionate love of your Son

 

              and a deep desire to make Him known.

 

 

 

Help us, despite our fears and weakness,

 

                to be effective beacons of His light, His love, His joy.

 

Father, open my mind and heart

 

                to hear your personal call to me.

 

Give me the generosity to respond

 

                so that I may play my part in spreading the Good News.

 

                                                 Amen.

 

--------------------------------------

 

 

 

Andrew Masi

 

by Katie Vasquez

 

 

 

When Andrew Masi goes to church, he’s bringing hundreds of other Catholics with him.

 

 “I feel like I’m taking people on a virtual tour of these places. I’ve had people tell me- you give me a way to experience the beauty of the church,” Masi said.

 

He’s known to his Instagram followers as, “The Catholic photographer,” most notably for capturing snapshots of faith on a cell phone camera.

 

Masi first picked up his camera almost a decade ago.

 

It was Easter Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark, and he was inspired after simply looking up.

 

“I’m looking up at the beautiful church, looking at the magnificent architecture, its gorgeous stained-glass windows, the statues, and I’m thinking wow this church is just amazing,” Masi said.

 

Since then, he’s taken his passion for photographing parishes on the road.

 

He’s visited 35 out of 50 states and captured basilicas and cathedrals in cities like Philadelphia, Lansing, Michigan and Las Vegas.

 

“I feel a sense of gratefulness for my Catholic faith drawing me to these places,” Masi said. “Without my faith, I wouldn’t be able to do this.”

 

On Labor Day, Masi will hit a new milestone. He’ll photograph his 100th church, the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Memphis, Tennessee.

 

“They already know I’m coming and they’re like oh we’ll get the red carpet ready for you,” he said.

 

Masi said he’s on a mission to see all the cathedrals and basilicas across the United States, a task he expects to finish within the next decade. 

 

But he’s not stopping there, he would also like to photograph churches throughout Canada and eventually all of Europe.

 

https://netny.tv/episodes/currents/photographer-captures-images-of-cathedrals-and-basilicas-nationwide/?utm_medium=email&_hsmi=269808736&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_KSHPxZnlLAmldSqNgZRthCeqlAL6Eg6sy98X8M2YoD8osfdH2a4ZjRVJ5RDMA6VfDmuCywznPyamOSv-paqUPHsAqFQ&utm_content=269808736&utm_source=hs_email

 

================================

The Presbytery, Abbeydorney. 066 7135146; 087 6807197

abbeydorney@dioceseofkerry.ie

2nd July, 2023. 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Dear Parishioner,

One half of the year is gone from us, while another half

has just started off. A few weeks into this month, I will be making room for

a successor in the parish. The list of changes/transfers announced by

Bishop Ray Brown this past Friday were very brief, giving the news that Fr.

Jerry Keane, would move from Eyeries Parish, in West Cork, to replace me

in Abbeydorney Parish, while the move of Fr. John Kerin to Eyeries, would

leave Tuosist without a resident priest. When, during the past number of

months, I thought about the situation arising from my retirement, it

seemed that there would be no priest to replace. I know parishioners will

be happy to know that Abbeydorney will have a Parish Priest for the

immediate future.

In my early years, as a priest in Kerry Diocese, there was a lot of talk in the

weeks ahead of the time when new appointments about what the list of

changes would contain. Priest who had spent a few years in the less

densely populated parishes in South Kerry and West Cork, would have

been hoping that the bishop of the time would tell them there were

vacancies in the more central parts of the diocese. Curates, who were

likely to be appointed Parish Priests for the first time, were hopeful (unless

they were natives of the outlying parishes of the diocese) not to be

appointed to parishes that were a long distance from the Cathedral town

of Killarney.

Apart from the nine years I spent in Kenya, the parish furthest from my

home – 5 miles from Killarney, between Killarney and Farranfore – in which

I worked was Dingle, where I spent four years. The shortest time I spent in

any parish was one year in Duagh, to which Bishop Eamonn Casey

appointed me in the summer of 1976 and which I left, in the first changes

made by Bishop Kevin McNamara in the summer of 1977. (The year

between summer 1987 and that of 1998 was a little bit unusual in that I did

a three month renewal course from September to November 1987, after

returning from Kenya and that was followed by a temporary appointment

from January to July 1988 in Killeentierna (Currow & Currans) Parish. My

longest appointment was the one I am now finishing (12 years), one year

longer than my stay in Spa Parish (11 years). Fr. Denis O’Mahony

-------------------------------

Knock Shrine: Where Culture and Faith Align (Intercom 2023)

Every day, people come to Knock Shrine to seek healing, to take a step back

from busy life and take comfort in the peace of the Apparition Chapel. The

beautiful grounds here offer a peaceful space where you are encouraged to

relax, reflect, and pray. The Shrine is open each day and ready to welcome

you. Whatever your reason for coming here, we greet you in the hope that

your visit will end with an answered prayer, a sense of healing, or a new

perspective on whatever troubles you. Pilgrims can find healing through

the sacraments but also by having the opportunity to disconnect and

experience the peace and beauty of nature. The beautiful, serene

grounds stretch over 100 acres and offer a peaceful retreat for visitors,

with seating areas and quiet corners to relax and reflect. As you make

your way around, take time to sit, breath, to listen, and feel unburdened in

the quiet and calm. Whether you're visiting on your own or with friends

and family, the gardens are a great place to spend some time in

contemplation and prayer. Since 1879, the story of the Apparition has

drawn people from all over the world who come to experience peace and

to seek healing and reconciliation. In the Apparition Chapel, pilgrims can

experience unique peace and reflect on the scene, which is replicated in

exact detail, based on the accounts given by the fifteen local people who

witnessed the Apparition on 21 August 1879.

The Apparition scene at Knock has deep liturgical meaning, symbolic

richness and has been the subject of theological study and contemplation

for generations. Unique to the Apparition at Knock is the representation

of the Eucharist as the risen Lord which appeared as the Lamb on the

altar, standing before his Cross and surrounded by a host of angels. This

aspect of the Apparition was detailed by the fifteen witnesses who, on 21

August 1879, stood in pouring rain for two hours reciting the rosary before

the Apparition scene. Knock has long been known for its Marian devotion;

however the elevation of the Shrine to an International Eucharistic and

Marian Shrine by Pope Francis in 2021 places more emphasis on the unique

representation of the Lamb in the Apparition scene, a symbol of the

Eucharist. The best place to start your day at Knock is with a visit to the

award-winning Knock Museum (open daily with free admission) where you

can truly get a deeper sense of the Apparition in the context of life at the

time and also get a sense of the profound connection that pilgrims have to

this special place today. See the Diary of Cures penned by Archdeacon

Kavanagh in the years following the Apparition as well as copies of the

original testimonies given by the fifteen official witnesses.

The Bookshop is located on the grounds of the Shrine and is a quiet haven

where you can explore a wide selection of spiritual books, journals, and

books for all ages. Browse through a wide selection of spiritual books,

journals, unique everyday titles, and all the latest new releases. No visit to

Knock Shrine would be complete without taking in the many sacred

artworks that are dotted around the grounds and in the churches. From

stunning stained-glass windows to beautiful sculptures and paintings, the

artworks are truly inspiring. Take a moment to view the Bee-Hive Cell

designed by Imogen Stuart, the Holy Water Fonts carved from Portuguese

stone, the inspiring Stations of the Cross paintings and mural painting of

The Last Supper in the Basilica, or the sculptures of Irish Saints that are

dotted around the Shrine grounds.

Prayer Guidance & Spiritual Direction

Spiritual Direction is available during the pilgrimage season, taking place in

the peaceful prayer spaces in the Chapel of Reconciliation. Prayer

Guidance is also available daily in the Prayer Centre as well as Evening

Prayer in the Apparition Chapel at 8.40 pm (daily). Groups coming to Knock

Shrine can book their own private Mass (where a priest is accompanying) in

the Apparition Chapel and avail of group facilities at St. John's Welcome

Centre (wheelchair hire available). Whatever the weather, the shuttle

service is available on a daily basis for the comfort of all visitors, to

transport pilgrims around the grounds with ease and convenience.

Daily Mass & Ceremonies

A full programme of ceremonies is available including the Anointing of the

Sick, Rosary Processions, Stations of the Cross, Adoration and daily Mass.

Confessions are available daily in the Chapel of Reconciliation. We look

forward to welcoming organised Diocesan and pilgrimage groups from

across the country each weekend.

Discover more about the unique history of Knock Shrine or plan your visit:

www.knockshrine.ie

Maria Casey Marketing & Communications, Knock Shrine Office.

Seeing Your Life Through The Lens of The Gospel

John Byrne, OSA, Intercom July/August 2023.

01.At a first reading, the demand of Jesus sounds selfish ‘Anyone who pre-

fers father or mother to me is not worthy of me.’ It only makes sense when

we realise that Jesus will never be outdone in generosity.

2.Jesus never wanted suffering for anyone but he knew that if we are going

to follow in his footsteps, promoting love and respect for every person, we

will meet with opposition. Fidelity has its price, but also rewards. Would

you agree?

3.The passage is a call to both radical and practical discipleship. When

have you found that, in order to achieve a certain objective, you had to

make it a priority, and then take the practical steps necessary to reach your

goal? What were the benefits to you when you did this?

4.‘Hate’ is prophetic exaggeration for the uncompromising loyalty Jesus

seeks in disciples. There may be times when people make demands in con-

flict with fidelity to another relationship. This can be painful. When have

you found that being clear about your priorities helped you in that situa-

tion?

Points to Ponder (Intercom 2023)

Each morning we wake up with a short note from God awaiting us on this

imaginary table next to our bed. It is our ‘to do’ list for the day. The top

priorities are relationships and responsibilities. Each of us, in the journey

of life, has created artwork of love and service. This is the clearest

expression of God's will for us. Today's seemingly severe words of Jesus

about family are simply an invitation to put everything in order. When we

love God first, not only do we love our family more, this love is more

selfless and life-giving, free of deception and illusion. Likewise,

discipleship of Jesus enriches and expands our vision of the world. We

are called to enter into the depths of life where we meet the wonder of

God's love in the ordinary flow of life. Jesus makes it clear. We need

sacrifice and deeper reflection to transform our lives with our families and

our professional responsibilities. This same sacrificial effort opens up how

we relate to our neighbours, how we face the challenge of a world

suffering from the neglect of our indulgent lifestyle. Our consumer culture

has set no limits on our desires. We are on the edge of destroying our

planet. God's will is clear. Enough already! Today's gospel tells us those

who seek themselves are on the road to self- destruction. Our relationship

with God, our loved ones, our community and our world only find life through self giving.

 

 

=====================================

by The Tablet Staff

 

PROSPECT HEIGHTS — New York City on Wednesday descended into a Martian-like atmosphere as smoke from hundreds of active wildfires in Canada eerily enveloped the metropolitan area.

 

The National Weather Service called the orange-tinged sky “almost unbelievable” on Twitter.

 

“Those vulnerable to poor air quality, including seniors and young children, should limit time outdoors, if possible,” the agency warned.

 

The air pollution was so bad that it nearly topped the 500-point air quality scale at 484, which made it the worst air quality in the city since the 1960s, Mayor Eric Adams said at a press briefing. New York City’s normal levels average around 100 on the scale.

 

The air quality in New York City on Wednesday was the worst of any city in the world.

https://thetablet.org/smoke-and-haze-drops-martian-like-atmosphere-onto-new-york-city/?utm_medium=email&_hsmi=261694368&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9Kzn55EibbO82ZaCgMlS67rU6J7l0SLhe_smUumZncvhMcavNwNvxELb3LAyFTynCYQAXQseJscczWprzQzGzrMREB6g&utm_content=261694368&utm_source=hs_email

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Schindler’s List (Saturday 9.30 RTE2) is Stephen Spielberg’s heartrending, Oscar winning drama based on the true story of Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson), a German businessman who tried to save Polish Jews from the Auschwitz gas chambers by creating jobs for them in his factory

 

Schindler, together with his accountant Itzhak Stern (Ben Kingsley) made a list of over a thousand Jews, and both Neeson and Kingsley give flawless performances.

 

However, Ralph Fiennes is even better as the sadistic Kommandant Amon Goth, one of cinemas most evil villains even more when you remember this is based on actual events.

 

With one of his most evocative scores, John Williams soundtrack can reduce you to tears, as if the story did not already do that to you.

http://traleetoday.ie/finnegan-on-films-a-mixed-bag-of-movies-to-enjoy-on-the-box/?fbclid=IwAR0VUfN2RkQS2TwBOk1josuUgIFEmMf6JddsvpaRg6fKP04NPVox_Yfb3WM

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Reflect

The Presbytery, Abbeydorney (066 7135146; 087 6807197)

abbeydorney@dioceseokerry.ie

Easter Sunday, 9th April 2023.

Dear Parishioner,

I was privileged to be one of the ‘full house’ in Siamsa Tire

Theatre on Wednesday night last, the second night of the entertainment

presented by St. John of God Services, with an involvement of students

from the Transition Year in Mercy Mounthawk Secondary School. The

‘event guide’ of Siamsa Tire, for the period January to June, 2023, gave a

brief summary of what the performance was about. ‘Totally 80s tells the

story of Corey Palmer and his senior year of High School. In the present

day, Corey takes us back to his High School days, watching himself and his

friends starting their bid to be senior class president and vice-presidents,

only to have the opportunity stolen by bully, Michael Feldman, who also

steals away Tiffany, Corey’s long-time crush. The jukebox score includes a

wide variety of popular hits from the 1980s.’ When you hear about ‘High

School’, you think of America and, yes, that is where the show comes

from.

Most of us know that to put a play on stage or to present a musical a lot of

preparatory work has to be done. Those, who have been involved in this

kind of work, at an amateur level, often talk about they enjoy the

rehearsals etc. but they also mention that there can be times, when it

seems the project will not see the stage. Based on that experience, I think

we can understand the amount of work that went into the production of

‘Totally 80s’, when a big number of those taking part were physically or

mentally challenged. We can understand, too, what a thrill it was for all

the participants to entertain a large crowd, including their families,

neighbours and friends and all those who work in St. John of God Services.

While I sat in Siamsa Tire Theatre, last Wednesday night, I could not help

thinking of what I had read in the Iona Institute newsletter earlier in the

week. ‘The former Master of the Rotunda Hospital, Dr. Fergal Malone,

recently revealed that over 90% of patients at the hospital opt for abortion

once they are told that the baby, they are expecting, has Down Syndrome.

A new paper from the Iona Institute shows that Ireland has embraced

eugenics, a philosophy which distinguished  between those fit for life and

those deemed not. (Fr. Denis O’Mahony )

---------------------

A woman of Extraordinary Courage

A lady called ‘Amina’ came to me in May 2013, when I was at the close of a

small project to rescue some 25 women, who were victims of Human

Trafficking. At that stage, my resources were appallingly low but still I

asked the question ‘What would help you now?’ She said ‘If I had another

flask, I could make more tea for the men in the evening.’ The poverty of

her statement gripped me like a choke on my throat. She was referring to

the men going on night duty as security guards. I enquired to know a little

more of her story? ‘My husband just walked out of our marriage; it was a

heavy blow to take.’ I could see she was profoundly depressed. ‘Imagine

just then, my best friend suggested she could get me a great job in

Mombasa; it sounded good. I left my three children with my mother; I

knew I would be able to send her money home to feed them.’

Amid copious tears she told me “I was plunged into a highly secure brothel;

we were eleven women and each of us ‘serviced’ more than ten men in

each 27/7 period. There seemed to be no escape route at all; I became

dead inside. After eight months, one man there - we called him Mr. Ali

(but he was Italian) - told me to pack my bags for 6.00 p.m. I was ready

with one small plastic bag; it was all I had. He drove dangerously through a

maze of small narrow streets and I was scared – my mind raced to my

children and my mother. Till that moment, none of us was ever given a

single coin that I could send home. Suddenly, we were surrounded by

robbers and he was hauled out – it was my moment to escape. I just ran

faster and faster; suddenly I stopped and I realised I was free; I knew that

only God could do such a miracle.”

My Escape: “My only thoughts were: how can I get to my children in

Kibera? (the largest slum in Africa). I waved down one ‘matatu’ (local

transport); ‘Please, please help me to reach Nairobi bus station’ and he just

waved to me, ‘it’s just past those lights, turn right’. I had no fare and I just

pleaded and begged the ticket man and he said ‘give me Kshs. 600/-.’ I had

nothing but a kind man in the queue behind me paid it. ‘That was the

second miracle in less than an hour.’ I was on my way and reached home

next morning. When I saw my children, I knew immediately they were

malnourished. Then my mother handed me a note from the class teacher.

I opened it and read it, ‘Your children are sleeping in class, please come

and explain yourself.’ I knew they were sleeping due to malnutrition.

Amina did her utmost to make her hot tea business a success and she had

paid a small deposit towards school fees, but she could not afford any

textbooks for her daughter to keep the girl in Form One in secondary

school. As I learned later, she had many struggles and worst of all was a

persistent cough: I prevailed on her to visit the clinic. She stayed in a

corner at the back during the next time I was meeting with this amazing

group of victims. She waited for me and, as she approached, she just

blurted out ‘Habari sio nzuri’; it meant the news is not good. Amina had

just learned that she was HIV positive and worse still they were testing

her for TB. It felt like the ‘end of the road’ to this brave woman. I received

this terrible news with a determination that her bravery would not be in

vain. I believed healing was possible and, like so many other victims of the

cruel trade and exploitation, she and I would walk this journey together.

We did a lot of walking together.

A seed was sown in my heart and, unbelievably, one brave woman from my

parish had sent a donation to MMM for Christmas for my work. This was

now the third miracle for Amina. I could not wait to share my joy with a

woman who was courageous beyond words. From that moment on I knew

that faith and hope would see ‘Miriam’ through her secondary education.

A long hug held both of us together in a ‘Mary and Elizabeth’ embrace. I

knew very deeply now that my ministry of Healing was enchained to the

ancient faith of Islam. We remained locked in awe at this infusion of joy.

For me Jesus and Allah were one, as time stood still, and in that moment

my mission and ministry were reborn in a new and deeper way. It was a

moment of standing on the threshold of eternity; I knew that no matter the

cost – nothing and nobody could hold me back from the pursuit of Rescue,

Restoration, Reintegration and Repatriation of Victims no matter when or

where I would meet them.

Conclusion: ‘Miriam’ came top of her class with a B+ in her Form Four

year. In October 2021, this young woman graduated from Moi University

with a degree in Counselling Psychology. She is now in a position to

educate her younger siblings.

Sr. Mary O’Malley, Medical Missionaries of Mary and Executive Patron of

Counter Human Trafficking Trust East Africa (Intercom, April 2023)

I think Sr. Mary O’Malley, a native of Mayo, must be 70 years of age, or

more than that. I recall meeting her, shortly after arriving in Kenya, for the

first time, in the autumn of 1981, when she was a nurse in a hospital. (D.

O’M.)

Points to Ponder (Intercom April 2023)

The late Catholic Archbishop of Hartford, John Whealon, (d.1991) had

undergone cancer surgery resulting in a permanent colostomy when he

wrote these very personal words in one of his Easter messages: ‘I am now

a member of an association of people who have been wounded by

cancer. That association has as its symbol the phoenix, a bird of Egyptian

mythology. When the bird felt its death was near (every 500 to 1,461

years), it would fly off to Phoenicia, build a nest of aromatic wood and set

itself on fire. When the bird was consumed by the flames, a new phoenix

sprang from the ashes. Thus, the phoenix symbolises immortality,

resurrection, and life after death.

It sums up the Easter message perfectly. Jesus gave up His life, and from

the grave He was raised to life again on the third day. New life rises from

the ashes of death. Today we are celebrating Christ’s victory over the

grave, the gift of eternal life for all who believe in Jesus. That is why the

phoenix was one of the earliest symbols of the Risen Christ. The phoenix

also symbolises our daily rising to new life. Every day, like the phoenix, we

rise from the ashes of sin and guilt and are refreshed and renewed by our

living Lord and Saviour with His forgiveness and the assurance that He still

loves us and will continue to give us the strength we need. Archbishop

John Whealon could have lived in a gloomy tomb of self-pity, hopeless

defeat and chronic sadness, but his faith in the Risen Lord opened his

eyes to new visions of life.

Thought for the Day (intercom April 2023)

One of the questions the disciples had on that first Easter morning was ‘If

Jesus is not in the tomb, where is he now?’ In the light of his appearance

to them, they came to the understanding that he was to be found among

themselves, the community of believers. The risen Lord journeys with us,

and he wants to journey through us as well; he wants to take flesh in our

lives so that we become living signs of his Easter presence. He wants to

live in us that his life-giving love becomes a reality in our world today. We

can be grateful this Easter for the ways that the Lord’s life-giving love has

taken flesh in the lives of so many people.

(Martin Hogan, Reflections on the Gospel Readings for the year of

Matthew)

If I am hungry, that is a material problem; if someone else is hungry, that is

a spiritual problem. (Paul Farmer, in Reality Magazine, April 2022

===============================

Reflect

 

Perseverance

Perseverance in prayer leads to perseverance in the Christian life. When you hear the Word of God, he becomes your refuge and hope. Listen to his Word today.

 

Commandment to Love

In the readings for this Holy Thursday, Jesus instructs the disciples on a new law that challenges them to serve others in love. To fulfill this commandment of love, you must serve with humility and radical love.

 

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https://www.canva.com/design/DAFbeUokMYM/WyhZeI9iUwlzZwYv1NRiMQ/view?utm_content=DAFbeUokMYM&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=publishsharelink

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The House Foreign Affairs Committee’s top Democrat wants the U.S. to review the human rights record of “any country” seeking to use American-made weapons and services.

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/national-security-daily/2023/04/03/new-bill-would-trigger-human-rights-probe-of-u-s-weapons-buyers-00090129?utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Can+the+GOP+Force+Biden+s+Hand+on+the+Debt+Ceiling%3F&utm_campaign=Can+the+GOP+Force+Biden+s+Hand+on+the+Debt+Ceiling%3F

 

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Blessed Marcel Callo Struggled From Depression — Here’s How He Recovered His Joy

 

Callo was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1987. His feast day is March 19.

Blessed Marcel Callo

Blessed Marcel Callo (photo: Public Domain)

Jim Graves Blogs

March 19, 2023

 

Blessed Marcel Callo (1921-45) was born in France, the second of nine children. He was active in scouting, and as a teenager was apprenticed to a printer. He joined the Young Christian Worker Movement and was elected president. His hobbies included playing cards and ping-pong.

 

He was devoted to the Blessed Mother, and made a pilgrimage to Lourdes. Distressed by the vulgar conversations of his co-workers, he would turn to the Blessed Mother in prayer: “Mother, remember I am thine own. Keep me and guard me as thy property and possession.”

 

Marcel was a natural leader and impressed those around him by his commitment to his Catholic faith and his life of virtue. He wrote, “We are often bad instruments in God’s hands, because we have bad habits, bad inclinations. We become good instruments when we center our lives around Christ. … Every day, I must become, little by little, more like Christ.”

 

The Holy Eucharist was central to Marcel’s life. A friend noted that the Host was not “something” to him, but “Someone,” Jesus Christ. He was devoted to the Sacred Heart, an image of which he hung over his bed.

 

He was engaged to Marguerite Derniaux at age 20, but World War II brought tragedy to his life. His sister Madeleine was killed in a bombing raid. When the Germans occupied France, he was conscripted to work in an airplane factory in Germany. Although reluctant to comply, he finally went out of fear of reprisals against his family.

 

He suffered under harsh working conditions and struggled with depression. He recovered Christian joy through his faith. He said, “Finally Christ reacted. He made me to understand that the depression was not good. I had to keep busy with my friends and then joy and relief would come back to me.”

 

He was arrested by the Gestapo for being “too Catholic” in 1944, and was sent to a concentration camp. He died of dysentery there in 1945, just weeks before the Allies arrived to liberate the camp.

 

In his final letter home written in 1944, he wrote:

 

    Happily, there is a Friend Who does not leave me for a single moment, and who knows how to support me through the painful and crushing hours. With Him, one can endure anything. How I thank Christ for having laid out the path that I am following right now. What great days to offer Him!

 

He was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1987. His feast day is March 19. He is the patron of those suffering from depression, prisoners, youth and youth workers.

 

Jim Graves

Jim Graves Jim Graves is a Catholic writer and editor living in Newport Beach, California. He previously served as Managing Editor for the Diocese of Orange Bulletin, the official newspaper of the Diocese of Orange, California. His work has appeared in the National Catholic Register, Our Sunday Visitor, Cal Catholic Daily and Catholic World Report.

https://www.ncregister.com/blog/marcel-callo-christian-joy?utm_campaign=NCR&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=250947766&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-94OMOR09oNGifbuQM5OwmYWHdY_3V_nM41aNxH8ruvKyBzgEBGzAQsKeObHV_3P8YPLWmKw05C7NbfhDDXmMHe1pHpeg&utm_content=250947766&utm_source=hs_email

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British Columbia Postal History

British Columbia / B.C. Postal History - 7 March 1906 - BAMFIELD, B.C. (split ring / broken circle cancel / postmark) to Ballinskelligs, County Kerry, Ireland

 

BAMFIELD is a community that is surrounded by Crown Land, Indian Reserves, and portions of the Pacific Rim National Park, located on Barkley Sound, Vancouver Island in British Columbia. The community, with a population of 179 as of 2016, is divided by Bamfield Inlet. Bamfield was named after the first government agent of the area, William Eddy Banfield. The name "Bamfield" with an "m" is said to be either due to how the local first nations people had trouble pronouncing the letter n in his name, or a mistake made by the postal organization. In 1902, the Bamfield cable station was constructed as the western terminus of a worldwide undersea telegraph cable called by some the All Red Line as it passed only through countries and territories controlled by the British Empire, which were coloured red on the map. The cable initially went to Fanning Island, a tiny coral atoll in the mid-Pacific, and from there continued to Fiji, New Zealand, and Australia. A second building, made of concrete, was built on the site in 1926 to replace the old wood structure. This building, designated a historic site in 1930, is now used by the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre. A Marine and Fisheries lifesaving station on the Pacific coast was established at Bamfield in 1907. It was the first lifesaving station on Canada's Pacific Coast.

 

 

 

(from - Wrigley's 1918 British Columbia directory) - BAMFIELD - a post office on Barclay Sound, west coast of Vancouver Island, Alberni Provincial Electoral District. Pacific Cable Board station and Dominion Government lifesaving station. Reached by C. P. R. steamers from Victoria, distant 95 miles, and launch from Port Alberni, 35 miles. Dominion Government Telegraph. Fishing, timber, farming. The population in 1918 was 150.

 

 

 

First misspelled "Bamfield Creek" (referring to the tidal inlet) on British Admiralty Charts 584 and 592, published in 1863 & 1865 respectively, from 1861 surveys conducted by Captain Richards, RN. Correctly spelled "Banfield Creek" on subsequent editions. "When the Post Office opened in May 1903, the name was spelled with an "m", and it has remained so ever since.."

 

 

 

- sent from - / BAMFIELD / MR 7 / 06 / B.C. / - split ring cancel - this split ring hammer was not listed in the Proof Book - it was most likely proofed c. 1903 when the Post Office opened - (RF B).

 

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Message on front of postcard reads - Fond Love to all / Fred - this was Fred Noad, a cable operator / telegraphist who worked at the Bamfield Cable Station until his death in 1937. (see message at the bottom of this page)

 

 

 

Bamfield cable station syphon recorder; Frederick E. Noad at the recorder, J.B. McKay standing - Link to photo - search-bcarchives.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/uploads/r/null/d/d/...

 

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Addressed to: Miss E. Topping / Ballinskelligs / Co. Kerry / Ireland

 

 

 

This was most likely Ethel Winifred Bettany (b. 1879) who was living with the Frederick William Topping family in Ballinskelligs Co. Kerry Ireland.

 

 

 

FREDERICK WILLIAM TOPPING was born in London in 1851. As a young man he joined the Eastern Telegraph Cable Company at Porthcurnow, Cornwall, where he remained six months. He was then appointed a member of the expedition staff to India under Lord Kelvin (then Sir William Thomson). After three years spent at this work both in Madras and Singapore he returned to England. It was his intention to return to India, but on his arrival he was offered the position of clerk in charge at the Direct United States Cable Co.'s station at Ballinskellings, where Messrs. Siemens Brothers were bringing the cable into the bay, which is the most southerly point in Ireland. A few years later, before he was 30 years of age, he was offered the position of superintendent of that station; this he accepted and held for nearly 40 years, until he retired with a pension in 1910 and went to live at Paignton, Devonshire. His death occurred at Penzance on the 24th February, 1922.

 

 

 

Ballinskelligs, officially Baile an Sceilg (Irish for "Place (town) of the craggy rock") is an area in the south-west of the Iveragh peninsula in County Kerry, Ireland, within the Gaeltacht. The townland is in the Civil Parish of Prior and was in the Poor law union of Cahersiveen. The rocks referred to in the area’s Irish name are the Skellig Islands—Skellig Michael and Little Skellig—an ancient monastic colony which lies off the coast from Ballinskelligs. The town is also the site of a beach, the ruins of Ballinskelligs Priory of Augustinian Canons Regular, and the remains of Ballinskelligs Castle. The population in 2011 was 375.

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/allmycollections/49034911357/in/photolist-2inwCf7-2hH3JNa-XVG6XB-4U6bkh-4U6bFf-2oEVuo-2oEZsd-qw7ujY-4G66jX-Mgb7tb-Nsu8en-3vwEA-3vxvX-PvJnc6-9kdWRp-e4Uw4o-89HYrt-bUCMH1-71U2yV

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Greetings! Below are summaries of some of the newest stories and columns on Global Sisters Report. To read more at Global Sisters Report, click here.

Pope Francis embodies the essence of our shared vocational life

by Carol Zinn

 

The pope's commitment to his religious vocation captures our minds and hearts. He clearly seeks a "lifelong, undistracted, single-focused God-quest," as Sr. Sandra Schneiders describes consecrated religious life.

 

Read more here »

Camillian nuns in southern India bring hope, community to girls with HIV

by Thomas Scaria

 

Camillian nuns who run an HIV/AIDS rehabilitation center in Mangalaru have helped more than 400 HIV-infected women and children settle into healthy lives with jobs or marriage.

 

Read more here »

During Lent, examine your consciousness and your conscience

by Rosemary Wanyoike

 

As you prepare for Easter, go beyond the season's practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving.

 

Read more here »

Reclaiming our innermost sacred space

by Lavina D'Souza

 

No place or time can hold it back from us if we desire and heed our inner call of reclaiming our sacred space. Our spirits can recover from anything, if only we become attuned to our innermost divine spaces.

 

Read more here »

https://www.globalsistersreport.org/columns/reclaiming-our-innermost-sacred-space?utm_source=Global+Sisters+Report&utm_campaign=bde6922059-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2023_03_16_02_13&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_86a1a9af1b-bde6922059-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D

 

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Belonging

To belong to God, you must listen to him. The Lord who made you and who loves you only asks that you turn your face to him. Will you follow his command?

-----------------------------

Prayer For Lent

 

 

Bless me heavenly Father

forgive my erring ways.

Grant me the strength to serve Thee

put purpose in my days.

Give me understanding

enough to make me kind.

So I may judge all people

with my heart and not my mind.

 

Teach me to be patient

in everything I do.

Content to trust your wisdom

and to follow after You.

Help me when I falter

and hear me when I pray

and receive me in Thy kingdom

to dwell with Thee someday.

------------------------

The Presbytery, Abbeydorney (066 7135146; 087 6807197

(abbeydorney@dioceseofkerry)

3rd Sunday of Lent, 12th March 2023.

Dear Parishioner,

The celebration of Christmas 2022 is almost a distant

memory, Lent 2023 is moving along quickly and St. Patrick’s Day will be

celebrated by Irish people (and their descendants in America etc.) on Fri-

day, 17th March next. For some, that celebration will be a reminder of the

bringing of the Christian faith to Ireland by the man we call patron saint,

Naomh Pádraig. For many others, it will be a celebration of their Irishness

in many shapes and forms. For some, it will be no different from other

days – a day of worry and fear about the future – being made homeless,

struggling to make ends meet and seeing no light at the end of ‘the prover-

bial tunnel.’

Points to Ponder in Intercom Magazine gives us a bit of food for thought.

It’s not an easy time to be a Catholic, but I wonder was it ever, for even in

those times, when the Church seemed all-pervasive, there were many

within and without, who were uncomfortable and struggled deeply. Per-

haps, today, it is easier to be Catholic because there is no hiding, no pre-

tending, no hiding, no going along with the flow. Being Catholic in Ireland

means being conscious of carrying a different cross to that of any previous

generation. We carry, not pride in the faith of our ancestors, which carried

them in difficult times, times of persecution, poverty and oppression, but,

rather, we bear the burden of guilt, the awareness of sins of the past.

The faith was preached in this land by a man who was acutely conscious

of his own sinfulness, and not just in a general sense. Patrick’s mission

was questioned and, indeed, jeopardised by an old friend, possibly a con-

fessor who revealed some wrongdoing of Patrick’s to those, who were to

send him on a mission to Ireland. We don’t know what that sin was, but

we do know that Patrick regarded it as a grave sin, which he had left be-

hind him in the past and been reconciled. We nearly didn’t have Patrick at

all. Our faith was brought to us by a sinner, who became a saint. Our

faith was handed on to us by sinners, who may well have become saints.

We, sinners, hand on that faith to others, and hopefully, we too will be-

come saints, and our sins and those of our forbears will not impede the

mission, with which we have been entrusted.

(Fr. Denis O’Mahony)

--------------------------------------

Come Back To Me – A Time To Be Purified

(Intercom, March 2023)

Each week as we enter the season of Lent, I recall a wonderful

conversation I once overheard. I was waiting at the bus stop outside my

old Catholic primary school and, standing next to me, were two young girls,

pupils of the school. One of them was happily eating a bag of sweets and

her friend said to her, ‘I thought you were giving up sweets for Lent?’ ‘No’,

she replied, ‘sweet things, like sugar: sweets are OK’! and she went on

popping the ’forbidden delights’ into her mouth. It’s easy I think, for us to

get tied up in all kinds of knots during Lent. We may attempt to give up

something and not succeed and then we might enter into all kinds of

intellectual bargaining to justify our ‘failure’ and we may end up feeling

quite miserable. I am pretty sure that God does desire us to feel miserable

in Lent, or at least not unnecessarily so. Indeed, Jesus is quite clear in

Matthew Chapter 6: ‘When you fast do not put on a gloomy look.’

I once had a conversation with a nun about fasting and she confided in me.

‘I’m just not very good at it’! She had a very senior role in her congregation

and it was quite liberating for me to hear that, for I am not very good at

fasting either. I try during Lent, so too at Advent, not to drink any alcohol,

in an attempt to do a fast before a feast, but I usually fail before I’ve

started. Just as Advent is filled with Christmas parties and concerts and the

like, so too is Lent filled with potential pitfalls. Obviously, if you are Irish

there is special dispensation on St. Patrick’s Day, for a glass of Guinness,

but my wife Yim Soon’s birthday also falls within Lent, and if Lent is very

early then it encompasses my birthday and maybe even the Chinese New

Year. Lent also includes International Women’s Day, which Yim Soon likes

to mark with a glass of wine and it would be anti-social to let her drink

alone, wouldn’t it? A few years ago, we even had Ash Wednesday occurring

on Valentine’s Day, so Lent didn’t get off to a very dry start at all for me

that year. I am just like that little girl at the bus stop: ‘sweets are Ok’!

Another significant conversation for me was the woman who runs my

greengrocer. She and her husband are Muslims, from Pakistan, and they

observe Ramadan, which means not eating or drinking during daylight

hours for about four weeks. I was speaking to her one time in the first

week of that holy month and she seemed quite joyful and serene (her

husband

slightly less so, and by week 4 he was visibly feeling the strain! She

remarked to me, ‘It’s a time to be purified,’ and I find that a lovely image

for Lent: a time to be purified from whatever it is we need to be purified

from, whether that’s an unhealthy food or unhealthy thoughts or images

or habits or addictions. One of my favourite lines in the whole bible is one

we hear read out on Ash Wednesday. It is found in Joel Chapter 2: ‘Come

back to me with all your heart.’ What an invitation! However much we

mess things up, God will be waiting for us with open arms. ‘Come back to

me with all your heart.’ We’ll always be given another chance; if we don’t

get it ‘right’ this Lent there will always be next Lent. The woman at the

greengrocer gave me another valuable insight into Lent, when she

explained that Ramadan was also a time to do good deeds to those in need

in the community. Again, this has biblical echoes for me, in the book of

Isaiah, Chapter 58: ‘Is it not this kind of fast that pleases me.....to break

unjust fetters and undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go

free, and break every yoke, to share your bread with the hungry, and

shelter the homeless poor’.

As well as being filled with numerous occasions for temptation, Lent also

happens to coincide, in the Northern Hemisphere at least, with the magical

season of Spring. Indeed, the word ’Lent’ is simply derived from the old

English word ‘lencten’ which means Spring season. As we enter Lent, the

world is quite literally exploding with new life. The snowdrops begin to

show, closely followed by the crocuses and daffodils, then a little later

some very brave early tulips. Meanwhile, the first specs of yellow appear

on the forsythia, the trees and bushes begin to bud, the days lengthen and

the birdsong starts earlier...and finishes later. So, let us not in this Lenten

season be too harsh on ourselves but instead hear anew the invitation to

come back with all our heart. Let us find ways of reaching out to ‘the poor’,

whoever and whatever they may be. Let us rejoice in this incredible annual

miracle of creation.

From The Universe Provides: Finding Miracles and Inspiration in

Unexpected Places, by Eddie Gilmore to be published by DLT in April.

I often sit back and think, I wish I had done that, and find out that I already

have. (Richard Harris in Reality, March 2022).

People ask me to smile for the camera, but somehow it always comes out

gloomy. (Stephen Rea, in Reality, March 2022.)

Seeing Your Life Through The Lens of The Gospel

John Byrne OSA (Intercom March 2023)

1. Jesus leads the woman along a wonderful journey towards a deeper, fuller

human life. You can enter the story from the perspective of the woman.

Recognise her resistance to growth, her complacency, her evasions, and

her eventual acceptance, partial though it was, of Jesus.

When have you, or others, made a similar journey

in your relationship with God? with others? with your own self?

2. The woman is attracted by what Jesus is saying, but from very human

motives: the thought of having water in such a way that she did not have to

come and draw it from the well. We can be attracted to Jesus by very

mixed motives, some of them matters of personal interest – belonging,

community, security, ... What have been the human motives that have at-

tracted you to faith, prayer, religion, church and that have been stepping-

stones to a deeper personal relationship with Jesus. Perhaps we can also

see the same movement in the growth of some of our human relationships.

3. You can also enter the story with Jesus, the ideal leader, parent, teacher, or

spiritual guide. Notice how he meets the woman where she is, needing her

assistance, how he is patient with her, but also challenges her to grow to

what she is capable of.

Thought for the Day: God’s Thirst.

The story of the Samaritan woman is not only a reflection on our thirst for

God, but also on God’s thirst for us. Jesus’ opening request to the woman,

‘Give me a drink’ suggests not only his physical thirst but also his deeper

thirst, God’s thirst to bring us into an encounter with the living God. Later,

in this Gospel of John, Jesus cries out from the cross, ‘I thirst.’ This physical

thirst of a dying man again symbolises God’s thirst, God’s desire that all of

humanity would receive the living water of God’s Spirit. God gave Jesus to

the world to reveal God’s thirst for us and, also, to serve our thirst for God.

(Martin Hogan, You Have One Teacher: Reflections

on the Gospel Readings for the Year of Matthew. Veritas Publications)

I never thought of being a leader. I thought very simply, in terms of helping

people. John Hume (RIP), Winner of Nobel Peace Prize,

in Reality Magazine, March 2022.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

THE LETTER; an invitation to the John Paul II Pastoral Centre on Wed 29th of March at 7.00pm for A Screening of “The Letter” a film which tells the story of 4 people from very different backgrounds. The Highlight of the film is the rich dialogue of these individuals in conversation with Pope Francis

------------------------------

A NOTE FROM FR. JIM Lenihan ......

When I was doing the 8th station of the cross in Clonkeen yesterday, I was

reminded of a quote from the movie Braveheart. ‘Every man dies, not every man

really lives’. Jesus ironically was consoling the women of Jerusalem while His body

was torn apart and about to die. Because he knew that His death was leading to

life in abundance for countless souls. While he felt pity for those who were going

to allow sin harden their hearts so as to remain blind to His offer of salvation and

lose their souls for all eternity. Now that’s the real tragedy

===================================

Our Sunday Visitor: How have the needs of Ukrainians changed since the invasion last year? What are some of the things that people really need now, and where are humanitarian projects at work?

 

Archbishop Borys Gudziak: More than 30% of the economy has been knocked out. From October on, 40% of the power infrastructure, especially the electricity, was damaged. Since the Russians rained down rockets on the energy infrastructure of the Ukrainian people, despite efforts to repair it, there are blackouts throughout the country. Last month, hundreds of thousands of generators were brought into the country through the generosity of the international community. Additionally, there is a continuing need for medicine and medical supplies.

https://www.oursundayvisitor.com/archbishop-denounces-completely-amoral-russian-war-in-ukraine-on-anniversary-of-invasion/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=catholic_news_bishop_baetzing_to_push_for_common_line_in_support_of_homosexual_blessing_rite_at_german_bishops_meeting_next_week&utm_term=2023-02-24

============================

 

Brett & Kate McKay • February 01, 2023

 

Happiness is the subject of thousands of articles, podcasts, and scientific studies. Yet all this focus on happiness doesn’t seem to be making people any happier. In fact, the more they try to be happy, especially by fighting to get rid of bad feelings and cling to good ones, the more unhappy people often become.

 

My guest would say that the first step in escaping this negative cycle is redefining what happiness even means — thinking of it not as a state of feeling good but of doing good.

 

His name is Russ Harris and he’s a therapist and the author of The Happiness Trap.

 

Today on the show, Russ explains how struggling against difficult feelings and thoughts just makes them stronger — amplifying instead of diminishing stress, anxiety, depression, and self-consciousness — and how simply obeying your emotions doesn’t work out any better. He then unpacks the alternative approach to happiness espoused by Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. With ACT, you allow both hard and pleasant feelings to coexist, and unhook from the latter so that they no longer jerk you around. This allows you to focus on taking action on your values to create a meaningful, flourishing life, or in other words, real happiness.

https://www.artofmanliness.com/character/behavior/podcast-868-escape-the-happiness-trap/?mc_cid=cb5807a519&mc_eid=8bc7642aac

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===========================

People are “oftentimes just so mentally and physically exhausted that they don’t feel like they have the energy to take care of themselves or their surroundings,” Dr. Schmidt said. “They just don’t have the capacity to engage with housecleaning and upkeep that they probably once did.”

 

A messy home can also contribute to feelings of overwhelm, stress and shame, making you feel worse than you already do. And while decluttering will not cure your depression, it can give you a mood boost. If you are struggling and it feels impossible to keep your surroundings tidy, here are a few tips on how to clean strategically to optimize your energy and your space.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/10/well/mind/depression-cleaning-clutter.html?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB

 

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Our underfunded prisons,” Howard Smith wrote for ABC, “devote 95 percent of their resources to preventing prisoners from having [community ties] —to custody, to incarceration, to guarding him. Only 5 percent of funds go to education, to training, to experimentation with limited freedom—the kinds of things that create ties and roots.” Baked into the ABC News correspondent’s analysis is that if prisons had more money, they would fund more rehabilitation-focused initiatives—reducing the need for prisons altogether—a notion that would prove false in coming decades as prison budgets soared but rehabilitative efforts dwindled.

https://daily.jstor.org/after-attica-the-mckay-commission-in-the-prison-press/?utm_term=After%20Attica%2C%20the%20McKay%20Report%20in%20the%20Prison%20Press&utm_campaign=jstordaily_01192023&utm_content=email&utm_source=Act-On+Software&utm_medium=email

==================================

By MALIK MERCHANT

Morant’s Curve? I didn’t know about this incredibly scenic and thrilling lookout point on the Bow Valley Parkway, Hwy 1A — an alternative scenic and wildlife route between Banff and Lake Louise — until last October when I came across Cora’s piece Epic Travels – Road Trip from Calgary to Jasper. I followed some of her suggestions.

 

I stopped at Johnston Canyon and walked to Lower Falls, and then paid my tribute at a memorial built at Castle Camp to honour thousands of Europeans, majority of them Ukrainians, who were interned by the Canadian Government during WWI. About 4 kms before reaching the end of the Parkway at the Lake Louise end, I joined visitors at a well constructed lookout point on Morant’s Curve for a beautiful view of the Bow River and the mountains and forests surrounding it. Everyone was anxiously waiting for a train to pass by on this historic site that acquired its name from Nicholas Morant, a photographer working for the Canadian Pacific Railway in the mid 20th century. He was hired by the railway to produce promotional material, but his extensive work in the Canadian Rockies was used to promote tourism to Western Canada

Canada; https://wordpress.com/read/blogs/40240902/posts/24557

=================================

The story I’ll someday tell of this time is still being written, but I already know that it is a story of hope. It’s about where we are placing our trust and what we did, in confidence of God’s faithfulness — helping more people than ever before.

 

    The story I’ll someday tell of this time is still being written, but I already know that it is a story of hope.

    —Edgar Sandoval Sr., World Vision U.S. president and CEO

 

And most of all, it’s a story of joy. Even when the hour was dark and it was hard to see where things would lead — that’s when we looked and saw God’s hand. Yes, that’s when we knew that Jesus was there!

 

As we celebrate with loved ones this Christmas season, let’s tell our stories not for our sake but for God’s glory, testifying to the unchanging power and unstoppable love of the Miracle Worker, Emmanuel, the Prince of Peace, the name above all names … Jesus Christ!

 

https://www.worldvision.org/charitable-giving-news-stories/from-the-world-vision-us-president-the-story-ill-tell

 

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Why Is Sesame Suddenly In Everything?

Plus: Spending bill on its way to Biden, Don't Be a Feminist reviewed, lawsuit over Yesterday trailer can go forward, and more...

ELIZABETH NOLAN BROWN

 

Behold a labeling law's unintended consequences. Stricter requirements for labeling sesame—a potential allergen—in food products have perversely led to more sesame in the food supply. "Food industry experts said the requirements are so stringent that many manufacturers, especially bakers, find it simpler and less expensive to add sesame to a product—and to label it—than to try to keep it away from other foods or equipment with sesame," reports the Associated Press.

 

 

Since 2004, Congress has required food labels to note the presence of eight major allergens: milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, and soybeans. Now, sesame has been added to that list.

 

 

"The new law, which goes into effect Jan. 1, requires that all foods made and sold in the U.S. must be labeled if they contain sesame, which is now the nation's ninth major allergen," notes AP writer Jonel Aleccia:

 

 

 

If the ingredients don't include sesame, companies must take steps to prevent the foods from coming in contact with any sesame, known as cross-contamination.

 

 

Food industry experts said the new requirements aren't simple or practical.

 

 

"It's as if we've suddenly asked bakers to go to the beach and remove all the sand," said Nathan Mirdamadi, a consultant with Commercial Food Sanitation, which advises the industry about food safety.

 

 

Some companies include statements on labels that say a food "may contain" a certain product or that the food is "produced in a facility" that also uses certain allergens. However, such statements are voluntary, not required, according to the FDA, and they do not absolve the company of requirements to prevent cross-contamination.

 

 

Rather than worry about how to prevent potential cross-contamination in products that don't contain sesame, some restaurants and food makers—including Olive Garden, Chick-fil-A, and Wendy's—are simply adding sesame to their products. That way they can list it as an ingredient and not worry about being faulted for accidental contamination.

===============================

The Presbytery, Abbeydorney. (066 7135146; 087 6807197)

abbeydorney@dioceseofkerry.ie

11th December 2022. 3rd Sunday of Advent.

Dear Parishioner,

Last Tuesday night, I did something that I do now an then

– I tuned into the 6.15 webstreamed Mass from St. Mary’s Cathedral,

Killarney. When the bell, signalling that it was time for Mass, rang, I no-

ticed that two priests came to the sanctuary. When they got to the altar, I

recognised Fr. Paddy O’Donoghue, a native of Killarney, who worked for

many years in an American diocese and who retired in Killarney some years

ago. The other priest was black-skinned and Fr. Paddy introduced him as

Fr. Stephen from Elphin Diocese (the diocese where our bishop was a

priest, before coming to Kerry.) Fr. Stephen read the Gospel and spoke

briefly about the Mass readings and then said a little about himself. He is

a native of Nigeria and has spent a few years in Elphin Diocese. He had

come to

Killarney, in order to attend the second Citizenship Ceremony conferrals

that were due to take place on Wednesday. (Some new citizens had been

given Irish Citizenship on Tuesday.) These ceremonies were held in Dublin

for a number of years, before they were brought to Killarney a few years

ago. Those who have got citizenship come from a variety of countries and

it seems that, since Brexit, a sizeable number from England Scotland and

Wales (especially England) have been applying for citizenship. Many of

them have said that they have done this because they want to be part of

Europe, which many anti-Brexiteers do not want.

Reality, stranger than fiction! Two stories that appeared recently, on the

website of the Pro-Life Campaign, make for disturbing reading. The first is

about Elisabeth French, the former writer/producer for popular TV show

Grey’s Anatomy – I have never seen it – who has admitted that she lied

about having cancer and needing an abortion. She made the false claim in

a video she made with abortion supporters to attack U.S. Supreme Court

Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearings...........She admits

to having told multiple lies to her colleagues about her medical health to

gain attention and sympathy.

The second story is about Canadian Paralympian, Christine Gauthier, who,

when she applied to Canada Veteran Affairs Officer to have a wheel-chair

lift installed in her home, was offered an assisted-suicide kit. This infor-

mation was given, when she testified before Canadian lawmakers that a

state official offered - in writing – this assistance. (Fr. Denis O’Mahony)

------------------------------

A Trip Down Memory Lane

Reality Magazine Has Played A Hugely Important Role In Irish Cultural Life

Over Almost Eight Decades

I remember being at a history conference many years ago and listening to a

speaker refer to the Sacred Heart Messenger publication, employing a title

by which it had become affectionately known to many, namely, “the little

red Messenger.” However, in this instance, a double entendre was intend-

ed, which provoked a titter from the audience, who realised that the

speaker had meant them to hear “the little-read Messenger.” The jibe was

not necessarily malicious; it was employed to generate a cheap laugh but

the irony was that the same publication had a decent circulation at the

time, being one of the most successful religious magazines in Ireland, and it

certainly did not merit the epithet “little-read.” Nonetheless, the joke only

worked to the extent that the audience was predisposed to believing that

Irish religious magazines, more generally, could no longer boast of large

readerships and could, therefore, be easily dismissed.

There is little doubt that the readership of such magazines has, indeed,

fallen considerably in recent decades. Still, their impact and visibility, even

to this day, should not be underestimated (I’m thinking, for example, of

how many times I still spot the Saint Martin magazine at supermarket

checkouts). Other publications, such as Bible Alive, or Spirituality, can still

be found in some leading newsagents, as can magazines such as the Me-

djugorje Messenger. Among these publications has also been Reality mag-

azine. Religious magazines have played a hugely important role in Irish

cultural life over much of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.

Although they are fewer in number than they once were, they certainly

punched above their weight in their heyday. Many of us will remember

receiving free samples of religious magazines in primary school, distribut-

ed by visiting missionaries, full of tall tales about far-off lands. These al-

ways had more than a whiff of the exotic about them. Whether one was

interested in faith life or not, it was difficult not to be transfixed by stories

of Irish men and women working in remote locations across the globe, liv-

ing cheek by jowl with large wild animals, and recounting tales of hitherto

unknown peoples, with their array of popular beliefs, rituals, and tradi-

tions. For many of us, missionary

magazines such as Africa and the Far East were our first introduction to

anthropology and interreligious dialogue, even if we didn’t necessarily

have this terminology to hand. They also taught us much about Christiani-

ty as a global Religion and reminded us that, how things were done in our

own parish wasn’t quite the last word.

Impact: Reality magazine was always notable for the impact it had; indeed,

far beyond its own readership. One can get some sense of this by search-

ing the archives of the national and provincial newspapers and discovering

how often Reality articles get mentioned (in fact, provincial newspapers

often drew attention to the table of contents of the latest issue). These also

demonstrate how the editors of Reality made courageous choices in the

subjects they chose to cover and the contributors they invited to write for

the magazine. These choices often placed Reality at the cutting edge of

theological and pastoral reflection in the aftermath of the Second Vatican

Council. It played a significant role in communicating to a lay readership

what Vatican II achieved and what it meant for their everyday faith lives.

While not many Irish Catholic men and women would ever pick up a copy

of the documents of the Council, their essence could be successfully dis-

tilled in other ways, and the articles in Reality magazine certainly helped

with that.

Now to a flavour of some of the references to the magazine and its con-

tents common eucharist, arguing that “an annual common eucharist

seems not only possible theologically, but desirable ecclesially.” In the

same issue, Fr Harry Walsh describes a “dialogue between an Archbishop

and his people in Detroit,” noting how some of the feedback recommend-

ed that priests should own only moderately priced cars; that clergy should

meet the people more in their homes; that the laity should have a say in

the examination of candidates for ordination, and give their opinions on

their fitness for ministry; and that, furthermore, laymen should help with

the distribution of Holy

Communion on Sunday. Meanwhile, Fr. Paul Grassland gave a personal

account of his experience as a dishwasher in a seaside hotel as a part of

the worker-priest movement in France. This issue alone underlines the

outward-looking approach of the magazine, taking its readers far from the

experience of their own parishes and their local clergy. (to be continued

next week.) (Salvador Ryan, Reality Magazine December 2022)

Seeing Your Life Through The Lens of The Gospel

John Byrne OSA, Intercom, December 2022

1.In response to the question of John, Jesus let his actions speak for him.

Some people show by the way they live what it means to be a follower of

Jesus. Who has given you such an example? Perhaps there have been times

when you have done the same for others.=

2.John made a journey of faith from an incomplete knowledge of sus to a

deeper understanding of who he was.

Recall similar steps in your journey of faith.

3.Faith is not primarily about answering abstract theological questions but

about living the gospel.

What in your life has helped you to get that sense of perspective?

The Waiting: Advent is a time to pause, listen and look back on the past

year. There is much to ponder. Mother Earth is suffering. There have

been droughts and famines in some places, while in Pakistan, there have

been floods of epic proportions. War broke out in Europe, with Russia’s

invasion of Ukraine, causing pointless destruction and many experiencing

fuel

poverty in a cold winter. The poor are the worst affected. Refugees

continue to flee from places all over the world, seeking shelter and

hospitality, but that can be in short supply as the flight into Egypt reminds

us. Christmas is the season of hope. It is a light in the darkness of winter,

symbolised in the glow of the candle. The Celts honoured the winter sol-

stice on 21st December, the darkest and longest night of the year in the

Northern Hemisphere, as an awesome time and a powerful symbol of light

penetrating darkness.

Five thousand years ago in Newgrange (Ireland) a passage burial tomb was

built, in which the sun, at its lowest point in the sky on the winter solstice,

enters the heart of the tomb. As the sun rises higher, the beam widens so

that the whole chamber is dramatically illuminated. It is a journey out of

darkness into light – a turning point when the sun pauses on its journey

north, changes course and then begins to return on its journey south.

Many believe that the celebration of Christmas, the births of Jesus, was set

to synchronise with the December solstice, when earth was at its darkest

moment and, so, Jesus, the Light of the World, entered our world at this

point, bringing hope. Isaiah spoke about “The people, who walked in

darkness have seen a great light. On those, who live in a land of deep

shadow, a light has shone”. Let us light our candle of wonder this Christ-

mas and allow the Light of Christ, illuminate every corner of our lives.

(Sr. Rebecca Conlon, in Far East magazine, December 2022

 

===================================

 

============================

Lauretta Brown Nation

December 8, 2022

 

WASHINGTON — A newly enacted law to codify same-sex civil marriage may have just given the government and activist groups new ammunition against those who adhere to the long-standing view that marriage is between one man and one woman. 

 

The U.S. bishops and religious-freedom groups are warning that the recent passage of the “Respect for Marriage Act,” purportedly aimed merely to uphold the protections afforded to same-sex couples in the Supreme Court’s 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision, in fact opens up new legal avenues for targeting people of faith and others who dissent on the issue.

 

The measure passed the House 257-168 Thursday, Dec. 8. It is expected to be signed into law shortly by President Joe Biden. Requiring all states to recognize same-sex civil marriages performed out of state, it formally repeals the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) that defined marriage as between one man and one woman. 

 

The Supreme Court’s 2015 Obergefell decision currently requires all states to allow same-sex civil marriage, but the legislation was proposed following concerns that Obergefell might be overturned. 

 

Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in his concurring opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health in June that the Supreme Court “should reconsider” substantive due-process precedents, including Obergefell. However, many observers argued that these concerns were unfounded, as Justice Samuel Alito stated in the Dobbs majority opinion that the decision “concerns the right to abortion and no other right.”

 

And critics of the bill warn it goes beyond simply codifying Obergefell and provides a new basis for the government and outside organizations to target those who believe that marriage is between one man and one woman. 

 

Matt Sharp, senior counsel and state government relations director at the Alliance Defending Freedom, told the Register that the bill provides the government with “broad new powers” to “punish” organizations due to their beliefs about marriage.

 

Sharp outlined two major concerns that Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal group that focuses on religious liberty, has with the measure. The first is that faith-based organizations receiving any sort of government funding or participating in government programs could be interpreted to be acting “under color of state law” and thus be required by the measure to recognize same-sex unions. 

 

The second is that the bill’s creation of a private right of action would give activist groups the ability to sue religious organizations over their beliefs about marriage. 

 

Sharp said that while some of these lawsuits could work out in favor of the religious groups, “often the process itself of dragging an organization into court is the punishment,” due to the costs, lengthy hearings and drawn-out court battles.

 

Sharp added that the measure is “unnecessary,” in terms of protecting same-sex civil marriage, because the bill “provides no protection, no benefit to same-sex couples that they don’t already have under the law.” He said the Supreme Court has been “very clear that it had no intention of overruling Obergefell,” and no state has been asking that the Supreme Court reconsider that case. 

https://www.ncregister.com/news/respect-for-marriage-act-could-have-dire-consequences-for-defenders-of-traditional-marriage?utm_campaign=NCR&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=237301484&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_I1J5kQ_UJ8XC2fYNW0Xspvcf5vbbpRH6mYAixvVxs-ktYnYBZn-21KRLZzp4Wo98ckfQR8RuRN0i-jjux9he3B_NwDw&utm_content=237301484&utm_source=hs_email

 

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===========================

By Kevin J. Jones

Denver, Colo., Nov 24, 2022 / 10:00 am

 

Christianity arrived in Vietnam in 1533, and many Vietnamese Christians became saints and martyrs in different waves of persecution. The known and unknown who died for Jesus Christ are honored Nov. 24, the feast of the Vietnamese Martyrs.

 

From 1630 to 1886, somewhere between 130,000 and 300,000 Christians faced martyrdom in the country, often after being held captive and brutally tortured. Others were forced to flee to the mountains and the forests or be exiled to other countries.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/252905/remembering-the-hundreds-of-thousands-of-christians-martyred-in-vietnam?utm_campaign=CNA%20Daily&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=235416328&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-86dXW-To_urlofkVU9FJI9QRsiR166CuzJeohZz1miOIIsaB7pZ6OBdgiygkNCuuoe9BD6fCMZ4cPiJFvtAJ_1AiWGMg&utm_content=235416328&utm_source=hs_email

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====================

Edmonton city councillors voted in favour of building 100 kms of bike lanes that will cost Alberta’s capital city $170 million — plus another $11 million annually to maintain.

The proposal will increase Edmonton’s 15 kms of bike lanes by another 100 kms, largely in the city centre.

https://tnc.news/2022/10/05/edmonton-bikelanes-170million/

 

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Questions still remain unanswered about the evidence used to determine the health risks associated with eating red meat, according to an lrish academic.

https://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/questions-on-red-meat-data-remain-unanswered-stanton/

 

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New Book on Appletown Farm Year-Long Eviction Stand-Off

Posted on September 16th, 2022

Former ‘Kerryman’ journalist and Castleisland woman, Marisa Reidy with Seamus Sherlock whose trails and tribulations she has chronicled in a new book: Seamus Sherlock – The Fight of My Life. Photograph: Andrea Etter.

A former Kerry journalist has just released her first book, recounting the year-long and much-publicised stand against eviction taken by a father-of-five back in 2012.

Marisa Reidy, who worked as a news reporter with The Kerryman Newspaper for 17 years until 2016, is the author of Seamus Sherlock – The Fight of My Life, a griping new book which chronicles the 350- day ordeal endured by Seamus Sherlock when threatened with eviction from his West Limerick farm in 2012.

Marisa first met Tipperary man Seamus while working with The Kerryman and covered his story extensively as he stood with his children to protect their farm in Feohanagh for almost a year.

A Truly Humbling Experience

In 2021, as the 10th anniversary of the story beckoned, Seamus approached Marisa to write his book. She says it has been a truly humbling experience to chat in so much more depth with Seamus and recount exactly what he and his family went through for almost a year.

 

In August 2012, Seamus was left devastated when he was issued with an eviction notice, having fallen behind on mortgage repayments a few years previously.

He had lost the bog he worked following a 2008 EU directive to preserve a number of Irish bogs, resulting in almost 80% of his income being wiped out.

Barricade at Appletown Farm

In a defiant stance against the bank, Seamus erected a barricade at Appletown Farm and for the next 350 days he and his five children were under 24-hour eviction notice.

Seamus and his family made national and international headlines over the course of their stand-off and now, 10 years on from his ordeal and as he prepares to sell Appletown Farm, Seamus shares his account of the toll that took on both himself and his children in this new book.

He documents in stark, heart-breaking detail the fear and mental anguish he suffered for almost 12 months, never knowing if or when he and his children would be evicted.

Support from friends and Strangers

He also talks about the support he received from friends and strangers alike; the abuse he got from others and how he soon discovered that so many other people were in the same desperate financial difficulty.

He recalls how he believed he would die protecting his farm and how he often said goodbye to his children without them even knowing it; and talks for the first time about his own suicidal thoughts during that time.

“I think it’s important, after what we went through at the time – and because it’s the 10-year anniversary – that we put down on paper what really happened.

Giving People Hope

We were the ones inside the barricade, and I was always conscious that I’d like the real story to be told. I didn’t want someone to write it from the outside, looking in. I was inside the gate with the children, and it was important to recall exactly what was happening at the time,” Seamus explained.

 

“As well as that, I’m also hoping that the book might give people hope.

In the first few months especially, hundreds of people contacted me, totally lost and craving help, and in awful debt.

Making a Wrong Decision

So even if this book helps one person from making a wrong decision late at night, or when the pressure is on, then it will have been worth writing. I’m not saying everyone could do what we did, but if we can give people hope and maybe help people take their heads of out the sand and face their problems, it might be easier for them.”

Speaking Frankly and in Detail

While Seamus has given many interviews to the press during and after his ordeal, this is the first time he has spoken so frankly and in so much detail about what he says was a year of hell on earth.

Seamus Sherlock – The Fight of My Life is now available online via The Book Depository: https://www.bookdepository.com/Seamus-Sherlock-Marisa-Reidy/9781915662231, with several other online platforms such as Amazon, Apple Books, Google Books and Blackwell adding the title in the coming days.

http://www.mainevalleypost.com/2022/09/16/new-book-on-appletown-farm-year-long-eviction-stand-off/

 

=======================

Before learning about Catholicism, women were considered chattel. Girls were traded from one family to the other and had no rights. But through vocational training, girls have become tailors and weavers. Before learning to sew, women were married off in arranged marriages where they had little say. Now, the girls are picking their own husbands.

 

“Many of the girls have become nuns with the Missionaries of Charity. Our first native priest will be ordained in 2024,” said Bishop George.

 

Prior to embracing the Catholic faith, children with birth defects were killed at birth because they were deemed ‘infected’ by an evil spirit. No amount of explanation could stop them. Bishop George realized that the people of the region did not think conceptually. Finally, he proposed that the Missionaries of Charity Sisters take the handicapped children.

 

“The first two groups of handicapped children were adopted. The third group had parents who finally said, ‘We know now that there is nothing wrong with them’,” said Deacon Rory.

https://www.ncregister.com/news/how-a-fearless-catholic-bishop-built-a-local-church-in-northeast-india?utm_campaign=NCR&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=224838329&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_gZPaIKesgM2_H-OuAj_gZiorX7iRU5Sw-1d20k6ypz6SFx0Ng6E-AwuzQHkrUlN948hEPOvPWS41zccXG4qtNZ2AKUA&utm_content=224838329&utm_source=hs_email

==========================================

Excess Deaths 2022

 

Dr. John Campbell

2.43M subscribers

Champion mountain biker dies

 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cycling/2...

 

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/202...

 

Rab Wardell wins Scottish MTB XC Championships

 

Dies in his sleep a few days later at 37

 

Scottish cycling

 

We have very little information at this stage,

 

Katie Archibald

 

He had suffered a cardiac arrest

 

the paramedics arrived within minutes, but his heart stopped and they couldn’t bring him back

 

Inquiry into excess deaths in Scotland since the start of the pandemic

 

https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-a...

https://data.gov.scot/coronavirus-cov...

 

Scottish government

 

Deaths in Scotland are 11% above average for this time of year and have been above the average for the past 26 weeks

 

Indications and utility of cardiac genetic testing in athletes

 

June 16th 2022

 

https://academic.oup.com/eurjpc/advan...

 

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...

 

Up to 80% of athletes who die suddenly had no symptoms or family history of heart disease

 

Excess all-cause mortality across counties in the United States, March 2020 to December 2021

 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...

 

An estimated 936,911 excess deaths occurred during 2020 and 2021,

 

of which 171,168 (18.3%) were not assigned to Covid-19 on death certificates

 

(as an underlying cause of death)

 

Excess mortality in England and English regions

 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022...

 

England and Wales

 

For 14 of the past 15 weeks, around 1,000 extra deaths each week, (none of which are due to covid

 

If the current trajectory continues

 

Number of non-Covid excess deaths will soon outstrip covid deaths this year (2022)

 

Circulatory and diabetes, cancers

 

Prof Carl Heneghan, director of the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine, Oxford University

 

Excess deaths began to increase noticeably from around the end of April.

 

They have stayed high compared with the past seven years.

 

The signals in the data suggest something is not quite right

 

Sustained rises in deaths should trigger an investigation,

 

that may involve accessing the raw data on death certificates,

 

a random sample of medical notes,

 

or analysing autopsies.

 

I feel there is a lack of clear thinking at the moment and, when it comes to people’s health and wellbeing, you can’t wait – it’s unacceptable

 

England and Wales, 681 excess deaths at home, (28.1% more than expected)

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/statist...

 

https://app.powerbi.com/view?r=eyJrIj...

 

Our world in data excess deaths

 

https://ourworldindata.org/excess-mor...

 

Excess deaths = Reported deaths – Expected deaths

 

P scores

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulati...

People who would have died this year from old age and natural causes, dyed in the past 2 years from covid

Therefore, this years excess deaths should be below average

 

 

Excess Deaths report; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wLu98NygrA

===========================

 Slavery

July 5, 1852: Frederick Douglass—a former slave turned abolitionist leader—delivers a speech to the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society in Rochester, New York.

Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. They were great men too—great enough to give fame to a great age. It does not often happen to a nation to raise, at one time, such a number of truly great men. The point from which I am compelled to view them is not, certainly, the most favorable; and yet I cannot contemplate their great deeds with less than admiration. They were statesmen, patriots and heroes, and for the good they did, and the principles they contended for, I will unite with you to honor their memory.

They loved their country better than their own private interests; and, though this is not the highest form of human excellence, all will concede that it is a rare virtue, and that when it is exhibited, it ought to command respect. He who will, intelligently, lay down his life for his country, is a man whom it is not in human nature to despise. Your fathers staked their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, on the cause of their country. In their admiration of liberty, they lost sight of all other interests.

[But] what, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy—a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour.

Notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country. There are forces in operation, which must inevitably work The downfall of slavery. "The arm of the Lord is not shortened," and the doom of slavery is certain. I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. While drawing encouragement from the Declaration of Independence, the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age. Nations do not now stand in the same relation to each other that they did ages ago. No nation can now shut itself up from the surrounding world, and trot round in the same old path of its fathers without interference. The time was when such could be done. Long established customs of hurtful character could formerly fence themselves in, and do their evil work with social impunity. Knowledge was then confined and enjoyed by the privileged few, and the multitude walked on in mental darkness. But a change has now come over the affairs of mankind.

 

 

 

===============================

CUMANN na mBAN.

 

NEWTOWNSANDES

 

Marie Moore, Captain, Nurse. Mary O Grady, Sec. Nts, Bridie Kissane, Treasurer, Mrs J Keane nee Collins Ballygrennan, Mrs C O Farrell, nee Culhane, Church Street, Listowel. Mrs Dalton, nee Cunningham, Glin. Mrs Culhane, nee Goulding, Glin. Mrs D Grady, nee Kearney, NY USA. Pidge Kearney Nts. Mollie Larkin USA. Mrs J O Sullivan, nee Larkin Market St, Listowel. Brenda Moore, Keylod, Nts. Kathleen O Connor England. Mrs Hegarty, nee O Connor Listowel. Kate O Connor Claar Nts. Mrs Marron, nee O Connor Clonmel. Mrs Leane nee O Grady NY. Ellie O Sullivan Australia. Mrs Culhane nee O Sullivan Kinard, Glin. Mrs J Dillon nee Stack, Trieneragh, Duagh. Liz Barrett, Nurse Croom Hospital. Mrs O Carroll, nee Culhane, Church Street, Listowel. Nellie O Sullivan, Australia. Check Marie Moore, Nun.

 

 

=====================

 

Two Jesuit priests killed in a church in Mexico-------------

 

The region where the killings took place is populated by the Tarahumara indigenous people, who are renowned for their running skills. The area has suffered from drug-related organized crime for years, and the Jesuits noted and expressed solidarity with the pain that the people they serve are experiencing “due to the prevailing violence.”

 

 

 

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/251598/two-jesuit-priests-killed-in-a-church-in-mexico?utm_campaign=CNA%20Daily&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=217277510&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_KvAB1mQX1geBP4u0UUzrsJXcbfb6TrkV2oIlOCwUYlN1_xe_whxvkopPqIDci3DA_gbJCWp6QMPP3FODMAYYKh6SSkA&utm_content=217277510&utm_source=hs_email

 

-------------------------------

================================

 

Nigerian Catholic Bishop to Irish President: Church Massacre Not Linked to Climate Change

 

 

 

At least 4,650 Nigerian Christians were killed for their faith in 2021 and nearly 900 in the first three months of 2022.

 

A man walk past the blood the stained floor after an attack by gunmen at St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo town, southwest Nigeria on June 5, 2022.

 

A man walk past the blood the stained floor after an attack by gunmen at St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo town, southwest Nigeria on June 5, 2022. (photo: AFP / Getty)

 

CNA Staff World

 

June 13, 2022

 

Attributing violence against Nigeria’s Christians to climate change is “incorrect and far-fetched,” according to the bishop of a diocese where at least 40 people were murdered at a Pentecost Sunday Mass.

 

Bishop Jude Ayodeji Arogundade of Ondo was responding to a statement issued by Irish president Michael D. Higgins after the June 5 massacre at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Owo, southwestern Nigeria.

 

Higgins condemned the attack on June 7, but appeared to link it to “the consequences of climate change.”

 

“While thanking the Honorable Mr. Higgins for joining others to condemn the attack and offering his sympathy to the victims, his reasons for this gruesome massacre are incorrect and far-fetched,” Bishop Arogundade said in a message dated June 10.

 

The bishop said he felt compelled to address the president’s statement because of the historical ties between the Republic of Ireland and his diocese.

 

“The first two bishops of the Diocese of Ondo were Irish men, the Church building in which the attack took place was built by Irish missionaries and some of the people killed were baptized, given the Sacraments of Confirmation and Matrimony — by many venerable Irish missionaries,” he wrote.

 

  “Also, Irish men and women laid the foundations of the faith for us in this part of the world. To their eternal memories, we remain grateful.”

 

He added: “To suggest or make a connection between victims of terror and consequences of climate change is not only misleading but also exactly rubbing salt to the injuries of all who have suffered terrorism in Nigeria.”

 

 

 

“The victims of terrorism are of another category to which nothing can be compared! It is very clear to anyone who has been closely following the events in Nigeria over the past years that the underpinning issues of terror attacks, banditry, and unabated onslaught in Nigeria and in the Sahel Region and climate change have nothing in common.”

 

The Nigerian government reportedly suspects that the massacre of men, women, and children at the church, which also left more than 126 people injured, was carried out by the insurgent group Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).

 

Bishop Arogundade’s comments were echoed by the British Catholic human rights campaigner David Alton.

 

Alton, an independent member of the House of Lords, the upper house of the U.K. parliament, lamented that the suffering of Nigerians had provoked “little interest” in the mainstream media.

 

“And it is striking how quickly politicians and commentators trot out the same discredited banal narrative that the drivers for such carnage are climate change and lack of resources,” he wrote on his website on June 12.

 

“They say that the causes are ‘complicated,’ with hardly a mention of the jihadist ideology that is behind the endless atrocities of ISIS and Boko Haram.”

 

“And then they say that everyone suffers and there is a sort of equivalence with victims coming from varied religious backgrounds.”

 

  “They should tell that to the families whose loved ones are targeted, day in and day out, and see what sort of response they receive.”

 

He said it was “high time the world woke up to the unpalatable truth” about the attacks.

 

At least 4,650 Nigerian Christians were killed for their faith in 2021 and nearly 900 in the first three months of 2022.

 

Nigeria is rated as the seventh worst country in the world in which to be a Christian, according the advocacy group Open Doors. Some aid organizations and experts are even assembling evidence that the killing of Christians in Africa’s most populous nation constitutes genocide.

 

But in 2021, the West African country was delisted without explanation from the U.S. State Department’s list of countries with the most egregious religious freedom violations.

 

Bishop Arogundade said that people who followed events in Nigeria closely would realize “that alluding to some form of politics of climate change in our present situation is completely inappropriate.”

 

“Terrorists are on free loose slaughtering, massacring, injuring, and installing terror in different parts of Nigeria since over eight years not because of any reasonable thing but because they are evil — period,” he commented.

 

The bishop, who has led the Diocese of Ondo since 2010, said that there was “a profound fear in every part of the country” due to widespread kidnappings, as well as attacks on churches, markets, and public transport.

 

 

 

He underlined that his flock understood the importance of protecting the environment, as set out in Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical Laudato si’.

 

“While we are still mourning our loved ones after the horrible attack, I wish to appeal to those who are trying to take advantage of this horrific event to project any form of ideological agenda, to desist from such opportunism,” he said.

 

“I implore everyone to pray for Nigeria and indeed for peace in the world.”

 

“The victims of terrorism and indeed all the people of Nigeria would be thankful if world leaders propose fruitful ideas to the government of Nigeria on how to protect the citizens and make Nigeria a safe place to live.”

 

“This would be a better way of honoring the victims of hate and putting an end to the incessant killings in Nigeria.”

 

https://www.ncregister.com/cna/nigerian-catholic-bishop-to-irish-president-church-massacre-not-linked-to-climate-change?utm_campaign=NCR&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=216276782&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8pj3ZoBISxl2t_eWKJLKucRv3QwWJRQNXqQFtZvFouA2J2YQJiOKc_Gzhj9yfEj4SBeZOG2p6e2KdbtJCCQVrygOAuRg&utm_content=216276782&utm_source=hs_email

 

 

 

===============================

 

========================

 

If I could pick a major event from my life and live it over again — knowing what I know now — it would probably be the trip that I took to Moscow in 1991, arriving the week after the events that ended the Soviet Union.

 

 

 

There were still flowers on the sidewalks (near  our hotel) where protesters were killed by Soviet tanks. There were Orthodox icons, as well. I was an evangelical Anglican, at that time, and really didn’t grasp the importance of many of the Orthodox people and places I encountered during that stay. I was there as part of the Moscow Project, an effort to help the emerging Russian Bible Society print 4 million Bibles.

 

https://www.getreligion.org/getreligion/2022/4/21/podcast-the-new-york-times-misses-some-key-voices-as-ukraine-prepares-for-pascha?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=catholic_news_pope_s_regina_coeli_for_divine_mercy_sunday_jesus_always_comes_back_showing_us_his_wounds&utm_term=2022-04-24

 

----------------------------

 

Schooldays

 

About sixty-three years ago ( around 1874 or 75) there was an old school in Kilfeighney in Mr. Stack’s land.

 

Mrs. Kennelly herself attended it. It was a thatched one room building with seats going all round and four plain desks with inkwells in the centre. It had one open fire place, and two windows, and a door in front, and an earthen floor.

 

The teachers were Mr. B. Brosnan and Miss O Sullivan. There was no Irish taught then, and the principal subjects taught were Reading, Writing, Sums, Grammar, and Geography. It was a mixed school and up to sixty or eighty scholars attended it between boys and girls.

 

The school was opened at nine o’clock in the morning, and closed at four in the evening. There were no pictures hanging on the walls, but there were Maps; one of Asia, one of Africa, one of America, one of Australia, and one Map of Europe.

 

The teachers were paid by the English Board and when Clandouglas school opened Mr. Brosnan was again appointed Principal. Mrs. Kennelly who attended this school told this to Annie Hennessy who recorded it in the Clandouglas school’s folklore collection.

 

===============================

 

Forgotten Ireland

 

https://www.facebook.com/forgottenireland.ie/videos/301187032119154

 

 

 

=========================

 

I Walk the Line · Johnny Cash

 

https://youtu.be/J-6fW66IUY4

 

========================

 

The study was published today in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

 

 

 

Conspiracy theorists have long claimed radiowaves emitted by phones can penetrate the skull and cause cancer when making a call.

 

 

 

The claims have become even more outrageous in recent years with the advent of 5G, which some claimed was linked to the Covid pandemic.

 

 

 

Oxford researchers drew on data from 400,000 cancer-free women aged 50 to 80 between 2001 and 2011.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-ie/health/medical/mobile-phone-users-do-not-have-an-increased-risk-of-brain-tumours/ar-AAVDPXe?ocid=mailsignout&li=BBr5KbJ

 

 

 

======================

 

  I’ve always had problems with so many Bible passages that purport to document what happened either in secret or at least unobserved. Jesus praying, for example. It seems unlikely he issued a press release containing the words he used to commune with God.

 

 

 

This example of a supposed “conundrum” is rather easily “solved”:

 

 

 

    Jesus tells a disciple the content of what he prayed.

 

    Said disciple includes it in his Gospel (or, alternately: it becomes part of an accepted oral compilation of Jesus’ sayings, that is later a source for one or more Gospels).

 

 

 

We can’t absolutely “prove” this, of course, but it is a perfectly plausible explanation of how a “secret” prayer was recorded in the New Testament. The same process would apply to something like, for example, Jesus talking to the devil when the latter vainly tried to tempt him in the wilderness. The atheist wrote about that:

 

https://www.ncregister.com/blog/how-did-evangelists-know-hidden-events?utm_campaign=NCR&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=208734145&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_LqIngO_FXHqIrPFpulJ4eeCOGtlF5UZlB8ZSSTbRkJs1xaor47MJjtE-LZ0wIHKFtWG5BSIjaOB5U5vfC_54VfInzQQ&utm_content=208734145&utm_source=hs_email

 

==========================

 

==============================================

 

Interview with Maura Flynn SSL, published in

 

“Beyond Faith and Adventure: Irish Missionaries in Nigeria tell their story”

 

by Irene Christina Lynch.

 

Published in 2006.

 

Pages 363 to 368

 

“When I came here in 1959, I was appointed headmistress of St Louis Primary Residential

 

School in Zonkwa in the Archdiocese of Kaduna which is further south than Kano but very

 

much in Northern Nigeria. Before long, my brief was changed by the Archbishop who gave

 

our congregation a big piece of land and told us to establish a teachers’ training college in

 

Zonkwa. I worked on that assignment with Sister Mary Ibar who was longer in Nigeria than I

 

was. As you can imagine, we had no experience setting up training colleges. We sought

 

advice and help from the OLA Sisters who had a training college in Akwanga in the middle-

 

belt Plateau State. We went to visit them on a particular Monday and during the course of

 

four days, we learned everything that was to be learned about setting up a Teacher’s

 

Training College! I remember Sr. Finian who by the way, is still alive in their mother house in

 

Cork, emphasising how important it was for me to understand how the pit toilets worked.

 

She then brought me to the kitchen to meet the butcher who explained how the meat was

 

cut, stored and cooked. That day the cooks were grinding on two stones the various

 

ingredients that went into the regional aromatic stews. Out in the compound, the sisters’

 

two carpenters worked to make and repair every stick of furniture in the college.

 

 

 

https://sistersofstlouis.newsweaver.com/icfiles/1/39815/69235/6723609/8da7c31339cb13fd7404ec9f/interview%20with%20maura%20flynn%20ssl.pdf

 

 

 

---------------------

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/sisterssl/51828428459/in/album-72177720296041660/

 

 

 

=========================================

 

 

 

 

(JTA) — It has been 77 years since Nazi collaborators marched György Bánhidi and his family from their spacious home in Budapest into the city’s Jewish ghetto. 

 

 

 

But Bánhidi, who is now 84, remembers even the tiniest details from that short trip to a place where he endured months of hunger, and the trauma of watching his mother give up her hope of ever surviving.

 

 

 

Most of all, he remembers the feeling of being taunted and mocked by Hungarian soldiers camped out just outside the ghetto, who cheered as their fellow collaborators herded Jewish families into the urban enclosure.

 

 

 

To this day, Bánhidi revisits the “awful feeling of our own countrymen mocking us, spitting at us, throwing things at us,” whenever he passes near that area of the Hungarian capital, where he still lives today.

 

https://www.jta.org/2022/01/26/global/a-global-day-to-remember-the-holocaust-grows-in-scope-and-urgency?utm_source=JTA_Maropost&utm_campaign=JTA_DB&utm_medium=email&mpweb=1161-39519-35794

 

---------------------------------------------

 

SLAVE SHIP: When the Black Joke’s crew finally boarded, they discovered that, regrettably, 11 enslaved people had been killed in the prolonged action. Among the slaver’s crew, 15 were killed, including Forgannes, and every officer but the third mate and 13 wounded. Black Joke had fared better, but had six wounded, two of whom would eventually succumb to their injuries. Both ships’ rigging had taken extensive damage, though El Almirante had the worst of it. The Black Joke had at least one Black, non-Kru seaman, a free African named Joseph Francis, who’d been determined to “strike a personal blow” against the infamous slaver. During the battle, he’d got 12 feet of chain into one of the ship’s guns as it was being loaded; when it was fired, “the starboard main shrouds of the slaver were cut off [. . .] as if by the single blow of an axe.”

 

https://time.com/6137991/slave-trade-black-joke-almirante-royal-navy/?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB

 

 

 

 

 

==============================

 

Is God Part of Your New Year's Resolutions?

 

Teresa Tomeo teresa@teresatomeo.com via icontactmail3.com

 

               

 

Is God Part of Your- New Year's Resolutions?- Become a 24/7 Catholic

 

 

 

 Not everyone sets goals and makes New Year's resolutions. Some people set goals or resolutions for physical gain such as losing weight, getting in shape, and being healthier. Some do it for emotional gain: spending more time enjoying life, being outdoors, relaxing, etc. And some set goals for monetary gain such as saving for college, a child's wedding, retirement, or paying down debt. Many people set goals for their professional life such as gaining sales, new clients, or a promotion. But what about your spiritual life?

 

 

 

 Our lives are so brief compared to eternity, and some are shorter than others, that we should all be "eternity minded." How much do we really focus our time and effort during the year thinking about our life everlasting with God?

 

 

 

 A good resolution, made any time of year but especially at the beginning, is a good way to start taking charge of your most important goals, including those of a spiritual nature. The key is to really think about what needs to change in your life, and make a very few small goals toward that resolution. In one study, 35% of participants who failed their New Year’s Resolutions said they had unrealistic goals. Too large, or too many, goals are doomed to fail, but small practical changes that can easily be stuck to are more likely to succeed, and the changes will be painless. And remember too that progress isn't linear. You will hit setbacks, and slowdowns, but just keep going! If you fall, have trust in God and begin again.

 

 

 

 For centuries the Catholic Church has taught those serious in the spiritual life to make a “Plan of Life” (also called a “Plan of Love”) which includes resolutions for daily spiritual growth. Many saints, like the Divine Mercy saint, St. Faustina Kowalska, had small daily goals they discussed with their spiritual director, and wrote in their journals, or kept a little tally, of their successes and failures, to help spur them on.

 

 

 

 While a Plan of Life is great, you don’t have to get formal or complicated to progress in your journey to holiness. Author and friend of mine, Patti Maguire Armstrong, has a great book on “Holy Hacks” to get to heaven. I’ve got my own list of resolutions or “Holy Habits” for you to choose from that I think can help you make those small but “sticky” changes to succeed on this ultimately heavenly goal.

 

 

 

 Get up 5 minutes early to pray

 

    Read the Daily Mass Readings of the Day at breakfast or lunchtime

 

    Turn off the radio, music, or podcast, and pray the Rosary, Divine Mercy Chaplet, or just talk to God on your commute

 

    Raise your heart frequently to God, gently and with peace, even during daily tasks. Aim to do this 7 times a day.

 

    Schedule in a regular Confession time in your calendar

 

    Participate in First Friday or First Saturday devotions

 

    Choose a good spiritual classic to read a few minutes a day

 

    Resolve to daily, or occasionally, listen to a spiritual podcast on your way to work, while doing errands, or while making dinner

 

    Learn how to pray with the scriptures, called Lectio Divina

 

    Go on a Pilgrimage this year - even to a local church or holy site

 

    Select a specific Spiritual and/or Corporal Work of Mercy you would like to practice more and just do it!

 

    Go to Mass one extra day a week to offer for those in need

 

    Resolve to do a Daily Examen once or twice a day. Fr. Timothy Gallagher, OMV has an excellent book and free podcast series about how to do the Daily Examen, and how fruitful it can be in your life!

 

    Do an Examination of Conscience daily, weekly, or monthly, looking for sins, especially in preparation for Confession. This is different from the Daily Examen.

 

    Reconnect with old friends and family - whether that means picking up the phone, jotting a note on the mail, or sending a friendly text or scheduling a zoom get together. In the early church, the means of friendship was the most effective way to evangelize.

 

    Go on a weekend retreat this year

 

    Attend an online spiritual webcast or event

 

    Join a live or virtual Bible Study or Study Group at your or a neighboring parish

 

    Listen to the daily The Bible in a Year Podcast with Fr. Mike Schmitz, it is also in Spanish. You can start any time.

 

    Spend at least 30 minutes a week in Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament

 

    Start getting your news from solid Catholic news outlets

 

    Pray while brushing your teeth

 

    Volunteer at your local pregnancy crisis center to help moms & their babies in need.

 

    Use Sacramentals daily, such as Holy Water, or resolve to wear a scapular, Miraculous Medal, or St. Benedict medal daily. You can even purchase scapulars with a small Miraculous Medal and St. Benedict medal sewn in!

 

    As a parent, you have the spiritual authority to bless your children. Resolve to do a simple blessing (a Sign of the Cross on their forehead, for example) and pray a small prayer for them at the beginning of the day, before they leave for school.

 

    Arrange for Masses to be said at your parish for sick or deceased loved ones.

 

    Enroll your family or deceased friends or loved ones in perpetual Masses at a favorite religious order for their souls. Gregorian Masses for a holy soul in purgatory (Masses for 30 days in a row for one deceased person) are particularly good.

 

    Resolve to pray daily for the Holy Souls in Purgatory

 

    Practice meatless Fridays year-round. Once a strict rule in the Church, meatless Fridays as an act of penance for our sins, never really went away. The Church just allows you to substitute something else as a penance that day. We still have to do penance on every Friday unless it is a feast day.

 

    Choose to fast for a specific intention, on either a weekly or occasional basis. Some people fast completely, others on just bread & water, others skip a meal or two.

 

    Pray to your Guardian Angel for assistance daily.

 

    Make a resolution to only post uplifting and encouraging things on social media.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Visit my Resources Page for more info to live a faith-filled Catholic life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My book Beyond Sunday: Becoming a 24/7 Catholic can help beginners, or the more advanced, further their Catholic spiritual life. Please ask your pastor, DRE, or parish events coordinator to bring a Beyond Sunday Mission to your parish, especially for Lent!

 

 

 

 

 

=============================

 

Athea News

 

Thank You and Happy Christmas

 

 

 

Sincere thank you to everyone who helped to keep things going during the year –  Wishing each and every parishioner, our webcam viewers and Lillian and Domhnall a very happy & peaceful Christmas .

 

 

 

The Way I See It

 

 

 

By Domhnall de Barra

 

 

 

I can’t believe we have reached Christmas time again as it seems like only yesterday that I was getting used to writing “2021” on cheques. It is true what they say that the years get shorter as you grow older. When I was young a year was a long time passing, especially towards the end when I was counting the days until Santa Claus arrived. Mind you Christmas was a bit different back then. For a start there were no lights put up before Christmas Eve and there were few Christmas trees and, with no electricity, fairy lights didn’t exist. Decorations were limited all right but they were all symbolic. A turnip would be cut in half and a hole scooped out to hold the Christmas candle which would be placed in each window on Christmas Eve. This “Christmas candle” was a welcome to the baby Jesus and a guiding light to all visitors. It was the custom to leave the door open on this night so that nobody would be left out in the cold. Red berry holly and ivy were placed around the walls as a decoration and that was it except if a parcel came from America containing “streamers”, coloured streams of paper folded like a concertina that would open to stretch from one side of the ceiling to the other. I well remember our first time having a tree. We had great fun decorating it with baubles, shiny, tinsely pieces that glowed in the light of the fire. We were delighted with it and it got better every year with the advent of the ESB and the Christmas lights. The excitement on Christmas Eve was evident in all the children of the house who were too wound up to fall asleep and afraid to be awake when Santa came because we were told that if we were, he would not stop at all. Of course, children being children, we did fall asleep but we were up at cock crow, racing down the stairs to see what presents we got. There was usually an apple and an orange and some small toy. Fruit was a bit of a luxury in those days as the only time you would get an apple was if you were bold enough to “rob” a neighbour’s orchard in the fall of the year. Oranges were seldom seen so we were delighted with them.

 

 

 

The toys varied but in general the girls got rag dolls and the boys got guns. We were really into guns in those days due to the cowboy comics we managed to get a look at now and again and the films we saw when the travelling cinema came to Cratloe creamery. There were two very popular types of film; comedies and westerns, all in black and white until “technicolour” arrived. All our cowboy heroes wore guns and rode their horses at breakneck speed shooting the bad guys or the Indians with unerring accuracy. When we got our little imitation guns we became those stars of the screen imitating the actions of Roy Rodgers or Hopalong Cassidy racing around the field on our imaginary horses. One of the guns I got held a roll of “caps”. These were fed through so that they came under the hammer as the trigger was pulled making an explosive noise like the real thing. I was fascinated with that but of course they didn’t last long and there was no replacement. It never entered our heads that we were killing or injuring people; it was all just great fun. Another item that might be in our stocking was a “lucky bag”. This was full of little treats and small little toys usually made out of cardboard as plastic had yet to make its presence felt. By today’s standards these were meagre gifts but to us they were magical and we got endless hours of fun out of them. As the years went on, and people got a bit more money, the presents became more expensive but somehow they could never compete with simple things that gave us so much joy.

 

 

 

Christmas was very focused on  religion in those days. We always went to early Mass, reluctantly leaving our toys for a while, and there was a great festive feeling about it. The crib in the church was the main focus of attention and we knelt before it looking at the baby Jesus in the manger in awe. Everyone was in a great mood and wished each other a happy Christmas.  We usually got new clothes around Christmas and were very proud wearing our best, even if they were a size too big for us so that we would “grow into them”.  I remember one Christmas morning in particular when my brother and I got two hurleys and a sponge ball from Santa. We couldn’t wait until Mass was over and we got home to try them out. As soon as the lorry we were travelling in parked up at the house we got the hurleys, raced across the road to Phil’s field and began to hit the ball to each other. Suddenly there was an almighty roar from our mother, who was standing on the road with a sally rod in her hand, demanding that we come in immediately and take off our new clothes. It had been raining and the field was very mucky so the damage was done and we knew we were in for a few lashes of the rod as parents in those days didn’t believe in sparing it. It must have been the Christmas spirit because, although she reprimanded us, she put the rod back behind the picture where it usually rested and I thought I saw a little smile on her face. Yes, times have changed a lot, Christmas has become more commercial and has little to do with the celebration of the birth of Christ. Decorations are everywhere to be seen and are going up earlier and earlier and there are two ways of looking at it. One is to say that they take away from the actual festival by being there too long while the other view is that they brighten up a time of year that has the longest nights and shortens the winter for us. I love this time of year and look forward to visiting the grandkids on Christmas morning. I love the feeling of goodwill that exists and am only sorry that it cannot be continued throughout the year.

 

 

 

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all readers of this newsletter a Happy and Holy Christmas and a Bright and Prosperous New Year.

 

 

 

“Go mbeirimid beo ar an am seo arís”

 

https://www.athea.ie/category/news/

 

 

 

----------------------------------

 

by Kathlen Mullane

 

 

 

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

 

 

 

I’ll finish for 2021 with these lines: –

 

 

 

There’s something about Winter as the days draw to a close,

 

 

 

With curtains drawn, lamps all lit, turf fires and cosy toes.

 

 

 

There’s something about winter with warming winter dishes,

 

 

 

Soup with buttered  home made bread, fire gazing making wishes.

 

 

 

There’s something about winter when it’s full of Christmas cheer,

 

 

 

Present buying Midnight Mass, carols sung with families dear.

 

 

 

There’s something about winter cold winds and icy rain,

 

 

 

Then it loosens it’s Iron-Fist, and soon it’s SPRING again.

 

 

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ONE AND ALL

 

 

 

======================

 

Saint Teresa of Avila’s Story

 

 

 

Teresa lived in an age of exploration as well as political, social, and religious upheaval. It was the 16th century, a time of turmoil and reform. She was born before the Protestant Reformation and died almost 20 years after the closing of the Council of Trent.

 

 

 

The gift of God to Teresa in and through which she became holy and left her mark on the Church and the world is threefold: She was a woman; she was a contemplative; she was an active reformer.

 

 

 

As a woman, Teresa stood on her own two feet, even in the man’s world of her time. She was “her own woman,” entering the Carmelites despite strong opposition from her father. She is a person wrapped not so much in silence as in mystery. Beautiful, talented, outgoing, adaptable, affectionate, courageous, enthusiastic, she was totally human. Like Jesus, she was a mystery of paradoxes: wise, yet practical; intelligent, yet much in tune with her experience; a mystic, yet an energetic reformer; a holy woman, a womanly woman.

 

https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-teresa-of-avila?utm_medium=email&_hsmi=171160695&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_H4xsct4HrEx_VQ5h0yICN0lefyYf9Gh5mdMQdB3Anxh_r4Gb_iq_2B5a72DRWxZGJeBKqr7fYjvgM423j-MdIFI7SXw&utm_content=171160695&utm_source=hs_email

 

 

 

======================

 

 

 

By Magdalene Kahiu

 

 

 

Nairobi, 13 October, 2021 / 9:35 pm (ACI Africa).

 

 

 

The demolition of public utilities of a slum in Kenya including a section of St. Mary’s Mukuru kwa Njenga church of the Catholic Archdiocese of Nairobi earlier this week “is heartbreaking,” the Priest in-charge of the Parish in the East of Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, has bemoaned.

 

 

 

Part of the Catholic church building was bulldozed Monday, October 11 by the Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS), an action that saw public utilities such as a toilet and a water tank among facilities that were destroyed

 

 

 

“The demolition is heartbreaking. The manner in which it was done is sad and affects the poorest of the poor,” Fr. John Munjuri told ACI Africa in an interview, and explained in reference to the slum demolition, “It was done as if the people who live there have no rights.”

 

https://www.aciafrica.org/news/4471/demolition-of-utilities-catholic-church-in-kenyan-slum-heartbreaking-parish-priest?utm_campaign=ACI%20Africa&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=170600898&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8Br2Pe8cGNP2GGn0h2ZsNB4Hd0WxNuhZvyEzcMydiRvul9aZYLMTHK3tWXAgvGRWSPSEO1XeMwfeeKKDlfQcZkSBbdVQ&utm_content=170600898&utm_source=hs_email

 

===========================

 

An estimated 250 “legionaries” from throughout the Diocese of Brooklyn celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Legion of Mary’s founding with a Mass of Commemoration, Sept. 7, at St. Therese of Lisieux Parish in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. Lay worker Frank Duff founded LOM on Sept. 7, 1921, in Dublin, Ireland. (Photo: Bill Miller)

 

 

 

EAST FLATBUSH — One hundred years ago in Ireland, a legion of laity embarked on winning souls for Jesus by joining the intercessory work of his Blessed Mother, Mary.

 

 

 

According to its Dublin-based leaders, the Legion of Mary is now the largest apostolic organization of laypeople in the Catholic Church, with more than three million members in 170 countries. All are layworkers who refer to each other as “brother” or “sister.”

 

 

 

The Diocese of Brooklyn, as of 2020, has 1,251 “legionaries” and 1,910 auxiliary members. An estimated 250 of them, from parishes throughout the diocese, came to a Mass of Commemoration on Sept. 7 at St. Therese of Lisieux Parish in East Flatbush.

 

 

 

They represented many cultural backgrounds, including Filipinos, Haitians, Koreans, Hispanics from all over Latin America, plus Irish and Italian members.

 

 

 

Father Rodnev Lapommeray of St. Agatha’s Parish in Sunset Park, celebrated the Mass. He is the spiritual director for the LOM in Brooklyn and Queens. During the homily, he challenged the legionaries to “be who you are meant to be” — agents of Mary.

 

 

 

“When people see a legionary,” Father Lapommeray said, “they should say, ‘Oh, there’s something beautiful here.’ Our mother is humble. She’s gentle. She’s also bold.”

 

 

 

Those attributes exemplify committed legionaries.

 

 

 

Mary Modeste is president of Legion of Mary Brooklyn/Queens Comitium. Moments before the Sept. 7 Mass, she described the Legion’s work of serving “through prayer and attentiveness.”

 

 

 

“Basically, it’s trying to bring souls to Jesus through Mary,” she said. “It is also trying to bring former Catholics back to the Church.”

 

 

 

The “praesidium” is the basic unit of the Legion of Mary, typically based in a parish. The members meet weekly to pray and receive assignments.

 

 

 

“They are sent out like Jesus had his disciples — two by two,” Modeste said. “We knock on doors. Sometimes we encounter people who slam the door. But those who are willing, you talk to them.”

 

 

 

For example, the teams may encounter unwed couples, so they suggest receiving the sacrament of marriage. Other adults and their children may not have received first holy Communion or Confirmation.

 

 

 

“You give them a bulletin and remind them of churches around the corner,” Modeste said. “We let them know there are classes — RCIA programs for the adults and CCD for the juniors. And we follow up.”

 

 

 

Legionaries also visit nursing homes and help schedule Mass for residents, Modeste said.

 

 

 

The president explained that the Legion of Mary focuses on spiritual acts of mercy — ones that build the soul. “Corporal” acts, such as providing food and shelter for the needy, are the missions of other groups.

 

 

 

“We’re not focused on material or physical needs,” she said. “If that’s what you need, we would refer you to the appropriate organization, like St. Vincent DePaul or Catholic Charities.”

 

 

 

Father Lapommeray said a legionary’s work often goes unnoticed but with undeniable victory. The priest spoke of people who returned to Church at the loving invitations of legionaries. He said one woman chose not to have an abortion after a legionary suggested another option — life.

 

 

 

He urged the members to not let up on their work, even as the coronavirus still lurks; he reminded them that the devil hadn’t taken a break because of the pandemic. Therefore, he encouraged the legionaries to stay strong in their faith, rely on Mary, and pray the rosary.

 

 

 

Father Lapommeray also challenged them to be peacemakers in their parishes to deny the devil a chance to spread disunity in the Church.

 

 

 

“Enough of the infighting in parishes!” Father Lapommeray exclaimed. “Enough of the petty divisions! If there is a division in the parish, you must be an agent of peace.”

 

 

 

“So,” he concluded, “as we look forward to another 100 years, what will the Legion of Mary look like in 10 years, 20 years? Part of that depends on you and me.”

 

 

 

The Legion of Mary Centenary schedule includes a Mass and procession on Sept. 19 at Our Lady of Mercy, Brownsville. Next is a Mass, conference, and get-together, scheduled for Nov. 20 at Blessed Sacrament Parish, 34-43 93rd St., Jackson Heights. For more information, email Modeste at mar22lud@aol.com.

 

 

 

https://thetablet.org/legion-of-mary-celebrates-100-years-of-bringing-souls-to-jesus/?_hsmi=159040818#038;_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_GKDJ-_1spccqmknf0vjsPhFrIwtLbI1h_oDVr-y3RWVOyioAnKnadElwPOdkkO3hBHQcUpGV0gIB9kpHTg0qEoK2Zsw&gated=true&utm_medium=PANTHEON_STRIPPED&utm_content=PANTHEON_STRIPPED&utm_source=PANTHEON_STRIPPED&loginerror=PHN0cm9uZz5FUlJPUjwvc3Ryb25nPjogVGhlIHBhc3N3b3JkIHlvdSBlbnRlcmVkIGlzIGluY29ycmVjdC4gPGEgaHJlZj0iaHR0cHM6Ly90aGV0YWJsZXQub3JnL2RzbWdfYWRtaW4vP2FjdGlvbj1sb3N0cGFzc3dvcmQiIHRpdGxlPSJQYXNzd29yZCBMb3N0IGFuZCBGb3VuZC4iPkxvc3QgeW91ciBwYXNzd29yZD88L2E%2B&_wpnonce=ae5ba87d89&request_form_location=widget

 

==================================

 

Following the August 18 attack on a civilian convoy in Burkina Faso that left 47 people dead and several others injured, Catholic Bishops in the West African nation have expressed their closeness with the victims of the attack and their respective families, praying for lasting peace in the country.

 

 

 

“It is with dismay and sorrow that the Bishops of the Episcopal Conference of Burkina-Niger learned of the terrorist attack which has once again plunged our country into mourning,” members of the Episcopal Conference of Burkina-Niger (CEBN) say in the statement issued Monday, August 23.

 

 

 

According to the Catholic Bishops, “This barbaric attack, which occurred on 18 August 2021 on the Arabinda-Gorgadji road, took the lives of elements of our defence and security forces (FDS) as well as a large number of civilians.”

 

 

 

On August 18, suspected jihadists reportedly killed at least 47 people, including 30 civilians, in an attack on a convoy in Northern Burkina Faso, according to France 24.

 

https://www.aciafrica.org/news/4129/catholic-church-condoles-with-victims-of-terrorist-attack-in-northern-burkina-faso?utm_campaign=ACI%20Africa&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=152282642&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_MqinaSojbJFqcElpsgYqblURr8EsVWAOd7qq0LRzozOF6t6KVRZas3Dh5IK5NEcyGnOOqzwyoGIm_rNUMZK2j9crMJA&utm_content=152282642&utm_source=hs_email

 

 

------------------------------

By TM Donovan – August 10-1935

 

 

 

As I have written in ‘The Kerryman’ Robert Finn was the original Captain Moonlight of the Revolutionary Land War that, towards the end of the 19th century, drove land-lordism out of Ireland bag and baggage for ever.

 

 

 

The inventor of the secret organisation, Robert Finn who was elected Captain Moonlight by his comrades in 1879 had imitators in nearly every parish in Munster in the early eighteen-eighties, and by the end of that decade Moonlighting, as an adjunct to the Land League, had spread all over Ireland.

 

 

 

It was the right hand or spearhead of the Land League’s fight against a powerful and ruthless land-lordism. Without its help Land League meetings and resolutions, speeches and loud cheers, would be unsuccessful against the centuries old power of the alien land-holders.

 

 

 

They were established by the conquest of the 11th century and confirmed in their unlawful possessions by the sword of Cromwell.

 

 

 

That sword of conquest was broken by the Land League, the Irish Parliamentary Party, and by the gun of the Moonlighters.

 

 

 

“Who will take your place,” asked someone of Parnell, “if you are imprisoned ? “Captain Moonlight,” answered Parnell. He knew the real organisation that helped him to break the backs of the alien landlords.

 

 

 

Land Grabbing

 

 

 

An account of how these Castleisland Moonlighters started out to put down land grabbing are to be found in the files of The Kerryman. Land grabbing was the principal agent used by the landlords to screw the last shilling out of the unfortunate man of the land; and when it came about that no one would take the evicted farm, land-lordism was doomed.

 

 

 

It was the moonlighter that nipped the land grabber in the bud, stopped grabbing forever, and thus brought the unholy system to an end.

 

 

 

The absentee landlord and the ruthless land-agent were hamstrung in their evicting stride, and The Land League and the Irish Parliamentary Party, helping to dig the grave all were cleared off the land: landlord, agent, bailiff, rent-warner and grabber were buried in the same pit, and The Gael possessed his father’s land once more.

 

 

 

It must not be forgotten that is was Bob Finn’s Moonlighters that first killed off the grabbers who were the foundation stone of the cruel system of the rack-renters .And it must be forever remembered that in doing so he and his men never committed an act that would bring a blush of shame to the face of an Irishman.

 

 

 

On the contrary he, as I have shown in my ‘History of East Kerry’ prevented many a meditated crime when he found out the instigators were only out to satisfy some private feud or to revenge some fancied wrong. While he was in command no man or group could induce him to do a wrong to the humblest man in the county. I give a few instances of this in my book and in my writings in ‘The Kerryman.’

 

 

 

Moonlighting on the Downgrade

 

 

 

At the end of most revolutionary periods there is a tendency to decay and degeneration – the beautifully clear water of the mountain spring becomes muddy down in the plains. This the great danger in times of revolution: an idealist movement often ends in carnage and anarchy.

 

 

 

During the latest phase of moonlighting activities, it often degenerated into criminal deeds of the blackest dye – into deeds of private revenge, when you could get an honest man murdered for a ten pound note, and into petty larcenies when a poor man’s ounce of tobacco was not safe.

 

 

 

These robberies and worse – robbers of woman’s virtue – brought disgrace and shame to the fair fame of Ireland. When Captain Bob Finn used to hear of small farmers and cottiers being robbed of even the ‘grain o’ tay and sugar’ on the way home from the market, the big farmer robbed of his sheep, and the mountainy farmer robbed of the money he got for his heifer that he had ear-marked to pay the rent, and the poor old widow at Currow robbed of her life’s savings, he fell into despair: and he often regretted that he had hand act or part in founding the Moonlighters’ Association.

 

 

 

On these occasions he was in a great rage – ropable and helpless – no matter how he longed to wipe out the looters and savages, and the terrible disgrace they brought to our race and nation.

 

 

 

If then to the credit side we acknowledge the great help the Moonlighters gave to the farmers of Ireland, it is just as well to remember there was a discredit side to the account as well.

 

 

 

One thing is certain – that a more pure souled patriot than Bob Finn could not be found in the Kerry of the 19th century.

 

 

 

A Gay Young Heart

 

 

 

Anyone who looks at Captain Moonlight’s photograph in my ‘Popular History of East Kerry’ where a full account of his career is given, is sure to think he is looking at a man of 35 years, whereas as a matter of fact, Bob was in his 71st year when this photograph was taken in Tralee.

 

 

 

He kept wonderfully young until a few years ago; but he always had a light heart. One great consolation in his lonely old age was the comfort he derived from his violin.

 

 

 

He delighted to go out to his friends in the country and gather the young folk around him for a real Kerry dance. He had a fine voice and even in the hospital he kept the ward alive with his old – time songs.

 

 

 

He had a great turn for verse – making; looking over his home exercise account book the other day, I met with more rollicking rhymes than items of cooperage.

 

 

 

For many years he wrote a most amusing Skelligs list, at which the most sensitive maid or bachelor could take offence.

 

 

 

It is sad to think that while he was away in hospital his fanlight should have been smashed and his windows spotted by youths who made a ball alley of his house and a gambling saloon and a pitch – and – toss school of his old coopers shed. It shows a terrible lack of civic decency in our young men.

 

 

 

A Brave Man and a Fine Athlete

 

 

 

In his young days he was a great athlete. As a runner and jumper he was in the first flight; and even as a weight thrower he held his own among bigger and more broad-shouldered men.

 

 

 

He jumped the River Maine at a place where the writer, after getting his feet on the opposite bank, slithered backward into the pool. Bob cleared it with a few feet to spare.

 

 

 

He was the first to own and ride a boneshaker bicycle – the high ‘penny-farthing’ solid -tyred machine that preceded the pneumatic cycle of the present day.

 

 

 

When he became the first Captain Moonlight in 1879, he was physically one of the finest young men in East Kerry. Fifty years ago he took part in a great football match between Currow and Castleisland and For 18 years he was the captain of the local Gaels.

 

 

 

I may mention that, as the front of his old home in Market Place could then be seen from the windows or the gate of the R.I.C. Barracks he had to climb the high wall which separated his father’s cooperage shed from the back yard of the late Maurice Reidy, who used to leave his door on the latch for Bob to enter and his mother used to leave the back window open so that he get in any time during the night.

 

 

 

One great help to him then was that he had one of the R.I.C. men in the Barracks who gave him tips about the movements of the ‘enemy.’

 

 

 

A few days before his death I reminded him that now, when he was going before his Maker and nearing his journey’s end, it was a consoling thought for him that he loved God in his early manhood.

 

 

 

He answered very slowly – for he found it difficult to speak – word by word, solemnly and fervently: “Yes thank God, I always had to love of God on me.”

 

 

 

“Towards the end of my life I was alone. Our Lord was my best friend.

 

 

 

Born in Castlegregory

 

 

 

Robert ‘Bob’ Finn was born in Castlegregory in March 1860, when 12 months of age his parents brought him to Castleisland , so that East and West Kerry can claim him as a son.

 

 

 

Only that the farmers are feeling the pinch of the bad times so keenly, I was going to ask them to subscribe a small sum – a shilling or two each – towards a fund – that I only have in my mind at present – to put up a small Celtic Cross at the head of his grave in the New Cemetery.

 

 

 

I am quite sure that there are many of his friends , and the children of his comrades in the United States , who would be glad to help us commemorate the memory of such a great Gael and such a fine type of an educated Catholic Irishman.

 

 

 

All his life, if it were necessary, he would gladly die for his faith and for his fatherland.

 

 

 

May the brave soul of Robert Finn, the first Captain Moonlight of the Land League days, rest in peace.

 

 

 

http://www.mainevalleypost.com/2021/08/10/captain-moonlight-a-hero-of-the-land-war-of-the-eighties-is-dead/

 

 

 

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The Presbytery, Abbeydorney (066 7135146)

 

abbeydorney@dioceseofkerry.ie

 

16th Sunday in Ordinary Time, 18th July, 2021.

 

Dear Parishioner, 

 

                              Last Monday evening, I drove the short distance to one

 

of Kerry’s many seaside resorts – Ballyheigue.  I returned to Abbeydorney

 

on  Friday  night.    I  stayed  in  the Presbytery where  I  stay  the weekends,

 

when it is my turn to celebrate the Saturday night  Vigil Mass and the 10

 

a.m. Sunday Mass.  If I wanted to get a tan, I don’t think I would have had

 

much success because there was very little sunshine and quite a

 

foggy/misty  atmosphere  hanging  over  the  area  until  Friday  morning.    I

 

didn’t venture to the beach until about 6 p.m. and I only  went underwa-

 

ter for a short period on Wednesday and Friday.

 

                                

 

While I had planned a few weeks ago to stay in Ballyheigue this week, it

 

was only on Friday 9th that I discovered that the Redemptorist Fathers in

 

Limerick  were  running  their  ‘Summer  Retreat’  at  Mount  Alphonsus

 

Church.    People  who  were  living  in  the  Limerick  area  could  go  to  the

 

church for the Mission exercises.  These were 10 a.m. Mass, a talk at 11

 

a.m., adoration of the Blessed Sacrament 12 noon to 1 p.m. and a second

 

talk at 4 p.m.  Three of their priests did two days each:  Monday & Thurs-

 

day:  Fr.  Laurence  Gallagher;  Tuesday  &  Friday:  Fr.  Seamus  Enright;  and

 

Wednesday & Saturday: Fr. Gerard Moloney.   Bishop of Limerick, Bren-

 

dan Leahy, was celebrant of the Mass for the Sick on Friday morning.  The

 

retreat was also streamed on webcam and those who tuned in were from

 

Limerick, other parts of Ireland and also outside of Ireland.  The retreat

 

was open to everybody.  One of the priests told us that a number of reli-

 

gious  communities,  within  and  outside  of  Ireland,  were  availing  of  the

 

streamed retreat because of not being able to have community retreats

 

as would normally be done.

 

                                     

 

Fr.  Seamus  Enright,  who  preached  at  the  Friday  Mass  and  at  the  two

 

talks,  keeping  in  mind  the  theme  of  the  Retreat   ‘Being  a  follower  of

 

Jesus Today’ highlighted the huge problems in our world at this time.  He

 

touched on a number of things written by Pope Francis, paying attention

 

especially to the plight of the poor and the vulnerable in our world.  We

 

have been reminded of that message, time and time again, but it is very

 

easy to pass the buck and say that message is not meant for me.

 

(Fr. Denis O’Mahony)

 

----------------------------------------

 

By Luke Coppen

 

London, England, Jun 9, 2021 / 04:00 am

 

Some of St. John Henry Newman’s best-loved words will be heard on Thursday as they have never been heard before.

 

They will feature in a new work by the composer Sir James MacMillan performed publicly for the first time on June 10 at Farm Street Church in London, England.

 

The piece, “Nothing in Vain,” is a setting of a meditation written by the English saint on March 7, 1848, that includes the famous line “God has created me to do Him some definite service.”

 

 

 

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/247937/its-heady-stuff-a-composer-turns-st-john-henry-newmans-much-loved-words-into-music?utm_campaign=CNA%20Daily&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=132862333&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--Q2iyVUyCBM2htqN2YZdCdoUl-2Pwj5NwKrhiiYAhXyuU-p1wA0NpCpj9ny3v4Cg7U219W9qK5gx_wzOHUUEACM1yZmA&utm_content=132862333&utm_source=hs_email

 

============================

 

 

 

Irish in Britain

 

https://www.irishinbritain.org/news

 

------------------------------------

 

In Beijing’s southwestern outskirts, past a four-lane overpass with sidewalks as wide as the streets themselves, is Zhengyang Road. It has the usual banks, small convenience stores, and noodle houses of many areas in the capital, but it is set apart by a row of about a dozen shops all selling the same thing — tiny electric cars. The cars look, variously, like small Range Rovers, golf carts, trolley cars, or rickshaws with sheet-iron sides, and they are slow. Their fundamental attraction is their price — between $600 and $2,500 — and that drivers can charge them the same way they would a cell phone. They also come with the perks of being loosely regulated. These low-speed electric cars, nicknamed “elderly transport vehicles,” have an enormous market, made up mostly of people who earn very little. And in China, there are a lot of them — more than 40% of the population, or some 600 million people, make around $150 per month.

 

https://restofworld.org/2021/tesla-vs-tiny-cars/?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB

 

---------------------------

 

 

 

 

 

==========================

 

 

 

May 2021

 

The Bishop of Limerick is appealing to church-goers to adhere to public health guidelines following the re-opening of churches

 

 

 

While Masses and other religious ceremonies remain closed to the public, churches have been open for private prayer and reflection since the Covid-19 restrictions were eased at the weekend.

 

 

 

“If anything, recent weeks have reaffirmed just how important the Church is in so many people’s lives as it has been closed to them. While we won’t be able to gather for Mass for some time, having our churches open again is a really good thing as some people really missed their personal visits for a moment of prayer in the stillness of the church. Churches have been getting ready mindful of the guidelines,” said Brendan Leahy.

 

 

 

“It is important to stress that people will still to observe social distancing and hygiene guidelines at churches. Use the sanitizer as you enter, keep two metres from anyone who is not from your family, and, if you see fit, wear a mask,” he added.

 

===================

 

May 2021 Moyvane Church Newsletter

 

BACK IN CHURCH WITH A CONGREGATION

 

It’s good to be back with a congregation at Masses from this Monday 10th.   I am weary with all the restrictions but I respect them.  I encourage all of you to do likewise.  Returning we will still have social distancing and will be guided by our volunteer stewards.  It’s important that you listen to them and be guided by them.  If that procedure upsets or annoys you then it would be advisable to wait a little longer when there will be further lifting of restrictions.  Despite the lethal danger of Covid-19 and its remarkable transmission capacities (just look at India these days),  it is extraordinary that some Christians have failed to convince our society that we take our social obligations seriously.  That we treasure the old and the vulnerable, that we believe that health is a holy thing, and that we know that death is sad and tragic.  Practically all of you have been great and so supportive of all that is demanded of us during this difficult time.  Let’s keep this big effort going as we reopen on Monday.  I ask you to keep the following in mind:  

 

                All Masses from 10th listed will have a congregation.

 

                For now weekday Masses are in Moyvane only.

 

                Weekend Masses - Vigil at 7.30pm Saturday (Moyvane) 

 

Sunday 9.30am (Knockanure) 11am (Moyvane)

 

                Stewards will guide you to your seat and will lead you out after Mass. 

 

                Masks will have to be worn and social distancing maintained.

 

                No gathering around Exits or Entrances.

 

                No congregating in the Car Parks after Mass.

 

                Any Mass you attend will fulfil your Sunday obligation.

 

                Baptisms can go ahead with just the immediate family – contact the Parish Office.

 

Thanking you in advance for your support and understanding.  May God continue to keep us all safe and well.

 

============================

 

 

 

=======================================

 

https://www.priestsforlife.org/pdf/margaretcastello.pdf

 

 

 

 

 

BLESSED LITTLE MARGARET OF CITTA DI CASTELLO

 

 

 

1287 – 1320

 

 

 

Many people don’t know about Margaret.  Her little uncorrupted body lies in a

 

glass coffin under the high altar in the Church of S. Domenico in Citta di Castello.  The Church is beautiful, large and peaceful -- with magnificent stained glass windows and frescoes. 

 

 

 

Citta di Castello is an ancient, timeless town in northern Umbria.  It’s still surrounded by many areas of high walls from medieval days.  The Umbria region is Italy’s “greenbelt.”  The earliest inhabitants of Umbria were the “Umbri,” thought by the Romans to be the most ancient inhabitants of Italy.  Little is known about them, but they appear to have left with the arrival of the Etruscans.  No one even really knows where the Etruscans came from, or what eventually happened to them.  Umbria later became like a Papal State, and it had a few powerful medieval families who exerted control in the Middle Ages.  Umbria has produced a major share of Saints (including Saints Francis, Clare, Benedict, Rita, and Valentine).  At the end of World War II, Citta di Castello was liberated by the British.  Someone told us the population is about 38,000.  Many of the town’s buildings probably look today pretty much the way they looked when Margaret lived and died there.    

 

 

 

Margaret was born in 1287 in a castle on top of a very steep mountain in Metola, a village in a mountainous area outside Citta di Castello.  Metola is over in the Marches region, northeast of Citta di Castello.  Only the castle’s tower now remains.  The exact date of her birth is unknown, but we know she died on April 13, 1320. 

 

 

 

Margaret was born blind and deformed.  She was extremely hunchbacked, and one leg was much shorter than the other. She grew to be just over 4 ft. tall and was so lame she could hardly walk.  Her head was large in proportion with the rest of her body.  She was a tiny little soul.

 

 

 

Her father was a wealthy nobleman who owned and ruled the whole forest area beneath his castle in Metola.  No one now knows what his last name was or what eventually happened to him and his wife.  The information we have seems to have been passed down through the castle’s Priest who befriended Margaret, and from castle servants as well as townspeople.  Her father was despised, feared and cruel.  He had planned a large celebration for the birth of a son.  Instead, the firstborn baby was Margaret.  He was furious … and Margaret being blind and deformed only made matters worse. 

 

 

 

Margaret’s mother had a kind personal maid.  It was the maid and her husband who later took Margaret to be Baptized in Mercatello, down the road from Metola.    That way, Margaret’s parents

 

thought their identities could remain secret if the Priest discovered Margaret’s physical

 

deformities during her Baptism. Mercatello is not far from Metola.   A tiny square park at the

 

center of Mercatello has a beautiful statue of her.  That Mercatello Priest knew

 

Margaret’s last name though.  The Church

 

(Pieve d’Ico) is in the main piazza. 

 

Unfortunately, the Baptism records vanished.  Margaret was not Baptized immediately after her birth.  Her parents hoped she would not live.  They

 

also wanted her existence to remain unknown.  Fortunately, their hopes and intentions didn’t succeed.  

 

 

 

To keep Margaret out of sight, her mother’s kind maid was given complete charge.  The castle’s Priest who befriended Margaret educated her as best he could.  He even carved her a cane to make it easier for her to move around.   Margaret easily memorized the Psalms and all other Bible verses he taught her.  She was unusually brilliant … always loving, never complained, and expressed no resentment toward her cruel parents. 

 

 

 

When Margaret was about six, she wandered away from her mother’s maid into a hallway leading to her parents’ rooms.  Guests who were just arriving saw her and almost discovered who she really was.  Her mother’s maid quickly picked up Margaret and whisked her away.  When her father heard about the near discovery, he had his workmen quickly build a stone room next to a small Church away from his castle.  Little Margaret lived as a prisoner in that stone room for 14 years.  She couldn’t get out, but her needs were provided for.  The Priest was furious with her father, but he was helpless to do anything that might bring harm to Margaret.  Instead, he became her closest friend, teacher, confidant, confessor ... and provided the Sacraments for her through a window.  (The stone room is still there, and a little Church dedicated to Margaret.  You can walk down to it from the castle tower.  From Citta di Castello, the road to the Metola castle tower is through the village of Palazzi. ) 

 

 

 

Margaret’s mother heard about miracles taking place in Citta di Castello at the tomb of well-known Fra Giacomo.  The tomb was in the Church of S.

 

Francisco (still there, and across the street from the Hotel Tiforno).  Margaret’s parents thought it a good idea to take her there and achieve a miracle.  So, under cover of darkness, her parents took her over to Citta di Castello.  (It was a day-long journey back then, and it’s not a short ride by car now.)  Margaret was so happy and later told someone it was the only time her parents showed love for her.  They left her at the altar in the Church of S. Francisco amongst others seeking cures.  When they returned later that day, however, Margaret was unchanged.  Without saying a word, they quietly fled back to their castle in Metola.  They deserted her!  After the Church closed that night, she sat outside on the Church steps to wait for her parents.  In the morning, beggars saw and befriended her.  She lived with them and became a beggar herself.  (In a short time, she converted the beggars to being Christians.)

 

 

 

It wasn’t long before townspeople learned where Margaret had come from.  In time, she was aided by a few wealthy families and even lived at the convent for a short while.  (The convent and a later school for the blind are closed.)  Margaret died while living with a wealthy family that truly treasured her presence.

 

 

 

Margaret was known for her kind and gentle demeanor.  She was well aware that her parents regarded her as a repulsive embarrassment, but she still loved them and felt guilty about her condition.  She was so very religious, possessed mystical qualities and performed many miracles, helped the poor, the ill, and even prisoners.  Everyone loved Margaret … except her parents.

 

 

 

She accepted her suffering through the eyes of faith.  She didn’t know why God permitted her to have so many afflictions.  She felt that because it was He who permitted her misfortune, He didn’t need to reveal His purpose.  Margaret wondered why people pitied her.  Pain made her sensitive, compassionate and understanding toward others.  Her faith was uncompromising, and she found strength in prayer and the Sacraments.

 

 

 

Margaret came to be declared a “Blessed” because of so many miracles being attributed to her.  We were told that, later, there was water damage to her original coffin.  When Margaret died, she wasn’t embalmed.  Official witnesses were shocked to find her body perfectly preserved when the coffin was opened in 1558 -- but her clothing had crumbled.  She is called an “uncorrupted.” At one point, her body was taken to Rome for examination toward canonization.  Following a rigorous examination by physicians, she was re-clothed in the Dominican habit she wears today.  Exposure to air elements during that time caused her skin to darken … but her teeth, hair, etc. are all intact.  If you know anything about her and go there, and walk up to kneel in front of her glass coffin, it takes your breath away and calms every inch in your own body.

 

 

 

During Margaret’s lifetime and long after her death, towns and regions in that part of Italy were still fighting amongst themselves.  There were also frequent times of famine and plagues.  The Black Death alone killed millions in Europe -- and who knows what happened to the people and paper work that had already been done for her canonization?  We who are devoted to sharing the life story of Little Margaret are trying to do something about that!  

 

 

 

Without question, Margaret should be declared the Saint of the Unborn and Physically Handicapped.  If she were conceived today, she would probably be aborted, left to die at birth, or killed at birth (as are many such children in countries most of us have heard about).

 

===========================

 

Holy Mass commemorating 500 Years of Christianity in the Philippines presided over by Pope Francis

 

Streamed live on 14 Mar 2021

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O80fkkrQsAQ

 

===========================

 

SHARING: Paddy Creedon enjoys sharing his life’s experiences, poetry readings and developing connection with his audiences. https://paddycreedon.com/

 

 

 

=============================

MARCH 2021

 

The Science of Health and HappinessMARCH 2021The Science of Health and Happiness•••••

 

The Science of Health and HappinessMARCH 2021FacultyDr Padraic Dunne is an immunologist, practicing psychotherapist and meditation teacher, based at the new RCSI Centre for Positive Psychology and Health. Padraic spent a number of years in cellular immunology research, investigating the role of viral and bacterial infection on human disease. As as an RCSI Lecturer, Dr Dunne is interested in the development of Health and Wellbeing programmes for healthcare professionals, corporate workforces, and for patients suffering with chronic disease. Dr Trudy Meehan is a Senior Clinical Psychologist and a lecturer at the RCSI Centre for Positive Psychology and Health. Trudy has experience working in the HSE and as a Clinical Director for 50808, a new 24/7 text based mental health service aimed at supporting youth and young adults. Trudy has also worked with communities and young  people in Cape Town when she was Director of Stanford University’s Community Engaged Overseas Study Program in South Africa Dr Ciaran O’Boyle is a Professor of Psychology at RCSI with over 35 years’ experience as an educator, researcher and trainer. He is Director of the RCSI Centre for Positive Psychology and Health and was the Founder Director of RCSI Institute of Leadership Health from 2005-2019. He has extensive experience as a consultant psychologist for a range of national and international public and private sector organisations in the military, aviation, financial services, education, government and healthcare sectors.

 

The Science of Health and HappinessMARCH 2021TimetableLECTURERELEASE DATEGetting started3MarchBiology: mind-body connections10MarchWhole person health16 MarchRoutes to happiness I24 MarchRoutes to happiness II31 MarchMeditation for health7 AprilYour emotions and you14 AprilYour strongest self21 AprilHappiness through the life-cycle28 AprilPutting it all together5May

 

The Science of Health and HappinessMARCH 2021Thank you for registering for the Science of Health and Happiness here at RCSI. My colleagues and I are so looking forward to delivering the programme and it is our fervent hope that the contents of the programme will improve your health and increase your happiness. Professor Ciaran O’BoyleDirector, RCSI Centre for Positive Psychology and Health26 February 2021

 

 

 

file:///C:/Users/jerk/AppData/Local/Temp/Welcome%20note%20-%20The%20Science%20of%20Health%20and%20Happiness.pdf

 

=============================

 

John Edward Mulvihill was ordained to the Catholic priesthood in the Church of the Twelve Apostles, in Rome, on 12 July 1964, by the Most Reverend Filippo Pocci, titular Bishop of Jericho.  He was ordained a year ahead of his class in order to help the faculty of the North American College, Rome.  After ordination, he continued to study theology at the Gregorian University, and with a special passport as Priest Observer, he was able to attend some sessions of the Second Vatican Council.  On the first Sunday of Advent, 1964, he celebrated the first official English Mass in Rome,which may well have been the first official English Mass in the world, due to Rome's early time zone.

 

https://bacherozzo.tripod.com/biography/

 

============================

 

WINDSOR TERRACE — As a child in Israel during the 1960s, Margaret Karram was confused about her identity. Her home on Mount Carmel was in a Jewish neighborhood, but her parents were Arabs from Palestine, which drew teasing from local kids. And, being Catholic, she did not easily identify with Palestinian Muslims. She yearned for peace as violent conflicts plagued the Holy Land.

 

At age 15, she discovered “The Work of Mary,” also known as the “Focolare Movement.” This international ecumenical organization, founded during World War II by Italian Catholics, strives for unity among all people according to the will of a loving God.

 

The teachings of Focolare’s founder, school teacher Chiara Lubich, swapped Karram’s confusion with peace and brotherly love. She became a Focolare leader, learning and living the Gospel and sharing a lifestyle of seeing each person — no matter race or religion — as a godly creation worthy of love and kindness.

 

 

 

On Jan. 31, the Focolare’s general assembly elected Karram to be its next president. Besides Lubich, there had been only one other Focolare leader — Italian lawyer Maria Voca, who stepped down because of term limits.

 

https://thetablet.org/focolares-new-president-a-daughter-of-the-church-in-service-of-all/

 

 

 

https://thetablet.org/category/obituaries/

 

===========================

 

Patti Maguire Armstrong Blogs

 

February 11, 2021

 

When Our Blessed Mother appeared to Bernadette Soubirous in 1858 in Lourdes, France, she left behind a miraculous spring. Only 70 healings are officially recognized by the Catholic Church, but more than 7,000 miraculous recoveries have been attributed to the intercession of Our Lady of Lourdes at the shrine.

 

 

 

Bernadette Soubirous, a 14-year-old miller's daughter, reported 18 apparitions from “a Lady” between Feb. 11 and July 16. After the first apparition, Bernadette told her mother that a “lady” spoke to her in the cave while she was gathering firewood with her sister and a friend.

 

 

 

During the 16th apparition on March 25, the feast of the Annunciation, the “lady” revealed: “I am the Immaculate Conception.” This title, based on a newly-defined dogma, was unknown to Bernadette, who had little education. It meant that the “lady” was claiming to be Mary, the Mother of God.

 

https://www.ncregister.com/blog/our-lady-of-lourdes-graces

 

=================================

Claire is writing a book and getting cancer treatment, a day in a life;

 

Thursday 4th Feb

 

 

 

I have an interview with the Christian magazine Women Alive.  I find myself expressing my fear that in publishing my vulnerable self I could be hurt, in ways I trusted I wouldn’t be when it was just between you, Dear Readers, and me.  Clare the interviewer, who has read the book, reassures me; but she’s a kindly soul.  And she thinks that I’ve always wanted to tell the truth and now I’m writing it as a practitioner rather than a theoretician, which makes me feel as though there is some coherence, after all, in the work of my life.

 

 

 

 

 

Friday 5th Feb

 

 

 

God you are my shield and defender.  Christ you are closer to me than my own heart.  Love is.

 

 

 

I continue to practice slowing down and doing one thing at a time and relishing it.  I have this stretched out time, all through the maintenance treatment, all through the pandemic restrictions, to practice and practice till it’s second nature.  I have been given this chance to consolidate the realisation the cancer has given me of the grand beauty of life.

 

 

 

But the trains are up the creek and if I don’t make the 15:45 my journey will be long and complicated (via Brighton; or East Croydon and Hampden Park; or King’s Cross and Ashford International or replaced with buses), and I’ve packed Diarmid McCulloch’s History of Christianity which is even more of a brick than JFK, and my case is really heavy, and I shall feel sick.

 

 

 

So now I am in a hurry.  Only the chemotherapy and the Zometa infusions won’t be hurried.  Liz my lovely nurse is being as efficient as she can.  I love her for trying.

 

 

 

Next to me a lady is being asked if she would like a cold cap (like?).  This seems to be the first she’s heard that the cap the only way to have a chance to save her hair, just before her first poisonous infusion.  She will still lose her eyebrows and eyelashes: ‘we can’t do anything about them, I’m afraid,’ says her kindly nurse.  The lady says she’ll have everything that’s going.  I like her spirit.  The pink cap doesn’t fit; the nurse rolls her eyes, and tries another one, and another.  Eventually one is fitted, the lady’s little crumply face peeking out from its enveloping freezer.

 

 

 

I miss the 15:45 and the simplest and quickest route turns out to be the bus replacement: train to Tonbridge; bus to Tunbridge Wells; train to Hastings.  As we disembark at Tonbridge there is a fierce hurry of the healthy to be first on the bus.  I cannot move fast with the chemotherapy washing around inside me, and my heavy case necessitates using the lift.  I feel ashamed of my former self, who would be amongst those worried hurriers, disengaged from the less able, or rather, secretly and shamefully feeling so glad I’m not one of them.  The bus when I achieve it is so crowded!  I mean, every seat taken and people standing.  I ask the young man sitting at the front if he’d mind giving me his seat as I’ve just had chemotherapy and he is eager to do so, lovely young man.  I am wearing my daisy lanyard, a much more recognised signal of hidden disability now, which is possibly why the seat next to me hereafter remains empty.  I keep my face turned to the window.  But oh dear there are lots of us.  Such windows as can be are open and the ride is only 20 minutes: but where for heaven’s sake are all the cars in this traffic jam in Tonbridge going?  And at Tunbridge Wells the train waits for the presumably nearly empty second bus but we didn’t know there would be a second bus…

 

 

 

Drugs today:

 

7.30am - Omeprazole: stomach liner.

 

8am - Dexamethasone: steroid.

 

9am - Acyclovir; AdCal; Dioctyl: anti-viral; vitamin D and calcium; laxative.

 

12noon - Ondansetron: anti-sickness.

 

4pm - Acyclovir; Dioctyl.

 

6pm - Ondansetron.

 

10.30pm - Zopiclone: sleeping pill.

 

Midnight, feeling shivery and sick - paracetamol; Ondansetron.

 

 

 

Surely, I think, something weird must happen when all these chemicals churn together in my gut? But, intermittently, I sleep, and when I am awake I don’t feel so ill as I have done hitherto.

 

 

 

 

======================================

 

Richard Hendrick

 

The Way of the Rose

 

 

 

The Wild Nativity.

 

We have our prophecies too

 

you know!

 

We tell our own tales,

 

and so we knew

 

to gather there

 

that night,

 

ambassadors of our

 

varied kinds all.

 

Before old Joseph

 

came back

 

with supplies from the inn

 

we were there,

 

hidden in the hay,

 

up amongst the old beams,

 

resting by the manger,

 

or drawn there

 

by the new star

 

that rose that night

 

pure and shining

 

like a snowflake

 

in its light.

 

We were there.

 

We had felt the

 

old pull of Eden

 

==========================================

 

David Begnaud

 

 

 

January 9 at 2:45 AM  ·

 

This may be one of the best eyewitness accounts I’ve seen of what happened leading up to the attack on the Capitol by the pro Trump mob, and during it. These videos, which I linked together into one long video, were recorded & uploaded to Instagram by James Townsend, who identifies himself as a freelance journalist.

 

 

 

https://www.facebook.com/100044380931236/videos/2564904403801982

 

 

 

========================================

 

Dan Bongino

 

 

 

January 21, 2020  ·

 

Trump's Counsel Makes First Statement on Impeachment, Absolutely NUKES Dems

 

All of America needs to see this clip. This is one of the most savage defenses of President Trump we've ever seen.

 

https://www.facebook.com/dan.bongino/videos/218839045780663

 

===================================

================================

 

Tune in for more...

 

Tuesday, 26 January 2021, 7pm — Frederick Douglass in Ireland: With Douglass’ great-great-granddaughter Nettie Washington Douglass in conversation with historian Professor Christine Kinealy and Dennis Brownlee (founder and president of African American Irish Diaspora Network), this online event coincides with MoLI's exhibition about Frederick Douglass. Hosted by MoLI in partnership with the African American Irish Diaspora Network and the Department of Foreign Affairs, the event will be introduced by Ciarán Madden, Consul General of Ireland in New York.

 

https://moli.ie/whats-on/events/?utm_source=MoLI&utm_campaign=49ae03de50-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_Bulletin_201127_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_38bde0038a-49ae03de50-319825452&mc_cid=49ae03de50&mc_eid=8ae1f56f42

 

=====================================================

 

 

 

A Year like no  Other

 

 

 

By Domhnall de Barra

 

 

 

End of another year in sight and I suppose we won’t be sorry to see the back of it. Charles Dickens novel, A Tale of Two Cities, opens with the lines “it was the best of times; it was the worst of times” and nothing could describe 2020 better.  Little did we think as we started the year  that a virus that was causing trouble in China would soon engulf the world and plunge us into a pandemic the likes of which we had never before experienced. Hindsight is a great thing and, looking back, we probably could have done more at the beginning to stop the virus from spreading in the country. Two things stand out for me; allowing the Italian supporters to come to Dublin even though the rugby match itself had been cancelled due to the high infection rate in Italy and allowing people from Ireland to go to the Cheltenham racing festival where there was every chance of people getting infected and bringing it back home. Northern Italy was one of the hot spots at the time and that is the home of Italian rugby To be honest, we had no idea when we entered the first lockdown in March that the situation would get so much out of control and still be a problem at the end of the year. I thought we would weather the storm in a couple of months and, come summer, would be back to normal again.  As the year went on other mistakes were made, mainly urging people to holiday at home instead of going abroad leading to the coining of that awful word “staycation”. People brought the virus with them to every corner of the country leading to more lockdowns and restrictions. To be fair to the government, they tried to help all those who were affected financially by the pandemic but it was still a disastrous year for  many, especially in the hospitality trade, some of whom will never trade again. My own business was reduced to a fraction of what it should be but I am lucky in the sense that I am at that stage of my life when I have very few overheads  and I am not totally dependent on the revenue from the business to survive.

 

 

 

One decision affected me greatly and that is the shutting down of golf courses. I could not see the logic in it as it was one of the safer pursuits with no social contact and plenty of exercise in the open air. It provided an outlet for us at a time when it was needed but the powers that be thought otherwise.  My complaints are trivial, I know, compared with the fate of those who had to bury loved ones without the normal funeral routines or had to restrict their visits to hospitals and nursing homes. They are the ones who paid the heaviest prices and I can only say; “there but for the grace of God go I”. But what about the best of times. A lot of good has come out of this disaster. Families have discovered each other again and created a different way of life for themselves. We have learned how to live without the pub and also to take care of our neighbours. It has forced us to realise who are really important in this world; not the celebrities, stars, business moguls and so-called leaders but the frontline workers who put their own health on the line to help others. We take them for granted too much, not realising the importance of the work they do and we definitely do not pay them enough. On the few occasions I have been in hospital I was blown away by the care administered by the nurses and staff in the wards. How they do it, day in, day out, is a true indicator of what a vocation really is. I also think that we have become nicer to each other and more willing to lend a helping hand. It is something that we do when facing a common enemy and, make no mistake about it, Covid 19 is the most formidable enemy we have faced in our lifetimes.

 

 

 

We are now facing a further lockdown because when restrictions were relaxed some people took advantage and ignored all the medical advice resulting in a surge in the daily number of infections There is, however, light at the end of the tunnel with vaccines ready to be rolled out in the coming days. It is not going to happen in a hurry but we can now look forward to a time when most of the public will be immune and the virus will die out.

 

 

 

One thing is for sure; life will never again be the same as it was before. Perhaps we can learn some lessons and appreciate what is really important in this life. Christmas is not the same but, if we are sensible and follow the guidelines, we can look forward to better times ahead  with an opportunity to once again greet our families and friends from overseas  as we used to and give each other the hugs that we so miss at the moment.

 

 

 

Another plus during the year was the performance of the Limerick hurlers who captured the All-Ireland title in style. Hurling gave us some of the greatest sporting moments with displays of skill and athleticism that were mind-blowing. It is hard to believe that these hurlers were actually playing on cold, wet and windy winter days instead of the height of summer. Hurling is without doubt the fastest and most skilful field game in the world. As for the football, the less said the better. It continued its decline with boring exhibitions of maintaining possession at all costs. On several occasions I switched off the TV because the fare was so bad. If the GAA do not do something soon I am afraid that Gaelic football will only be a memory.

 

 

 

This column allows me to have my say once a week and  I hope that I have offended nobody during the year. I take this opportunity to thank all who have contributed to this newsletter throughout the year; the columnists, Club PROs, advertisers, the shops that sell for us and you, the readers, for continuing to make it possible to have our very own little paper on the shelves in Athea and the surrounding area.

 

 

 

Have a safe, happy and holy Christmas and, hopefully a return to some semblance of normality in the New Year.

 

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November 2020

 

President Trump built the greatest economy in the history of the world, and now he's leading the fastest labor market recovery from an economic crisis in history.

 

President Trump's path forward in the war against the coronavirus is an aggressive strategy focused on protecting Americans at highest risk while opening up our country.

 

President Trump cut red tape and unleashed American medical genius, granting Americans access to lifesaving treatments and setting up a coronavirus vaccine to be delivered by the end of the year.

 

President Trump signed the largest tax cuts and reforms in American history.

 

President Trump ended the war on American energy and achieved energy independence for our country.

 

President Trump fought for America First trade deals, stood up to China, and ended the era of economic surrender.

 

President Trump has secured our borders and built 400 miles of the border wall.

 

President Trump stands without apology for the sanctity of human life.

 

President Trump believes that all parents should have the right to choose where their children go to school regardless of their income or area codes.

 

President Trump will always support those who stand on the thin blue line, and he will never defund the police.

 

President Trump is the first American president in 39 years to not start a war or bring our country into an international armed conflict.

 

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Extract from Bolster’s ‘A History of the Diocese of Cork’.

 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ig9ycalPqPxBhv5hnTb9OIPhKem2SEaj15EKhOFjHvY/edit

 

Drinagh, West Cork, 'There is a Popish Priest called Daniel Sullivan, Lives in Another Parish. He Celebrates Mass Generally in a Ditch, Sheltered With a Few Bushes and Sods and Sometimes in a Cabin'.

 

 

 

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https://www.facebook.com/jerome.lordan.1

 

 

 

Extract from Bolster’s ‘A History of the Diocese of Cork’.

 

 

 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ig9ycalPqPxBhv5hnTb9OIPhKem2SEaj15EKhOFjHvY/edit

 

 

 

Drinagh, West Cork, ‘There is a Popish Priest called Daniel Sullivan, Lives in Another Parish. He Celebrates Mass Generally in a Ditch, Sheltered With a Few Bushes and Sods and Sometimes in a Cabin’.

 

 

 

https://wordpress.com/post/durrushistory.com/29951

 

 

 

‘…mean thatched cabins…….’ The Masshouses in South East Cork in 1731.

 

 

 

https://wordpress.com/post/durrushistory.com/16744

 

 

 

Format of Converts Affidavits in relation to Conversion (From The Errors of Papacy) Deponent Swears ‘That He did not Convert for Any Temporal Advantage But Solely From Conscientious Conviction an To Ensure His Souls Salvation’, part of Penal Law Regime.

 

 

 

https://wordpress.com/post/durrushistory.com/15437

 

 

 

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News Feed posts- Kathy Farsaci

 

Harvey Patterson

 

It was Christmas Eve 1942. I was fifteen years old and feeling like the world had caved in on me because there just hadn't been enough money to buy me the rifle that I'd wanted for Christmas.

 

We did the chores early that night for some reason. I just figured Daddy wanted a little extra time so we could read in the Bible. After supper was over I took my boots off and stretched out in front of the fireplace and waited for Daddy to get down the old Bible.

 

I was still feeling sorry for myself and, to be honest, I wasn't in much of a mood to read Scriptures. But Daddy didn't get the Bible instead he bundled up again and went outside. I couldn't figure it out because we had already done all the chores. I didn't worry about it long though I was too busy wallowing in self-pity.

 

Soon he came back in. It was a cold clear night out and there was ice in his beard. "Come on, Matt," he said. "Bundle up good, it's cold out tonight." I was really upset then. Not only wasn't I getting the rifle for Christmas, now he was dragging me out in the cold, and for no earthly reason that I could see. We'd already done all the chores, and I couldn't think of anything else that needed doing, especially not on a night like this. But I knew he was not very patient at one dragging one's feet when he'd told them to do something, so I got up and put my boots back on and got my coat. Mommy gave me a mysterious smile as I opened the door to leave the house. Something was up, but I didn't know what..

 

Outside, I became even more dismayed. There in front of the house was the work team, already hitched to the big sled. Whatever it was we were going to do wasn't going to be a short, quick, little job. I could tell. We never hitched up this sled unless we were going to haul a big load. Daddy was already up on the seat, reins in hand. I reluctantly climbed up beside him. The cold was already biting at me. I wasn't happy. When I was on, Daddy pulled the sled around the house and stopped in front of the woodshed. He got off and I followed.

 

"I think we'll put on the high sideboards," he said. "Here, help me." The high sideboards! It had been a bigger job than I wanted to do with just the low sideboards on, but whatever it was we were going to do would be a lot bigger with the high side boards on.

 

Then Daddy went into the woodshed and came out with an armload of wood - the wood I'd spent all summer hauling down from the mountain, and then all Fall sawing into blocks and splitting. What was he doing? Finally I said something. I asked, "what are you doing?" You been by the Widow Jensen's lately?" he asked. Mrs. Jensen lived about two miles down the road. Her husband had died a year or so before and left her with three children, the oldest being eight. Sure, I'd been by, but so what?

 

Yeah," I said, "Why?"

 

"I rode by just today," he said. "Little Jakey was out digging around in the woodpile trying to find a few chips. They're out of wood, Matt." That was all he said and then he turned and went back into the woodshed for another armload of wood. I followed him. We loaded the sled so high that I began to wonder if the horses would be able to pull it. Finally, he called a halt to our loading then we went to the smoke house and he took down a big ham and a side of bacon. He handed them to me and told me to put them in the sled and wait. When he returned he was carrying a sack of flour over his right shoulder and a smaller sack of something in his left hand.

 

"What's in the little sack?" I asked. Shoes, they're out of shoes. Little Jakey just had gunny sacks wrapped around his feet when he was out in the woodpile this morning. I got the children a little candy too. It just wouldn't be Christmas without a little candy."

 

We rode the two miles to Mrs. Jensen's pretty much in silence. I tried to think through what Daddy was doing. We didn't have much by worldly standards. Of course, we did have a big woodpile, though most of what was left now was still in the form of logs that I would have to saw into blocks and split before we could use it. We also had meat and flour, so we could spare that, but I knew we didn't have any money, so why was he buying them shoes and candy? Really, why was he doing any of this? Widow Jensen had closer neighbors than us; it shouldn't have been our concern.

 

We came in from the blind side of the Jensen house and unloaded the wood as quietly as possible then we took the meat and flour and shoes to the door. We knocked. The door opened a crack and a timid voice said, "Who is it?" "Lucas Miles, Ma'am, and my son, Matt, could we come in for a bit?"

 

Mrs. Jensen opened the door and let us in. She had a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. The children were wrapped in another and were sitting in front of the fireplace by a very small fire that hardly gave off any heat at all. Mrs. Jensen fumbled with a match and finally lit the lamp.

 

"We brought you a few things, Ma'am," Daddy said and set down the sack of flour. I put the meat on the table. Then he handed her the sack that had the shoes in it. She opened it hesitantly and took the shoes out one pair at a time. There was a pair for her and one for each of the children - sturdy shoes, the best, shoes that would last. I watched her carefully. She bit her lower lip to keep it from trembling and then tears filled her eyes and started running down her cheeks. She looked up at my Daddy like she wanted to say something, but it wouldn't come out.

 

"We brought a load of wood too, Ma'am," he said. Then turned to me and said, "Matt, go bring in enough to last awhile. Let's get that fire up to size and heat this place up." I wasn't the same person when I went back out to bring in the wood. I had a big lump in my throat and as much as I hate to admit it, there were tears in my eyes too. In my mind I kept seeing those three kids huddled around the fireplace and their mother standing there with tears running down her cheeks with so much gratitude in her heart that she couldn't speak.

 

My heart swelled within me and a joy that I'd never known before filled my soul. I had given at Christmas many times before, but never when it had made so much difference. I could see we were literally saving the lives of these people.

 

I soon had the fire blazing and everyone's spirits soared. The kids started giggling when Daddy handed them each a piece of candy and Mrs. Jensen looked on with a smile that probably hadn't crossed her face for a long time. She finally turned to us. "God bless you," she said. "I know the Lord has sent you. The children and I have been praying that he would send one of his angels to spare us."

 

In spite of myself, the lump returned to my throat and the tears welled up in my eyes again. I'd never thought of my Daddy in those exact terms before, but after Widow Jensen mentioned it I could see that it was probably true. I was sure that a better man than Daddy had never walked the earth. I started remembering all the times he had gone out of his way for Mommy and me, and many others. The list seemed endless as I thought on it.

 

Daddy insisted that everyone try on the shoes before we left. I was amazed when they all fit and I wondered how he had known what sizes to get. Then I guessed that if he was on an errand for the Lord that the Lord would make sure he got the right sizes.

 

Tears were running down Widow Jensen's face again when we stood up to leave. My Daddy took each of the kids in his big arms and gave them a hug. They clung to him and didn't want us to go. I could see that they missed their Daddy and I was glad that I still had mine.

 

At the door he turned to Widow Jensen and said, "The Mrs. wanted me to invite you and the children over for Christmas dinner tomorrow. The turkey will be more than the three of us can eat, and a man can get cantankerous if he has to eat turkey for too many meals. We'll be by to get you about eleven. It'll be nice to have some little ones around again. Matt, here, hasn't been little for quite a spell." I was the youngest. My two brothers and two sisters had all married and had moved away.

 

Mrs. Jensen nodded and said, "Thank you, Brother Miles. I don't have to say, May the Lord bless you, I know for certain that He will."

 

Out on the sled I felt a warmth that came from deep within and I didn't even notice the cold. When we had gone a ways, Daddy turned to me and said, "Matt, I want you to know something. Your Mother and me have been tucking a little money away here and there all year so we could buy that rifle for you, but we didn't have quite enough.

 

Then yesterday a man who owed me a little money from years back came by to make things square. Your Mom and me were real excited, thinking that now we could get you that rifle, and I started into town this morning to do just that, but on the way I saw little Jakey out scratching in the woodpile with his feet wrapped in those gunny sacks and I knew what I had to do. Son, I spent the money for shoes and a little candy for those children. I hope you understand."

 

I understood, and my eyes became wet with tears again. I understood very well, and I was so glad Daddy had done it. Now the rifle seemed very low on my list of priorities. He had given me a lot more. He had given me the look on Mrs. Jensen's face and the radiant smiles of her three children. For the rest of my life, Whenever I saw any of the Jensens, or split a block of wood, I remembered, and remembering brought back that same joy I felt riding home beside of my Daddy that night. He had given me much more than a rifle that night, he had given me the best Christmas of my life..

 

 

 

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Current Affairs

 

 

 

By Domhnall de Barra

 

 

 

Following on last week’s theme of “man’s inhumanity to man” I was listening to World Report on Radio 1 the other morning and was taken aback by what I was listening to. On that programme, a journalist told how people are making millions out of smuggling refugees from war torn countries in Africa. They are taken to Libya and held in large warehouses while their relatives back home are contacted to provide more money for their passage across the Mediterranean to sanctuary. These people have very little anyway and go to great lengths to get the money to save their families. They are treated appallingly while in these warehouses with little food, sanitation or contact with the outside world. The women are systematically raped and at the end of the day many of them are set adrift on the seas to be picked up by ships and returned to Africa.

 

 

 

One man from Ethiopia, who had gone through that system, was out shopping when he noticed one of the main smugglers, who was wanted by the police, in an electrical shop in Addis Ababa. He called a policeman and the man was arrested. Many more of his comrades were arrested as well. One of them had raped more than 80 girls and women. They will get a few years in jail but have plenty of money salted away for when they come out and there are plenty more ready and willing to take their places.

 

 

 

Why is the rest of the world ignoring this criminality?  Even when refugees are transported to Europe they are not treated very well when they arrive. Ireland is not blameless in this regard. The situation in Direct Provision is deplorable with some people waiting for years and years to have their cases heard. These poor people have suffered enough and have lost most of their possessions. We have to devise a system that cuts through the red tape and quickly gets them integrated into our society. They have much to offer us and we must never forget that our forefathers had to leave Ireland after the famine and find sanctuary wherever they could. Look at the contribution the Irish have made to their adopted countries. Even this week we have a descendant of Irish emigrants  elected to the highest office in the USA. Despite the reservations of some, we have nothing to fear from diversity and a lot to gain and please don’t give me “we have to look after our own first” rubbish. Given the opportunity most immigrants will contribute to the economy and make our country a much better  and more colourful place.

 

 

 

This will be the last time I comment on the American election and Donald Trump in particular.  There has been much rejoicing at the election to office of Joe Biden, not so much that Biden is such a charismatic character but  because he is not Donald Trump. I welcome that development but I am alarmed that, with the highest  turnout at the polls ever, Trump got nearly half the votes. It shows how much people have bought into his philosophy and are prepared to accept a type of politics that is abhorrent to most of us in the civilised world.  It isn’t easy to explain but there are a few factors that contribute to it. Many Americans grow up being told that they are the greatest in the world and they live in the greatest country in the world. They have a kind of superiority complex that gives them a brashness and loudness that at times is obnoxious. They are told that there are two types of people; winners and losers and that there is no place for losers. The end justifies the means in trying to be successful and this encourages an “I’m alright Jack” mentality. This is the nasty side of capitalism which eventually creates a two tier society; the haves and the have-nots. Many of the more fortunate resent any attempt to help those at the bottom and will oppose plans for medical care, social housing etc. This is not what democracy is about. Democracy is the government of the people  by the people for the people and that includes all the people, not those who are gifted or lucky enough to make it on their own.  When you have a two tier system with the gap widening between rich and poor, it is similar to what democracy replaced. Countries were once ruled by monarchs and landed gentry but, one by one, people rose up, like in France and Russia, and toppled the regimes. We are in danger of creating a new “peasant” population who will eventually rebel against those who want to keep them in their place. It is now more important than ever that the other half of the American public stand up and be counted. Trump is in the process of arranging rallies throughout the States in the coming days to drum up support for his legal challenge to the election result. These rallies will give a platform to the gun-toting white supremacists to flex their muscles and for all his gullible disciples to give two fingers to their own electoral system. It is high time that prominent members of the Republican Party brought some sanity to bear on proceedings and encouraged Trump to behave with a little decorum and concede defeat with grace but I suppose that is too much to hope for. I like America and have enjoyed my many visits there. It is full of honest, hard working, decent people who deserve better leadership than they are getting at the moment. America has been a great friend to Ireland over the years especially with their help in brokering the Good Friday agreement. Joe Biden says he is going to be a president for all the people and that he will work to create unity and heal divisions. The USA is an example to the world of how a huge continent can operate without borders on its states. It shows the value of unity of purpose and a desire to work together for the love of the country. Let us hope that sanity prevails and that America can truly be great again.

 

 

 

Chief Justice Frank Clarke has said Supreme Court Judge Seamus Woulfe should resign over his attendance at a controversial golf dinner in Galway. There will be those who are clapping their hands in glee to see him brought down but I am not one of them. That whole “golfgate” episode has been blown out of all proportion and a heavy price has been paid already by those who lost their careers over it. Yes, it was poor judgement on the part of those who attended the dinner but no law was broken and surely the punishment should fit the crime. Seamus Woulfe did not help himself in the way he has conducted himself since the affair and maybe a little more humility would have stood him in better stead, however, I hope again that common sense will prevail and that he will be allowed to continue his  important work in our justice system.

 

 

 

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Archdiocese of Denver to Offer Special Livestream Mass for Veterans Day on Nov. 11

 

The “In God We Trust” online event aims to honor veterans and call fallen-away Catholics back to faithhttps://www.ncregister.com/blog/veterans-day-mass?utm_campaign=NCR%202019&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=99590071&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_0-llmMp5wf2vVlTcUqBBqVayC_z-_BiiUE7o6G-WAX48hBIZoA46mVZXFLV1b2OCm1DryLSVSQc3kpmSvU-jkV6OMsA&utm_content=99590071&utm_source=hs_email

 

 

 

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Proposed Bill to Desecrate Spanish Civil War Memorial Raises Concern Among Divided Population

 

 

 

NEWS ANALYSIS: The attempt by Spain’s socialist government to turn a Spanish Civil War memorial into a civil cemetery is seen by Catholic Spaniards as an attack against the nation’s historical and spiritual roots.

 

https://www.ncregister.com/news/proposed-bill-to-desecrate-spanish-civil-war-memorial-raises-concern-among-divided-population?utm_campaign=NCR%202019&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=99590071&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--oNLPEcrHiqfgnLpRARvTk4Ep12q9apv3cEfI-W2GG-odq9N7mj1eMnNhqAekX83tIsPDboBlMfcv0spdWIR54s5P7gg&utm_content=99590071&utm_source=hs_email

 

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https://www.ainm.ie/Bio.aspx?ID=147

 

https://dib.cambridge.org/

 

 

 

List of names

 

https://dib.cambridge.org/newbiographies.do

 

 

 

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O'Brien, Mary Lucy (1923–2006), missionary sister and doctor in Africa, was born Nora Veronica O'Brien on 17 August 1923 in Ballinderry, in the parish of Cummer, near Tuam, Co. Galway,

 

https://dib.cambridge.org/viewReadPage.do?articleId=a9488

 

For more see

 

https://www.independent.ie/regionals/kerryman/news/kerrys-summer-of-violence-in-1920-39218611.html

 

 

 

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The War of Independence in Kerry

 

Publisher 2 December, 2016 The Irish War of Independence

 

By Thomas Earls Fitzgerald

 

https://www.theirishstory.com/2016/12/02/the-war-of-independence-in-kerry/

 

2020 October

Memories

 

 

 

By Domhnall de Barra

 

 

 

They say you don’t question your own mortality until one of your contemporaries dies. It was brought home to me this week when my boyhood friend and neighbour, John Ward, passed away. John, or “Johnson”, as he was affectionately known by his mates, and I grew up together in the middle of the last century. We met at the creamery one morning and he invited me to come down there the following afternoon for a game of handball. The creamery in Cratloe had a good back wall and a concrete yard so it was ideal doubling as a ball alley. From then on we did the usual things together like playing football, handball, fishing etc. John’s parent’s, Larry and Hannie had a lovely house across the road from Healy’s Forge. Like many houses at crossroads it was a great meeting place for neighbours and many is the game of cards we played there in the winter nights. The more seasoned card players would let us in for a couple of games and tolerated us but that did not stop us getting an ear bashing if we failed to follow a lead or “hit” one of our partners. We became good enough after a while and ventured further afield. At that time, it was the custom, coming up to Christmas to run a “raffle” or a “gamble” in a house to make a little money for the festive season. I forget which was which but one had card games only while the other had cards in the room and set dancing in the kitchen.  You paid your shilling, or whatever it was at the time, and had a chance of winning a goose or turkey. One woman I knew had a game each year for a pair of woollen socks she knitted herself!   John and myself preferred the ones that had the dancing for two reasons. Firstly, some people were loathe to allow young lads to take part but I was able to play the accordion and was always welcome. Secondly, where there was dancing there were girls of our own age and, like all healthy young men, we always had the eye out for the “shift”. On one occasion, at a house in Knocknasna, we both, unknown to each other, had our eyes on the same girl. I had been playing for a set while John was chatting her up where she was making sandwiches in a back room. As I finished off the set he was called into the room to make up a table for cards and I asked the girl to dance. After the dance we went out to a nearby hay shed for a bit of a “court” For years later John referred to that night as “the night Barry stole my woman”.

 

 

 

Sadly, like most of our generation, we had no option but to take the boat to England. John went to London and I went to Coventry so our paths did not cross for a long while except maybe briefly at some Christmas when we were home at the same time. In the early 70s we returned to Ireland and renewed our friendship. We both drank in Dan Gleeson’s pub and played darts  together on his team. John was a very good darts player and we had many memorable nights. One in particular comes to mind when we were playing a Listowel team one of the best around at the time. The lads who played  the first three legs were beaten 3 – 0 so we were up against it. We played out of our skins, winning the three games and levelling the match. In the decider we played against their best two and we won with John finishing on his favourite double; double 6.  Later on he ran a very successful pub of his own in Abbeyfeale at a time when the pub trade was very good. I played music in his dancing lounge on a regular basis for many years. John eventually got out of the pub business and turned to farming and cattle dealing. He had an association with the local cattle mart and was known as a very astute judge of animals. Our paths did not cross as much in recent years. John gave up drinking and I was away a lot with Comhaltas.  Sadly he fell into ill health and spent many years in and out of hospital. At the end of last year I met him at a funeral and I promised him I would call to the house where we could reminisce about old times. I thought I had plenty of time and then the virus hit so I never got to fulfil my promise. It is something I will regret to my dying day because I should have done it straight away instead of putting it on the long finger. Sadly, time ran out for John but he has left me many great memories of a time when things were a lot tougher than they are today but they were also much simpler. We always had something to do and I will always treasure his great friendship. John was, above all, a gentleman whose popularity in the locality could be gauged by the large crowds of people who lined the streets of Abbeyfeale as his funeral cortege passed by on his final journey to Reilig Íde Naofa.  Sincere sympathy to his wife Mary and all his family. May he rest in peace.

 

 

 

Funerals have changed completely since the advent of the virus. It is no longer possible to have funeral homes open with large crowds filing in to sympathise with the mourners and Masses are restricted to family members, basically. People pay their respects by leaving cards and messages and by forming guards of honour by the funeral procession. Part of me thinks this is a good thing. While we may want to show our sympathy to close friends and neighbours, it spares people the ordeal of standing, shaking hands, for over two hours. I have been through this ordeal many times myself and, a lot of the time, I was shaking hands with people I did not know. Likewise I have often gone to a funeral of a friend who lived far away and had to shake hands with all the mourners whom I had never met before. When somebody dies it is a very traumatic time for the family and I think they need time together, as a family, to comfort each other  and help each other to get through a very trying time. The last thing they need is hundreds of people descending on them to shake their hands and utter words of sympathy. Perhaps, when the virus is finally defeated, we will take a different approach to how we say goodbye to neighbours and friends. I, for one, would welcome it.

 

 

 

We start Black History Month by sharing the remarkable story of William Cuffey, who was born in 1788 in Kent with a spinal deformity. He was the son of a former slave and became a famed Chartist leader.

 

 

 

Cuffey became politically active through a strike in 1834 and by 1839 he was a Chartist famed for his powerful oratory and leadership. Chartism was a movement for the rights and suffrage of the working class based on the People’s Charter – a petition of six demands for reforms.

 

 

 

In 1848, after Cuffey had been involved in the Chartist Convention, a peaceful march with a 'monster petition', he was accused by a government spy for planning an armed uprising. He was arrested and his trial transcript shows he demanded a fair trial by a jury of peers and equals. This was rejected, and despite his efforts in trying to prove the evidence unreliable and pleading not guilty, Cuffey was charged and faced a death sentence.

 

 

 

In the end, Cuffey was sentenced to transportation for life. In 1849, he set off aboard the Adelaide to Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania). In 1856, he received a pardon.

 

 

 

Our records show that Cuffey remained in Australia and became an important campaigner. Meanwhile, the Reform Act of 1867 was passed in Britain, allowing all men to vote for the first time.

 

 

 

It is clear that Cuffey was a pioneer of his day. He was a black, disabled, working-class leader, and the historical significance of his life should be recognised.

 

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgxwJZJSxwMZBcFWDfwWgCQjKrdWT

 

DUBLIN HISTORY: Young Dick Bauf is probably one of the most tragic Dubliners ever. He was only 12 years old when he and his parents were convicted of theft and murder in 1682. As bad as their crimes were the decision of the judge was outright evil. The child would be allowed go free if he agreed to...... EXECUTE HIS OWN PARENTS!

 

These incredibly sadistic terms were accepted by his parents who said they'd rather their son hang them and live, than all 3 of them die anyway by a strangers hand. Unsurprisingly the horror of committing this act traumatised the youth. Having orphaned himself he became a pariah throughout Dublin. He fell further in to the cities criminal underworld. First returning to pickpocketing, then he became a desperate highwayman, living as an outlaw in forests and lonely places murdering anyone who stood in his way.

 

He joined a gang of "Grumeis", named after the young boys on ships who were used to climb the masts like nimble cats (known as grumeis). These acrobatic cat burglars used grappling hooks and rope ladders to break in to the gaffs of Dublins wealthy. After a few hairy narrow escapes, including having one of his hands almost burned off, the law eventually caught up with the cursed youngfella. Dick Bauf was arrested and hanged in the notorious Newgate prison in Dublin on May 15, 1702 aged 29.

 

The Upper Walled Garden of Áras an Uachtaráin

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vk-fZgxUg3A

 

 

 

President Trump

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCZ2VCmDxXA&feature=youtu.be

 

 

 

Is President Donald Trump a religious man?

 

https://taylormarshall.com/2020/08/488-donald-trump-christian-denomination-trump-baptized-podcast.html?ct=t(Regular_Blog_Updates_Campaign)

 

 

 

  President Donald J. Trump Accomplishments

 

https://www.promiseskept.com/

 

The death has occurred of Very Rev. JOHN KENNELLY

 

Ballylongford, Kerry

 

The death  occurred on Monday 3rd August 2020 of Rev. Fr John Kennelly, Our Lady of Fatima Home, Tralee, Co Kerry and late of Ballylongford, Co. Kerry. Peacefully, in the loving and gentle care of the staff of Our Lady of Fatima Home, Tralee. Rev. Fr John Kennelly is predeceased by his parents Bridie and Timmie and his brother, Colm. Much loved and sadly missed by his sisters Mary (Kenny) and Nancy (McAuliffe), brothers Brendan, Alan, Paddy and Kevin; sisters-in-law Rena, Brenda, Kathleen, and Marion; nieces and nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews; relatives and friends, the Bishop and Priests of the Diocese of Kerry, the communities in which he ministered and the staff and residents at Our Lady of Fatima Home.

 

 

 

We remember Fr.John as a Parish Priest of Glenflesk and past Chairman of our BOM. May he rest in peace and may the Lord give consolation and peace to his family, friends and all those who mourn his passing.- Scoil an Chroí Naofa, Barradubh, Headford, Killarney

 

----------------------------------------

 

Sincere sympathy to Fr. John's family. So many happy memories of John in Killarney many years ago. May he rest in peace.

 

Fr Joe Mc Carthy, Sacramento

 

---------------------------------------------------

 

On behalf of the pupils. Staff and Board Of Management of Drumnacurra National School, Causeway,  we would like to extend our deepest sympathies to the family and friends of  Very Rev Fr John Kennelly.

 

During his years as Chairperson he constantly encouraged the staff to provide the best education possible for all the pupils and he over saw the wonderful new extension to our school.

 

Ar dheis De go raibh a h-anam.

 

Board Of Management Scoil Chriost Ri, Drumnacurra, Causeway

 

----------------------------------------------------

 

Sincere sympathy to the Kennelly family, the clergy of the Kerry Diocese and all who mourn the passing of Fr. John Kennelly.  May his gentle soul rest in peace.

 

His kind words of support, on a morning when they were least expected but most welcome, will never be forgotten.

 

Kathleen Griffin, Coolagown, Listowel

 

---------------------------------------

 

So sad to hear earlier today of the passing of Fr John. Very fond memories of him from the early 1960's and his personality never changed down the years. A true gentleman, a great Christian, ever-friendly and always a loyal Bally and Kerry man. Sincerest sympathies to Alan, Brendan, Paddy, Kevin, Mary, Nancy and to the extended Kennelly Clan. Ar dheis De go raibh a anam dilis. Barry Walsh, Bally

 

Barry Walsh, Bally

 

----------------------------------------------------

 

So sorry to hear of Fr Kennellys  passing. I was an alter boy in St Mary’s Cathedral  in 1973/4/5 and served many a mass with Fr K. I subsequently went to St Brendans college where our paths crossed again and Fr Kennelly  was one of my teachers.  He was always guiding and helpful in everything he said or did. May God rest his soul. RIP Fr Kennelly.

 

Sean Mac Monagle Killarney

 

-----------------------------------------------

 

My deepest sympathy to The Kennelly Family on the death of Fr. John. Ar dheis Dé go raibh sé.

 

Maurice O Mahony, Ballydonoghue

 

==========================================

 

 

 

Paddy Cronin died 18 July 2020 in Cork, born Knockanure. Aged 91.

 

Sincere sympathy to the family and many friends of the late Paddy Cronin.

 

Paddy worked as a trainee chemist alongside my later father John B Keane. They were apprenticed to William Keane-Stack of William Street, Listowel, County Kerry.

 

The two remained firm friends for the rest of their lives. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a n-anamacha uaisle.

 

Conor Keane

 

----------------------------

 

Deepest Sympathy Maeliosa, Pádraig & Seán on the passing of your Dad. Paddy spent many a happy day in Knockanure. He was a true friend to us. May he rest in peace

 

Jerry & Ann Woods Knockanure

 

-----------------------------

 

Sincere sympathy to all the family on the death of Paddy, May he rest in peace,

 

John and Margaret McAuliffe Listowel

 

 

 

 

 

Athea GAA News;

 

BY EAMON MC ELLIGOTTI  have  trained  senior  and  district  football  for  Ballylongford  and  Shannon Rangers  in  Kerry  since  2009.  Football  is  in  my  blood.  My  uncle  Jer  D.  O'Connor  played  for  Kerry  in  the  60’s  and  Captained  Kerry  in  64.  Football  has always been extremely important to me. I play for Ballylongford, a club which has  a  strong  connection  to  Athea,  one  of  its  most  decorative  players,  having journeyed  across  the  County  bounds  to  manage  Athea  to  a  county  title  -  the great Johnny Walsh.

 

Athea is a club which is held in high regard in Kerry with many North Kerry clubs  seeking  challenge  matches  as  preparation  before  the  North  Kerry championship. I took over the running of Brown Joe's Bar in Athea in 2019 and took a keen interest in following the GAA in the village, especially knowing many of the players from school football in Tarbert Comprehensive. It was an extremely unlucky year and Athea slipped to Junior. Dropping to Junior A does not sit right with me especially with the talent that’s there. It is a community with unbelievable spirit and the GAA is no different. The facilities are top class, the  committees  both  past  and  present,  all  sponsors,  members  and  players should be extremely proud. In 2020, having spent over 10 years managing and training in Kerry, I showed an interest in the Athea job, I felt if I could contribute anything it would be great. The committee offered me the job. I was  more  than  proud.  Thankfully  Mike  Ahern  and  Roger  Ryan  have  come on  board,  two  people  with  a massive  interest  in  Athea  football. Unfortunately our preparation for the Junior Championship were cut short due  to  Covid  19.  From  essential  interactions  with  the  players,  I  have  been overwhelmed by the level of dedication/commitment and genuine interest. There  is  a  lot  of  talented  footballers  in  Athea.  I  have  absolutely  no  doubt whatsoever  that  this  bunch  of  players  will  celebrate  success  in  the  very near future. It's great to be back on the field

 

 Cattle Gas

 

Date: 05/06/20- Dr David Whitehouse, GWPF Science Editor

 

 

 

The climate impact of grass-fed cattle may have been exaggerated as scientists find emissions of a powerful greenhouse gas from certain types of pasture are lower than previously thought.

 

 

 

Researchers from Rothamsted Research found urine from animals reared on pasture where white clover grows – a plant commonly sown onto grazing land to reduce the need for additional nitrogen fertiliser – results in just over half the amount of nitrous oxide previously assumed by scientists to be released. Nitrous oxide is a potent greenhouse gas some 265 times more harmful than CO2 and can account for 40% of beef supply chain emissions.

 

 

 

Co-author of the study, Dr Laura Cardenas said:

 

 

 

    Due to technical and logistical challenges, field experiments which measure losses of nitrous oxide from soils usually add livestock faeces and urine they have sourced from other farms or other parts of the farm, meaning that the emissions captured do not necessarily represent the true emissions generated by the animals consuming the pasture.”

 

 

 

Writing in the journal Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, the team report how they created a near ‘closed’ system whereby the circular flow of nitrogen from soil to forage to cattle and, ultimately, back to soil again, could be monitored.

 

 

 

Lead author of the study, Dr Graham McAuliffe and colleagues had previously discovered system-wide reductions of greenhouse gas emissions associated with the inclusion of white clover in pasture. This conclusion was primarily driven by a lack of need for ammonium nitrate fertiliser, whose production and application create greenhouse gases.

 

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/06/07/new-study-climate-impact-of-grazing-cattle-overestimated/

 

 

 

More Climate data

 

https://www.thegwpf.com/new-study-climate-impact-of-grazing-cattle-overestimated/

 

Sister Thea Bowman was born in Yazoo City, Mississippi in 1937 into a black Protestant family, but the precocious Thea embarked on her own spiritual journey at an early age and convinced her parents to let her convert to Catholicism when she was just 9 years old.

 

https://grottonetwork.com/keep-the-faith/community/who-was-thea-bowman/

 

 

 

Water

 

http://blog.newadvent.org/2020/06/we-still-dont-understand-what-water-is.html

 

 

 

 

 

Telling Our Story – Noreen Hurley SSL

 

by MáirIn Delaney, coordinator

 

The Sisters of St Louis’ General Chapter 2015 invited the sisters to tell and re-tell the St Louis story “in order to own, celebrate and pass it on to future generations." The story of the Institute is the ‘why’ of the Institute, and telling it is an art of translating our values into action, of constructing our identity,

 

https://sistersofstlouis.newsweaver.com/Newsletter/p8e0lebnb5qdxav81nwt7w?email=true&lang=en&a=2&p=57322134&t=19890255

 

The coronavirus pandemic has triggered the worst domestic migration crisis on the Indian subcontinent since Partition in 1947. Millions of unemployed wage labourers have left crowded cities for the countryside. There are 70 million refugees, asylum seekers, and other displaced people around the world.

 

Estimated we consume about a spoonful of microscopic plastic in our water supply weekly. What is happening to all the disposable protection clothes and gloves. Marine bacteria Prochlorococcus, which produces ten percent of the oxygen we breathe, grows slower than normal because plastic pollution changes its gene expression.

 

MICHAEL (MIKE JOE) CRONIN SUNRISE: 12TH SEPTEMBER 1942 SUNSET: 26TH MAY 2020

 

Memories are a treasure, time can’t take them away and we have so many wonderful memories of Mike Joe that we will cherish forever –sometimes with laughter, sometimes with tears, but always with love. After leaving school in Lenamore he worked in various jobs –with farmers, with the Board of Public Works, in Listowel Mart, with a builder, as an honorary milk man with Tom Manaher, at Newtownsandes Co-op and finally in Tarbert Power Station where he made many wonderful friends for life. Although his two sisters Noreen and Mary moved to England, all three kept in regular contact with each other.  This was very important to Mike Joe and he loved their visits home, always looking forward to meeting them for a good catch up.  Stories were recalled of days gone by and new memories were made.  Even though they were separated by land and sea they always held a special bond.  As Noreen said to me only recently she “always knew she could rely and depend on Mike”.  In later years this bond was nourished and strengthened through friendship with his brother in law Ron, nephew Tim, grandnephew Aidan and grandniece Niamh.  Mom and Dad had a very special bond.  Their love and friendship towards each other was plain for all to see.  Their friendship towards each other was plain for all to see.  They both enjoyed doing their own thing and also loved doing things together. Dad was so proud of Mom in many ways.  An example would be if Mom mentioned a singer she thought was good his reply would be “sure Nell aren’t you just as good if not better”. Dad and Joe were firm friends.  He welcomed Joe into our house as if he has always been there.  As he always said,“Joeen, you are one of us”.  As for myself, I never had any hope of being involved in GAA in some capacity.  Like I said to Dad, “for a man who only had one daughter, he raised a great son”.  He took me to my first Moyvane game along with my first Kerry game, a Munster Final in Cork.  We travelled with his lifelong friend Seamus who unfortunately took a wrong turn on the way home, causing us to go somewhat astray.  I was warned not to mention our detour when we eventually got home but rest assured Mike Joe got a great kick out of the fact that “Roche took the wrong turn”.  Mike Joe loved to read.  The Independent newspaper arrived each day and was handed over before any other messages were removed from the bag.  Any kind of book would do –sports, history –politics –fiction –the longer the better.  Mike Joe read not just for pleasure but to retain the information.  One thing is for sure –Dad was the easiest person ever to buy a present for –A book.  Another pastime he enjoyed was crosswords and puzzles.  He had great satisfaction when he managed to finish an extremely difficult one.  If he got stuck for an answer I would hear “Ains, have you a few answers on the yoke” –the ‘yoke’ being Google.  Even with the help of Google, it was still Mike Joe who actually ‘finished’ the crossword. He had an interest in most sports.  He was a Liverpool supporter, an avid horse racing fan, liked to watch rugby and enjoyed both playing and watching darts.  It was GAA however that was his true passion.  He loved to watch hurling and Tipperary was his hurling team of choice.  The feats of Nicky English, Babs Keating and Pat Fox were often spoken of in our kitchen. Although he mainly played underage football with his beloved Moyvane, his involvement as a supporter spanned many enjoyable years.  He told me he attended his first Moyvane game in Stacks Field and to make the experience even better –we beat Listowel on the day.  He stuck with the Moyvane teams through thick and thin down through the years, celebrating their victories both big and small.  In recent years, although he had stopped attending games, he loved to hear about the victories of our current underage teams.

 

 

 

He attended his first Kerry game with his father when he was 9,again like my first game, a Munster Final in Cork.  He loved travelling to games and he and his beloved Eileen spent many enjoyable years travelling with the Kerry Supporters Club.  When he eventually stopped travelling, I was given the task of relaying to him the ins and outs of the game.  It is worth mentioning that in Mike Joe’s opinion, all Kerry victories were to be cherished –but he felt it was always just a little bit sweeter when we beat the Dubs. Mike Joe’s knowledge and memory when it came to GAA was well known, not just in the Boro, but also further afield.  He seemed to have a natural ability to watch a game and memorise all of the action.  Often I would quiz him by calling out different dates only to be regales with the winning All Ireland and North Kerry Champions of that year along with the team line outs, subs, scorers and who they defeated.  When Moyvane GAA decided to celebrate its Senior North Kerry Championship titles, Mike Joe was often called upon to ensure that the correct players and scores were included.  As someone said about him recently he was Moyvane’s very own Memory Man.  He was the ‘go-to’ person to find out facts or even to settle an argument.  So many people have helped us out over the past days.  Their love and support has been invaluable along with their genuine affection for Mike Joe.  We appreciate their kindness and generosity from the bottom of our hearts. Reading through the numerous beautiful messages of support we have received, certain works keep re-appearing –gentleman, quiet, unassuming, friendly and knowledgeable, just to name a few.  To us, Dad was all of the above and so much more.  We are so happy for him that his departure from us was so peaceful.  Dad has gone to join his parents Tim and Nora, sister Mary, brother in laws, Ron, Michael and Tom and his son Patrick.  It was half time for Dad here on earth but there is a long second half for him to enjoy in Heaven.  May the angels guide him and may his gentle soul rest in peace.  We will love him always and forever.   “For we’ll n’er see another like the gallant Mike Joe

 

”Eulogy given by daughter Áine at her Dad’s Funeral, Moyvane Church, Friday 29th May 2020.

 

 

 

 

 

Right Honourable Honourable James 2nd Earl of Bandon, Custos Rotorum,  (1785-1856), Castlebernard, FRANCIS (1st EARL of BANDON) and HARRIET (Boyle) had James (heir and 2nd Earl born 14th June 1785 in Bandon and died 31st October 1856 at Castle Bernard) m 13th March, 1809 in Cashel  Mary Susan Brodrick eldest daughter of Charles, Archbishop of Cashel and sister of Charles, 6th Viscount Midleton.  Mary was born 9th October 1787 and died 23rd April 1870, buried in Bandon.  Due to rising war related prices land rents estimated 1811 at £30,000. Succeeded to title and estate  after his father’s death in 1830. Following a large Protestant meeting 1834 at Castlebenard nominated to prepare a petition to the British King and Parliament with the Rev. Somers Payne, Councillor Mannix, Lords Berehaven and Bandon. Subscriber Lewis Richard Dowden papers: 1837. 1842 Subscriber Jacksons Co. and City Directory. 1844 Printed handbill/notice , 'Cork Art Union for the promotion of the fine arts in the South of Ireland', annual subscription appeal. President is Lord Viscount Bernard MP (Lord Bandon). Printed by W Scraggs, 102 Patricks Street. (1p)  Subscriber John Ryan, 1845 '20 Years of Popish Persecution'.  Made huge efforts during the Famine to secure relief. Co. Grand Master Orange Order. Fellow Royal Society 1845. Member Commission on Magistrates 1838 subscriber, 2 copies,  1861 to Smith’s History of Cork. Bandon 1869.

 

 

 

Genealogy of Bernard family courtesy Catherine Fitzmaurice:

 

 

 

http://www.bandon-genealogy.com/Bernards_of_Castle_Bernard.htm

 

Dance of Life Act 1

 

http://www.stjohns.ie/index.php/videos

 

 

 

SCOUTS

 

 

7th World Scout Jamboree 1951

 

The 7th World Scout Jamboree was held in the American Sector Bad Ischl & Salzkammergut, Austria from the 3rd to the 13th of August. 59 Irish Scouters attended the Jamboree. Scouts from the S.A.I. and C.B.S.I. attended under the newly formed Oganaigh Fódla (Fódlach) which translates as National Youth or Juveniles of the Nation. 9 Scouters left from Dublin while the other 50 departed from Cork. The group that departed from Cork had the unusual experience of camping in five different countries over five nights, on Wednesday they camped in Listowel, Thursday in England, Friday in France, Saturday in Switzerland arriving at the Jamboree on Sunday where they spent their first night on Austrian soil. The Irish contingent which was led by the 5th Dublin also included Scouters from the 1st Duagh (a small village in County Kerry) Scout Troop and the Tuam Scout Pipe Band. In Switzerland member of the Listowel Scout Troop met up with their old friend Helmut Welss from Heidelberg Germany, Helmut was a member of the Scout Troop for a number of years following his evacuation to Ireland at the end of WW2. The Listowel Scouts also met with the Listowel Scout Troop from Ontario Canada at the Jamboree.

 

 

 

At the Jamboree Irish Scouts took part in a radio broadcast for the Dutch radio station Hilversum Radio, the broadcast was used in the closing part of a special Jamboree broadcast which was broadcast worldwide. The entrance gate to the Irish camp site, designed by the Dean of Cashel, as authority on Celtic design, attracted considerable attention and was reproduced by a local postcard company copies of which were available at the Jamboree.

 

http://www.irishmedals.ie/World-Jamborees.php

 

North Kerry Pictures JFN

 

https://youtu.be/a8KVHPsHT2I

 

 

 

Knockanure Moyvane in 1970s

 

https://youtu.be/zgy_6RTQ-uk

 

 

 

George Langan

 

https://langangeorge.wordpress.com/

 

 

 

 

 

Video Local

 

https://www.facebook.com/charlie.nolan.18

 

410: Are Tracking Implants the Mark of the Beast? [Podcast]

 

By Dr. Taylor Marshall

 

The Covid-19 Controversy has people asking: Are Tracking Implants the Mark of the Beast? There have been allegations that governments and elites want to implant tracking devices into the populace to track and control them. Last week on Reddit, Bill Gates suggested a means of “digital tracking certificates”, which caused many people to think that we could be close to this imposed technology. Dr. Marshall looks at the controversy and whether this could be the “Mark” that is described in Apocalypse 13:18.

 

In Germany, lung specialist Voshaar was also concerned. A mechanical ventilator itself can damage the lungs, he says. This means patients stay in intensive care longer, blocking specialist beds and creating a vicious circle in which ever more ventilators are needed.

 

Of the 36 acute COVID-19 patients on his ward in mid-April, Voshaar said, one had been intubated - a man with a serious neuro-muscular disorder - and he was the only patient to die. Another 31 had recovered.

 

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-ventilators-specia/special-report-as-virus-advances-doctors-rethink-rush-to-ventilate-idUSKCN2251PE

 

         

 

 

 

GERMANY: The President of the Weimar Republic was elected by popular suffrage for a seven year term. The President  could  rule  in  times  of  crisis  by  using  Article  48  to  suspend  the  legislature  and  rule through emergency decree. The president appointed the chancellor as head of government to run the legislature. The Reischwehr(German Army) swore their loyalty oath to the president and not to  the  constitution. From  1919-1932  there  were  21  different  coalition  governments. From  1928-1932   there   were   four   chancellors   who   often   ruled   through   emergency   decree.   President Hindenburg’s  use  of  Article  48  undermined  the  ability  to  create  democratic  traditions  and structures  and  tended  to  further  isolate  opposing  political  groups.  It  also  fostered  a  sense  of  confusion, paralysis,  dysfunction,  and  disunity  that  led  to  a growing  resentment  toward German  elites –specifically political  leaders.  This  rising  resentment  towards,  coupled  with  growing  economic  anxiety  and  a  wounded national pride, fuelled the rise of radical politicians willing and able to stoke peoples’ fears for political gain. 

 

------------

 

As Himmler later shaped the SS  he  did  so  embracing  the  idea  that  compassion  for  the  enemy  was  contemptible  and  that  murdering opponents was noble, requiring the best of society, not the worst, to accomplish.

 

https://www.keene.edu/academics/ah/cchgs/resources/presentation-materials/the-rise-of-the-nazis-establishing-dictatorship-destroying-democracy/download/

 

 

 

 

 

Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) was a prominent Lutheran pastor in Germany. He emerged as an outspoken public foe of Adolf Hitler and spent the last seven years of Nazi rule in concentration camps. He is perhaps best remembered for his postwar words, “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out…”

 

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/martin-niemoeller-first-they-came-for-the-socialists

 

On death of Patrick J Mooney in Dublin March 2020.

 

My deepest sympathy Kathleen, Damien, Deirdre, Patrick and Michael.  I was so sorry to hear of Pat's passing.  My thoughts and prayers are with you at this difficult time. 

 

A life well lived that meant

 

so much,

 

In each and every way..

 

Complete with friendships true,

 

And good times shared,

 

And laughter through the years..

 

A life that leaves a legacy,

 

Of joy and pride and pleasure,

 

A loving, lasting memory,

 

Our grateful hearts will treasure.

 

Eileen Mc Grath, Oranmore, Co Galway

 

 

 

This weekend uncle Pat Mooney, with 85 orbits, had his great life on this earthly dimension taken to the next realm closer to God! By what they call COVID:19!

 

Please God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit look over him and illuminate his soul!

 

May he rest in peace, I have the fondest memories of him and his family! May god bless and protect them and us all! Please! Take care and do what you can to help prevent the spread of this invisible and abstruse virus!

 

My sincerest condolences and solace to aunty Kathy and dear cousins; Damien, Deirdre, Patrick and Michael!

 

Lots of Love, Philip Carthy

 

Philip Patrick Carthy

 

 

 

Sincere condolences to Kathy, Damien, Deirdre, Patrick and Michael on the passing of our dear neighbour/friend Pat.  We’ve had the privilege to be next door neighbours of the Mooney family for almost 40 years. You couldn’t ask for better neighbours.

 

Pat was an inspiration to all who met him - his life experiences were such as to leave you wondering if you had lived at all.

 

He was great gardener and he worked an allotment for 39 years , providing fresh produce for his family - it was not uncommon for a turnip, parsnip, leek to be tossed over the hedge into our back garden ! He was inspirational to us taking up allotment gardening in recent years. Pat was a proud Galwayman - he loved the GAA and hurling in particular.

 

Ask Pat ‘how are the kids doing’ and he’d regale you on where each was at, how well they were all doing and how proud he was of each of them.

 

The love of his life was Kathy, who supported him through so many life events and he relied so much on her, in recent years in particular - jovially, he would refer to Kathy as the CEO/Financial Controller.

 

 

 

Pat will be a big loss to his family and to our neighbourhood. But we will support the Mooney family tomorrow, on a difficult day, and I’ve no doubt but that Lucan/Beech Grove will do Pat proud.

 

 

 

Ar dheis De go raibh a anam.

 

Rose and Ted Aherne, 90 Beech Grove

 

 

 

Dear Kathy, Damien, Deirdre, Patrick and Michael and all the extended family.

 

 

 

 So so sorry to hear of Pats passing. He was an inspiration to me over these last years that I knew him.  Also for all his friends  that knew and loved him down at the Clarion/ Clacton Hotel Gym and Swimming Pool. Manys the conversations he shared about life, events, sports,  the other world out there, his travels to places we might never see and the pictures he painted,  his inspiration on coming back from events he overcame and bravery in overcoming various health problems thrown at him. I looked at him and said to myself, if he can do it then we/ I should never moan and make the effort and enjoy the rewards that come from that. An inspiration In these times to so many who knew him that will not have heard the news yet and the opportunity will not arise to tell them for now and they will be sad and at the same time revel in the times they spent with him, the stories, the laughs. I will miss him traversing the green at Beech Grove, the tall upright figure striding on in his efforts to keep/ be fit. Always ready to stop and chat and share his views. Never contentious.Again I will miss him and so glad I got to know him. My/ our thoughts are with ye at this time, Kathy and  Damien,Patrick, Michael and Deirdre (not so long ago I met u Deirdre with him on the green on his walk and enjoyed the chat.

 

Brian and Miriam Walsh- Beech Grove

 

https://rip.ie/cb.php?dn=417825

 

https://www.intercommagazine.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/April-Intercom-2020-Part-1.pdf

 

 

 

 

 

BABIES Born in India daily; there are 69000 babies born in India every day, according to UNICEF’s 2018 estimate,

 

 

 

Sisters from across the city volunteered. They mostly did not have medical training, just the will to help. “I was struck, at first, with a fearful dread, for I never came in close contact with death but once in my life,” said one nun who worked at an emergency hospital on South Broad Street. “But realizing what must be done, I quickly put on my gown and mask.” Another described her first day, October 12, at Philadelphia General Hospital, a charity hospital in West Philadelphia:

 

https://daily.jstor.org/surviving-a-pandemic-in-1918/?utm_term=Surviving%20a%20Pandemic%2C%20in%201918&utm_campaign=jstordaily_03262020&utm_content=email&utm_source=Act-On+Software&utm_medium=email

 

It was the latest shot to be fired in leader Xi Jinping’s war against religion that has seen repression, especially against Christianity and Islam, amped up to levels not seen since the dark days of Mao Zedong which culminated in the bloody, murderous and disastrous Cultural Revolution from 1966 until the dictator’s 1976 death.

 

https://www.ucanews.org/news/dont-be-fooled-by-chinas-morality-play/86928

 

The Volunteer: A Former IRA Man's True Story by Shane Paul O'Doherty, Strategic Book Publishing & Rights Agency, £9.50.

 

Ex-IRA bomber who got 30 life sentences has words of advice for young dissidents

 

He was from a middle-class family in Londonderry, joined the IRA at 15 and received 30 life sentences for a letter bombing campaign but went on to renounce terrorism and seek forgiveness from his victims. Now, Shane Paul O'Doherty has this advice for young dissidents: you lose a universe by taking life, and don't gain a single speck of territory

 

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/exira-bomber-who-got-30-life-sentences-has-words-of-advice-for-young-dissidents-37753754.html

 

We live in an age of disruption. Companies that were once stalwarts are overtaken by small, plucky upstarts. Our personal lives can also be disrupted. We lose a job or a business fails.

 

https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/red-teaming-introduction/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheArtOfManliness+%28The+Art+of+Manliness%29&mc_cid=f9ffc6c2dd&mc_eid=83acb42668

 

Listowel Army Census 1922

 

http://census.militaryarchives.ie/results.php?firstname=&lastname=&age=&location=Listowel&button=Submit

 

 

Ballylongford;

https://csorp.nationalarchives.ie/search/index.php?simpleSearchSbm=true&category=27&searchDescTxt=Ballylongford&simpleSearchSbm=Search#searchfocus

 

 

 

TITLE:    Letter from Hector Graham, County Kerry, requesting government employment

 

SCOPE & CONTENT: Letter from Hector Graham, Tarbert, County Kerry, half pay lieutenant of 60th regiment of foot, to Charles Grant, Chief Secretary, Dublin Castle, requesting government employment. Refers to his long military service, his wounds from that time, and also the need to support his large family, 14 January 1821. Also letter from Graham, Bushy Park, [postmark Tarbert], to Grant, concerning his recent application for a commission in the Ballylongford yeomanry, County Kerry, alongside the commission of the peace, 'to enable me to assist in keeping this part of the country quiet'. Renews his application for employment, 16 November 1821.

 

EXTENT: 2 items; 4pp-DATE(S): 14 Jan 1821-16 Nov 1821

 

Posted by durrushistory in assisted female emigration, australia, sydney              

 

 

 

Irish Female Emigration to New South Wales 1832, ‘The Committee for Promoting the Emigration of Single Women ‘, Cork to Sydney, Free Passage and some Australian Themes.

 

 

 

https://durrushistory.com/2014/02/06/mary-donovan-1831-1860-one-of-25-female-orphans-from-skibbereen-workhouse-who-went-to-australia-on-the-eliza-caroline-she-married-and-went-to-the-ballarat-goldfields/

 

In November 1984, my friend John Miller was elected to the House of Representatives from Washington State’s first congressional district. John was a Republican and the House was controlled by Democrats, so as a freshman member from the minority party, his committee assignments were not scintillating.

 

https://denvercatholic.org/a-new-cardinal-honors-an-entire-nation/

 

SULLIVAN; Nimmo was scathing on Captain O'Sullivan, a Landlord and road contractor on the road works around Glengarriff. He paid his workers who were his tenants in vouchers redeemable against rent.

 

 

 

Yale Presents an Archive of 170,000 Photographs Documenting the Great Depression

 

http://www.openculture.com/2019/09/yale-presents-an-archive-of-170000-photographs-documenting-the-great-depression.html

 

 

 

 

 

The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), who led the research, says: “The new data from Scotland means this is the first time the genetic map of the UK and the Republic of Ireland can be seen in its entirety.”

 

https://www.irishcentral.com/news/ireland-scotland-common-genetic-history

 

From Listowel Connection Sept 2019

 

The Convent bell, was operated by the pulling of an attached rope, this was located close  the Sacristy, which was at the back of the Sanctuary. The ringing of this  bell was mostly the preserve and duty of the Sacristan, Sr. Aloysius.

 

 

 

For one year, back in the mid 1950s, (c 1956), I was an Altar Server. My mother decreed that, as my father, his two brothers and my two older brothers had donned the surplice and the soutane of the Convent Chapel, then I would have to follow in their footsteps. So, when arrangements were made, I had to undergo a crash course in the old form of the Latin Mass.  For this I was coached by Tony Dillon, a senior altar server at the Convent. When I was deemed proficient I then had to go before Sr. Aloysius for the oral exam, The Latin, was learned off like a parrot without any knowledge of what it meant, even today 60 years on, much is still remembered, 'Introibo ad Altare Dei', Mae Culpa, Mae Maxima Culpa etc etc. Practical training followed before been allowed to doing any serving.

 

 

 

I enjoyed my year and a memory of it came back to me some years ago, on this occasion I had spoken to a group on Kathy Buckley's time in the White House, at a question and answers after the talk, I was asked if there was anyone in life that I had met and afterwards regretted that I had not spoken to them of their earlier life. I thought and said yes. An elderly couple used attend daily morning mass at the Convent Chapel in my time as a server, their names, Ned and Anne Gleeson, Anne was blind and she would link Ned as they went, they were daily communicants and many a morning I held the paten under their chins as they received, years later as I developed a love of local history I found out that Ned Gleeson was the man who delivered the Listowel Town Commissioners address of welcome to Charles Steward Parnell, on his famous visit to Listowel in 1891. In racing parlance, that would have been a story, straight from the horse's mouth.

 

To survive, Greenfield taught music. She got her big break in 1851 when she gave a private performance for a rich Buffalo socialite and her friends. Dubbed “the Black Swan” by Buffalo journalists, she was soon sought after and supported by wealthy white and Black patrons who arranged for, publicized, and supported her performances. In a time of publicly-sanctioned segregation, she performed for mixed audiences.

 

 

 

As her fame grew she embarked on a national tour. Soon, Greenfield was performing in front of audiences of thousands. At places like the New York Harmonic Society, which prohibited Black people from attending, people prevented from seeing her nearly rioted. In response, Greenfield would sometimes perform the same program at both white and Black venues.

 

https://daily.jstor.org/elizabeth-taylor-greenfield-the-black-swan/?utm_term=Elizabeth%20Taylor%20Greenfield%2C%20%22The%20Black%20Swan%22&utm_campaign=jstordaily_05022019&utm_content=email&utm_source=Act-On+Software&utm_medium=email

 

Remembering a popular teacher and a great servant of the GAA who died in Nigeria.

 

Who was Frank Sheehy?

 

The question is answered by Vincent Carmody

 

 

 

Frank was born in 1905 to John J.(b 1870) and Annie Sheehy.(b 1874) His father served as a drapery assistant in the Listowel and his mother was a native of Tipperary. Frank was the youngest of 4 children, with a brother John (b 1898), Margaret(b 1899) and Ellen ( b 1901).

 

 

 

He received his primary education at the Boys' National School, only 3 doors up the street from his home,. After this he attended St Michael’s College where he was a classmate of Seamus Wilmot among others.

 

 Having achieved an M.A. at University College Dublin he then applied for and was accepted to attend at St. Patrick's Training College 1932-1934 to complete his studies to become a National Teacher. Among his colleagues at this time was the redoubtable Sean O Síocháin, later to become a long time General Secretary to the Gaelic Athletic Association. OSíocháin, in a tribute to Frank in 1981 wrote, ‘I first made his acquaintance in 1932/1934 as a student teacher in the Primary School attached to St. Patrick’s Teacher Training College, in Drumcondra, Dublin, where Frank had established himself as one of the great primary teachers of his time. In the following years, through the thirties and into the forties, we worked in after-school hours for the Comhar Dramaíochta, in the production and promotion of plays in Irish, he as runaí and I as a junior actor and sometimes Bainisteoir Stáitse. His high efficiency, his drive and his sense of humour streamlined many a situation for amateur actors which, otherwise might have been chaotic. During the forties, as Principal of an Endowed Primary School in Oldcastle, Co. Meath, gave him a distinction enjoyed by few in Primary Education, while his period in that part of Co. Meath, which coincided with that of the incomparable Paul Russell as Garda Sergeant, transformed the town and the district into a mini-Kingdom all their own’.

 

 

 

He returned to his native town in the early 1950s and quickly immersed himself in the local club and county GAA scene. He became Chairman of the county board in 1953 and many would say that he indeed was the spark that ignited the Kerry Senior team to regain the Sam Maguire, the first since 1946. That year he also organised the golden jubilee of the county’s first All Ireland success in 1953 and he was also instrumental in initiating the scheme that allowed Kerry All Ireland medal holders the right to apply for two tickets whenever the county reached the final.

 

 

 

He was appointed as principal of the senior boys’ school on his return to Listowel, a position he held until 1960. He served as Munster Council President from 1956-1958 and was narrowly beaten for the Presidency of the GAA by Dr.J.J.Stuart.

 

 

 

 

 

In 1961 he went to Nigeria, Africa, to take up a position of Professor of Educational Science at a training college in Asaba. He died there in 1962.

 

Listowel sports field is named ‘Pairc Mhic Shithigh’ in his honour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘Pray for me’: The last letter of an RIC officer executed by the IRA

 

Ronan McGreevy

 

 

 

The poignant last letter of former Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) officer who was executed by the IRA for being a spy has been released as part of the Brigade Activity Reports.

 

James Kane, a fisheries protection officer in Co Kerry, was executed on June 16th 1921 on suspicion that he gave his former RIC colleagues details of eight IRA men who were  involved in the shooting dead of the constabulary’s divisional commander.

 

Detective Inspector Tobias O’Sullivan was shot dead on January 20th, 1921 outside Listowel barracks in Co Kerry. Some time later men from the 6th Battalion, Kerry North Brigade, kidnapped Kane. They did so on instruction from IRA General Headquarters (GHQ) and interrogated him.

 

After a prolonged period of interrogation he was executed on June 16th, 1921. His body was left by the side of the road with a note, “Convicted spy. Let others beware. IRA.”

 

Before he died Kane composed a letter to his family which is in the newly-released Brigade Activity Reports files of 1 Kerry Brigade. The letter is addressed to his children, one of whom is said to have cried out as the coffin was lowered into the ground, “Daddy, daddy”.

 

It beings: “My dear children, I am condemned (to) die. I had the priest today, thank God. I give you all my blessing and pray God may protect you all. Pray for me and get some masses said for me.”

 

Kane goes on to list the financial provisions he has made for the family and the money he owes to people locally.

 

It is clear that his children will be left as orphans as he requests that he be buried next to his “loving wife if possible”.

 

He concluded: “Don’t go to too much expense at the funeral and have no drink or public wake. I am told my body will be got near home. I got the greatest kindness from those in charge of men.

 

“Good bye now and God bless you and God bless Ireland. Pray for us constantly and give my love to all my friends and neighbours and thank them for all their kindness.”

 

The stay-at-home mother’s pregnancy was considered high risk because she was over 40 and had suffered previous miscarriages. As a result, her doctor ordered blood tests on the baby early on and monitored the pregnancy closely.

 

She started to bleed during the pregnancy and was diagnosed in spring 2013 with a subchorionic hematoma, a blood clot in the fetal membrane. The only thing doctors can do for that condition is prescribe bed rest. If the blood clot ruptures, it can result in a spontaneous miscarriage.

 

https://www.archbalt.org/illinois-doctor-newman-miracle-depositions-were-spiritual-experiences/

 

DEATH NORA Bennis, who regularly made headlines for her outspoken views and passed away this week aged 78, has been laid to rest in her native Limerick.

 

Married to the late Gerry Bennis from the famous hurling family from Patrickswell, she was a very energetic and forceful voice in a wide range of areas from women working at home to abortion and sex education.

 

The staunch pro-life campaigner had plenty of followers and secured more than 18,000 first preference votes when she contested the 1994 European elections in the then Munster constituency.

 

Her funeral took place this Thursday at Our Lady of the Rosary Church, Ennis Road, adjacent to her family home at Revington Park. She was to be buried in St Mary’s (New) Cemetery, Patrickswell.

 

Nora was daughter of Paul Shinners, a veteran of the Easter Rising. As a political activist, she regularly hit the headlines including when leading a boycott of a sex shop which she described as “filth” when it opened on Ellen Street many years ago. See details in Limerick leader Eugene Phelan,14 Feb 2019.

 

From Listowel Connection

 

Down Memory Lane to the Ball Alley

 

 

 

A man called Enda Timoney is compiling a history of handball in Ireland. His research brought him to Listowel Connection and Junior Griffin's account of hand balling in Listowel in the 1940s and 50s.

 

 

 

Here is another memory from Junior;

 

 

 

"By all means Mr. Timoney can use my few words, in fact I would feel honoured. I think it is great that he is contemplating  writing a history on the handball alleys.  There was a time when we literally had nothing in our pockets and handball was our main sporting outlet as it really cost us nothing.

 

In fact as young boys during the war years some of us in the Bridge Road made a bit of money out of the handball.

 

On a Sunday morning the alley was packed with many young, and not too young, men awaiting their game of handball.  No emigration.  A few of us budding  entrepreneurs from the Bridge Road would have picked up one old penny somewhere, when there was 240 pence to the old pound, and we would make our way to  lovely old lady named Mrs Dowling about a mile outside Listowel and buy apples from her and then go back to the alley and sell our apples. Our aim was to make a profit of 3 old pence, 2 pence for the Sunday matinee and the one penny left would buy us 2 squares of the old Cleeves slab toffee. Our week was made, we wanted nothing else. The two squares were joined together and we would break them by hitting them against the metal leg of our seat in the local cinema. More than likely a square, or maybe both, would hit the ground, but the word hygiene was not on our dictionary in those days. What a lovely, carefree life it was.

 

 

 

The end of the war changed all that, as most of the hand ball young men of that era emigrated to different corners of the world. As I got older I played a lot of handball myself and gave many years as secretary of the local club.. The game of handball meant a lot to us in those days and I honestly believe that as young boys and then as young men it kept us out of harm’s way as the game of handball was such a brilliant game to play."

 

 

 

Worrying Times

 

 

 

by Domhnall de Barra

 

 

 

We live in a fast-changing world that sometimes is hard to keep up with as every day brings something new. Advances in technology have enhanced our lives and given us new gadgets that make life that bit easier. International travel has improved and the world has become a much smaller place. I remember when I was in my teens hearing of a neighbour going to Australia. The only way to go was by passenger ship and the journey took 6 weeks to complete. Going to England by train and boat took over 24 hours, roughly the same time it now takes to fly to Australia. We can use skype and facetime to talk to friends and relations anywhere on the globe and watch them on the screens of our phones and tablets. If we need to find out about anything we just have to “google” it and the answer is there. Likewise with online shopping which gives us  a huge choice of goods to choose from.

 

 

 

I recently had to replace two EGR valves in my Land Rover. The cost of the two in Ireland was €900. By searching the net I got them in Germany and they were delivered to my door at a total cost of €103. Now, that was some saving but we also need to be careful. The internet has given new opportunities to criminals who can pose as genuine traders and take all the money out of our bank accounts. We are fast approaching a time when paper money will be just a memory. Even now it is difficult to buy anything with notes over a couple of thousand. It will make it more difficult to launder money and will affect the black economy. We just have to adjust to these changes no matter how much we want to stop the world so that we can get off. Since the end of the 2nd World War we have had a more peaceful time but that is now in danger with the behaviour of the US, Russia and China in particular. I am old enough to remember the cold war between Russia and the USA and how close we came to a nuclear war that would have spelled the end of the world for us. There was an arms race with both nations trying to build bigger and better bombs and missiles. At one stage, Russian warships were heading for Cuba to launch an attack on the US but president Kennedy held his nerve and, at the last minute, they turned back. Common sense prevailed and eventually a treaty was arranged where both nations agreed to curtail their nuclear activity and the arms race was over. Now Trump says he wants to pull out of that arrangement and go back to building up the supply of arms.  Putin of course will follow suit and we will be back to the bad old days. Make no mistake, these two leaders are dangerous men who lose no opportunity to boost their already inflated egos and are quite capable of pressing the button that will end in total destruction. Let us hope that wiser heads will prevail and these lunatics will not be allowed to bring the world to the brink again. I was hoping to say that we have moved on as a nation and that we are now more open to diversity than ever before.

 

 

 

The divorce and gay marriage referendums have shown that the people are more enlightened and I thought our politicians were too until I saw an article in one of the Sunday papers recently about plans the department of justice had to award some money to Joanne Hayes, the woman from Kerry who was wrongly accused of murdering her baby in 1984.  She was treated badly by agents of the state who sought to make the crime fit a theory they had and they went so far as to persuade members of the Hayes family, simple country people, to admit to a crime they did not commit. I met Joanne during the trial in Dublin. I was playing in a place called Kitty O’Shea’s on Grand Canal Street at the time and she came in with her solicitor Patrick Mann one night. Patrick came from Abbeyfeale originally so we got chatting and he introduced me to Joanne who came across as a very shy, timid individual who was no more capable of murdering her own baby than I was. The trial fell apart when forensic evidence proved that the baby in question was not Joanne’s at all. The damage, however, had been done and she and her family have had to live with that ever since. A couple of Taoisigh and ministers for justice apologised over the years but, even though it was obvious that the police work in the case left much to be desired, nobody was held to account and no compensation was paid. Now the payment mooted comes with strings attached. A confidentiality clause will have to be signed also  a waiver from taking any future action against the state. The payment is not an admission of liability on the government’s part and is not deemed to be compensation. It is the same old story; protect the institution at all costs. This is what happened when priests were found guilty by their bishops of sexual crimes against minors in their diocese. Instead of reporting them to the Gardaí immediately they were just moved on to different areas to continue with their abuses. Victims of crime were less important than the institution and now our politicians are acting in the very same manner. It is time to call a halt. Joanne Hayes should be paid compensation and the government should hold its hands up and admit that she and her family were treated very badly, without any conditions whatsoever. Forget about confidentiality clauses and the likes and don’t add insult to injury. That family have suffered enough..

 

 

 

On a brighter note. Valentine’s Day is almost upon us so the sales of flowers, chocolates and wine will soar. It is nice to get a gift but the best gift of all is love.

 

 

 

Kerryman North Edition, Thursday, July 21, 2005; Section: Kerryman Tralee

 

A very fit Micheál steps back from the chalkface

 

ON Monday Micheal O Ruaric retires as Vice Principal of Clounalour CBS — after 45 years of teaching, the bulk of which have been spent with the Tralee Christian Brothers.

 

It will come as a surprise to many to learn that Micheal is 65. He looks fresh and fit and his tall frame gives him the appearance of a younger man. And he probably would have liked to carry on. Because of the surplus of teachers, however, he like many others has to retire because he has reached the retiring age.

 

Micheal O Ruairc’s fame extends far beyond the classroom, although it was there that he was happiest and made many friends. A whole generation of boys who passed through the school will recall him. But to those who never sat in his classroom he was known as a prominent GAA man and a member of a number of cultural organisations in the town.

 

Appropriately, we tracked him down this week at Clounalour CBS where a football league final was being played in bright sunshine.

 

He presented the cup to the jubilant winners and made a speech. His wit appealed to the boys and they cheered him. Being with the youngsters will be something he will miss in retirement.

 

“I will miss being with young people,” he said. “I found teaching a very rewarding and satisfying job; one was surrounded by laughter to a certain extent.”

 

Micheal O Ruairc was born in Ardfert. Shortly afterwards his father was transferred to Farranfore where the family spent four years. They later moved to Tralee and spent some time living in James’ Street, before moving to Ballymullen.

 

 

 

Micheal was educated at Edward Street CBS and trained as a National Teacher in the De La Salle College, Waterford, from 1928 to 1930.

 

His first teaching post was at St Joseph’s Orphanage, Tralee, where he spent three months. He spent a short time sub-teaching at Rathmorrel NS, Ballyheigue. Here he was deputising for Mr Harry Connor, father of Fr. Fergal O’Connor.

 

In September, 1931, he was temporarily appointed to the teaching staff of Edward Street CBS. In January of the following year he was appointed permanently to the staff. At that time the monthly salary for a National Teacher was £12. Seven years later it had increased to £17.

 

“Teachers were not well paid in those day,” said Micheal. “Money, however, had value. It was a simple world in those days. We had peace and stability, we had just recovered from the recession after the First world War.” He recalled making a trip to Lourdes from Liverpool in 1938 and spending four nights in a good hotel. The total cost was £9!

 

As a youngster growing up in Tralee Micheal inevitably became interested in football. “We had to make our own fun in those days,” he said. “It was the era of the silent films and there was no great attraction in going to the cinema. There was a great emphasis in sport in those days and hurling and football were very popular. Young lads from the town spent a lot of time in the country in those days. Ballymullen was not actually joined to the town then.”

 

Micheal’s football career really began when he played for Edward Street CBS. In 1927 he won O’Sullivan Cup and Dunloe Cup medals with the school. He also played on the Munster Colleges team.

 

He was a member of the John Mitchel’s team from 1929 to 1939, during which time he won two county championship medals. He played for Kerry in the All-Ireland semi-finals of 1929 and ‘30. He was a member of the Munster team which was defeated by Leinster in the 1930 Railway cup final.

 

Micheal was chosen on the team for the 1930 semi-final in an unusual way. He was sitting in the stand watching a junior game when the then Secretary of the County Board, Jack McCarthy, approached him and said that some of the Dublin-based Kerry players had failed to turn up. Micheal was one of the last minute replacements!

 

“I borrowed a pair of boots from one of the junior players who was about my own size,” he recalled. “This kind of situation wouldn’t arise in modern times,” he said. “It just shows what a supreme GAA county Kerry was at the time. There was always a large selection of players.” Incidentally, he was a substitute on the 1930 team that defeated Monaghan in the final.

 

Reminiscing on his football contemporaries, Micheal listed off a galaxy of talent. John Joe Sheehy, Paul Russell, Con Brosnan, Bob Stack, Jackie Ryan, “a delightful footballer for a big man,” Miko Doyle, “one of the greats,” the Landers brothers ... the list seemed endless.

 

Micheal, who lives with his sister, Madeline, in Ballymullen, says that he has not given any thought as to how he will spend his retirement. “I would be going on annual holidays at this time of year anyway, so I have not really thought about it,” he said.

 

As a parting shot he said: “I have pleasant memories of the brothers and the lay teachers I worked with over the years, particularly the present teachers who made me a generous presentation at a farewell dinner in the Tralee Bay Hotel. He may have retired from teaching, but I think we are far from seeing the last of Micheal O Ruairc.

 

Miss Sandes in Wicklow

 

On a recent visit to Belfast, while flicking through a volume in a second-hand bookshop, I found myself looking at photographs of pre-World War I British army camps in Co Wicklow. The book, Enlisted, was the autobiography of Elise Sandes, a Kerrywoman who established a network of soldiers’ homes, and an organisation which survives to the present day.

 

 

 

Sandes was born in Tralee in 1851, and had a happy and conventionally religious upbringing.

 

http://www.countywicklowheritage.org/page/miss_sandes_in_wicklow

 

FLORA SANDES; She was demobilised in October 1922, and found the transition to civilian life more difficult than becoming a solider: “It was like losing everything at one fell swoop, and trying to find bearings again in another life.”

 

https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/abroad/flora-sandes-the-only-british-female-soldier-to-fight-for-the-allies-in-ww1-1.3687074

 

 

J. McKenna's Memoirs

 

Louise McKenna

 

Attachments21:15 (15 minutes ago)

 

to me Hi Jer, I attach an invitation to the launch of the memoirs at the Seanchaí next Wed.

 

 

 

Galway Books and famous boxer, died 1818 and old art Listowel teacher.

 

https://youtu.be/4VcdgEBG6BE

 

 

 

If you’re looking for some thoughtful, non-polemical insights about some of the craziness you see going on at college campuses, this episode is for you.

 

https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/coddling-of-the-american-mind-lukianoff-interview/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheArtOfManliness+%28The+Art+of+Manliness%29&mc_cid=325cf1a9b7&mc_eid=83acb42668

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Listowel Racecourse and river 2018

 

https://youtu.be/tYcJtMZGQ7Y

 

 

 

 

 

Last Sunday through the rain they walked.

 

 

 

Approximately 10,000 people gathered for the largest Catholic procession in England since Pope John Paul II's visit to Britain in 1982. This was the culminating act of the 2018 Eucharistic Congress then taking place in Liverpool.

 

This was a Eucharistic procession with a difference though.

 

http://www.ncregister.com/blog/kturley/englands-eucharistic-congress-and-the-exaltation-of-the-holy-cross

 

 

 

Prescription; “In 2015, the number of opioids prescribed was enough so that every American could be medicated around the clock for 3 weeks,” she said. “In addition to the number of prescriptions, the average day’s supply of prescription opioids increased from 2006 to 2015, from 13.3 days in 2006 to 17.7 days in 2015.”

 

– Joan Grogan.

 

In the townland of upper Athea near the boundary between Limerick & Kerry, Joan Grogan was born in a small house. As a girl she did not seem to be in any way different to others. She was gay and lively.

 

When a young woman she with other girls and boys were on their way to a wake. It was after night fall and the party came to a stream which they should cross.

 

 

 

https://northkerry.wordpress.com/2018/09/03/school-stories-from-folklore-collected-1937-to-39/

 

DEATH of Sr. Augusta died aged 102 years March 2018

 

https://aleteia.org/2018/04/10/read-the-eulogy-that-made-the-undertaker-declare-this-woman-was-truly-a-saint/

 

End of an Era? In ATHEA

 

 

 

By Domhnall de Barra

 

 

 

So sorry to hear that Rose in Brouder’s Shop is closing down this week. It is another nail in the coffin of the small shop in our community and a sign of the changing times in rural Ireland. There aren’t many places left where you can go in and buy your groceries over the counter and I’m afraid we are heading for the time when the “counter” will be but a memory. Talking of memories, the news brought to mind a time when I was young and the place was littered with shops, even out the country. There were a few in my area and they evoke different memories. Johanna (Pats) Woulfe had a shop just over the Cratloe road. It could be seen out our back window and I was often sent there as a child. I remember the smell of paraffin, or lamp oil as we called it, as you walked in the door. The barrel was kept it in a little shed by the house  and it had a little tap on it. We would take our can, an oblong shape with a flat top and an opening with a screw on cork, and she would fill the can with a gallon of oil with the assistance of a funnel. For some reason there was always a bit of spillage; hence the smell of oil. For a youngster it was not easy to carry home as the can was heavy and a couple of ditches had to be negotiated as we always took the short cut through the fields. Oil was a vital commodity for the lamps which were the only source of light before electricity. Another item she kept was common soap. This came in a long block and Johanna would cut off as much as you wanted. It was terribly hard but was very good for the washing of clothes when used with a washboard.  Another item in great demand was tobacco. In those days most of the men smoked pipes and bought their tobacco in quarter or half quarter pounds. Like the soap it also came in a  block and the desired amount would be cut off. This then had to be prepared before it could be put into the pipe for smoking. A sharp penknife was essential to pare the tobacco in narrow strips into the palm of the hand. When there was a sufficient amount for a fill the penknife was put away and the slices were crushed between two palms until they were almost turned to dust. The filling of the pipe was also a trade in itself. Too loose and the flame would run through it and too tight and it would be impossible to draw the air through it. The old lads were experts at it and didn’t mind how long it took for the perfect fill. “Bendigo” was the most popular and sometimes the only tobacco available until the arrival of brands like “Clarke’s Perfect Plug”. Everything in the shop came in sacks, chests or boxes and had to be weighed and wrapped for the customer. The wrapping was usually brown paper tied with string that hung from a reel suspended from the ceiling.  Things like sweets would be wrapped in what we called a “tóisín” (spelling probably wrong). It was a sheet of paper twisted into a cone shape with a twist at the bottom to seal it.  Sweets could be bought by the penny worth. You could get three Bell’s toffee  or six “Milseán Uí Gráda” or one “Peggy’s Leg” (a candy bar). It sounds cheap but in those days pennies were hard to come by. My grandmother would send me for ten Woodbines, a box of matches and a bar for myself and I would get a halfpenny change out of a shilling; happy days!

 

 

 

Johanna’s wasn’t the only shop around. There was one at the cross in Knocknasna owned by Jess Horan and there were two more, one each side of Cratloe creamery. Tommy and Peggy Leahy had one on the Athea side and  Birdie Collins had one on the Abbeyfeale side. Collins’ shop closed when I was still young but Willy Healy, who worked at the creamery and was also a blacksmith, opened a shop just back the Abbeyfeale road at the crossroads. It was  handy for people to do a bit of shopping  when they went to the creamery but money seldom changed hands. A book was kept and accounts were settled at the end of the month when the creamery cheque came in. I can’t see Lidl, Aldi, Super Valu or Tesco operating a scheme like that!.

 

 

 

Things were beginning to change from the ’sixties on and, with more transport available, people began to do more shopping in towns. The closing of rural creameries was the last straw and one by one the small rural shops disappeared  as they could not compete and found it difficult to make a living without the morning trade from the milk suppliers.  I suppose it is easy for me to look back nostalgically at those days but time marches on and nothing stands still. Are we better off for all the progress or has the demise of the small shop taken away a valuable social as well as commercial outlet? The small shop was the centre of the community.

 

 

 

It is my fervent hope that Brouder’s shop won’t stay closed  for long and that somebody will take it over. If not, our village will be all the poorer. Like the saying goes: “you’ll never miss the water ‘til the well runs dry”.

 

DIARIES

 

Paddy is going

 

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The field work diaries of Conrad Arensberg and Solon Kimball in Clare 1930-36; stories for the present?

 

 

 

Dr Anne Byrne of NUI Galway will tell the story of the Harvard anthropologists Conrad Arensberg and Solon Kimball who came to Ireland in the 1930s to study rural communities in County Clare.

 

 

 

Writing about the Survey in 2001, Anne received a gift of five original social anthropology field work diaries. Sharing the gift again, she invites re/readings and new conversations on the unpublished diaries and archives querying their contemporary relevance.

 

 

 

Extracts from the diaries on farm and family life will be examined in this talk and you are invited to contribute your thoughts and ideas as we listen to the first hand observations of rural family life and farm work in Ireland in the 1930s.

 

 

 

The diaries and survey letters record the original voices of men, women, farm families, shopkeepers, priests, publicans and politicians with whom the anthropologists conferred. Arensberg’s diaries of his time in west Clare, namely Luogh, record the preoccupations of people, their work on the land, rearing, selling and buying cattle, conventions of marriage and inheritance, the dominance of religion and politics in conversation, the scarcity of money and the significance of ‘influence’ for procuring work.

 

 

 

Anne Byrne is a sociologist in NUI Galway (Political Science and Sociology) interested in how biographical stories and narratives of the past and present illuminate everyday struggles and moments of resilience in ordinary lives. With CLASP press in Clare Library, in 2001 she and Ricca Edmondson and Tony Varley, published a long essay on ‘Arensberg and Kimball and Anthropological Research in Ireland’ as part of the republication of the facsimile third edition of Family and Community in Ireland. Recent socio-biographical publications include with Colm Byrne, 2017, ‘Family Stories and Secret Keepers: Who is Maíre Bastable?’ in Sara Anne Buckley and Pat Dolan (eds) Family Histories of the Irish Revolution, Four Courts Press; 2017, ‘Epistolary research relations: correspondences in anthropological research - Arensberg, Kimball and the Harvard-Irish Survey 1930- 1936’ in O’Giollain, D. (ed), Irish Ethnologies, Notre Dame University Press; 2014, ‘Single Women in Story and Society’ In Inglis, T. (ed) Are the Irish Different? Manchester University Press; with Tanya Kovacic, 2014, ‘Those Letters Keep Me Going: tracing resilience processes in US soldier to sweet heart war correspondences, 1942-1945’ in Reid, H., and West, L., (eds) Constructing narratives of continuity and change: a transdisciplinary approach to researching learning lives, Routledge.

 

 

 

KDHS lectures are free to members, EUR5 for non-members. New members are welcome. The annual membership fee (July-June) is EUR20.

 

 

 

This essay was published in Irish Stories of Love and Hope, a book published to raise funds for The Irish Hospice

 

 

 

 

 

Loss in the Traveller Community

 

 

 

Dictated by Missy Collins

 

 

 

I lost my eldest son 25 years ago. He was killed in England. He was called Kieran, Kieran  Collins. He was 13 at the time. My brother’s son was killed at the same time. He was 15, Michael. It was a month before my eight child was born. I’ll never forget the day; it was the 20th of June; it was a Sunday. He went out the door that morning along with a whole lot of his friends and Michael, his cousin, with him. About three o’clock that day (It was a lovely warm day) I seen the policeman approaching our house. Me and my husband, we asked him what’s wrong and he said, “Have ye got a son called Kieran?”. I says,’yeah”. He says;” Will you come inside?” We were at the front of the house. He told us, he says, ”He’s dead.”

 

 

 

I didn’t know what happened. I remember my husband roaring, but I passed out and ended up in the neighbours house next door. I remember coming’ round after someone giving me brandy on a spoon. My husband was going over to my brother’s house who lived a few streets away and they were roarin after their son being killed. Their youngest, my eldest. We brought them home to Ireland to bury them., the two were buried together. I suppose at that time and I suppose up to this present day, I never really got over it and I never will because, put it this way, it hits me every day of the week but especially at Christmas and birthdays. I still have to go and visit his grave regular. I even came home from England. I have to chat with him. I love to look after the grave.

 

 

 

How did I cope? I was a stronger woman at the time and had other children. I knew I had to keep going for them. Me faith helped me a lot. I went to healing places and shrines and prayed to God to give me strength to look after my family. I could not look at his picture. I loved to, but couldn’t for at least 14 years. Then I eventually started looking at his picture. Doctors wanted to give me sleeping tablets for my nerves, but my mother said, ”Don’t start taking them, Missy because you’ll have to come to terms.” I don’t think I ever came to terms but that my own family and extended family kept me going. My husband never came to terms with it. He couldn’t visit the grave and walked away from it crying. I lost him five years ago. We were very close and the rest of me family were very close to their Daddy. We are not the same since that happened either, the support is gone, the boys were very attached to him and the girls as well. I think all that keeps us going is the graves, both of them are buried together. We go and fix the graves. We’re a very lonely family.

 

Just to say anyone that loses a family member is never the same again. There’s a part of the family missing. Time heals a bit but you never forget.

 

e Miseries and Beauties of Ireland

 

Author: Jonathan Binns

 

https://celt.ucc.ie/published/E830001-002.html

 

Jonathan Binns, The Miseries and Beauties of Ireland (London 1837). (Available on www.archive.org).

 

 

 

p.88

 

Tarbert — Noticeable objects on the Shannon — Mount Trenchard — Droves of fattened pigs detained by the storm — View from near Tarbert House — Trade of Tarbert — State of the people in Lower Conello — Cabins, fuel, and clothing — Emigration — Middlemen — Prices of provisions — Blood of calves — Revengeful feelings of the peasantry, connected with the taking of land — Cabins — Conacre — The golden vein — Rent of land about Tarbert — Fuel — Mr. Maxwell Blacker — Lislactin Abbey — Listowel — Catholic devotees — Irish fights — Lixna Castle — Sir William Petty — Abbey O'Dorney — Tralee — The funeral cry — Ballyseedy — James O'Connell's estate — Castle Island — Arrival at Killarney.

 

 

 

From Limerick I went by steamer down the Shannon as far as Tarbert (situated at the north western corner of the county of Limerick), a distance of thirty-six miles, the fare being three shillings. After leaving the former place, the river gradually expands into a magnificent stream, its banks abounding with modern villas, old castles, and a variety of interesting objects that demand

 

Travels in Ireland. Johann Georg Kohl First edition [xii+417 pages] Bruce and Wyld, 84 Farringdon St. London (1844)

 

https://celt.ucc.ie/published/T840000-001.html

 

 

 

Travels in Ireland

 

Author: Johann Georg Kohl, File Description

 

The Lakes of Killarney

 

‘To pick up’—Crime in Kerry—Fog-landscape—Travelling Mania—Killarney—the Upper and Lower Lakes—Environs of the Lakes—The Gap of Dunloe—Macgillicuddy's Reeks—Kerry Horses and Straw Harness—Turf-bog on the Mountains—Goats and Wolves—Lakes on the Mountains—Mountain Dew—Rounded Rocks—Excursion on the Upper Lake—An Enchanted Kingdom—Colour of the Shores—Islands in the Upper Lake—Robbing the Eagle's Nest—Tamed Eagles—Faithful Temperance Men—The Lower Lake—O'Donaghue—Innisfail—Trees and Ruins—Trouble in Vain

 

 

MENTAL HEALTH

 

Lets get Limerick (Ireland) talking about mental health this May.

 

 

 

Can your parish or local group be part of the conversation?? What would it be like to offer green ribbons after Mass on Sunday this May?

 

 

 

See Change, the National Stigma Reduction Partnership are rolling out a month long national Green Ribbon Campaign to get people talking openly about mental health problems in May 2017

 

 

 

More than 500,000 green ribbons will be distributed nationwide free of charge to spark a national conversation about mental health in boardrooms, break-rooms, chat rooms, clubhouses, arts venues, college campuses and around kitchen tables throughout Ireland. Our aim is to make the month of May every year synonymous with promoting open conversation of mental health and challenging the stigma of mental health problems.

 

 

 

You don’t need to be an expert to start talking about mental health or have all the answers. Sometimes the most helpful thing you can do is to let someone know that you are there for them and simply listen.

 

 

 

    Talk, but listen too: Simply being there will mean a lot.

 

    Take your lead from the person: As a first step, ask them how best you can help.

 

    Avoid the clichés: Phrases like ‘Cheer up’, ‘I’m sure it’ll pass’ and ‘Pull yourself together’ definitely won’t help - Being open minded, non-judgemental and listening will.

 

    Keep in touch: There are lots of small ways of showing support - Send a text or just ask someone how they are doing.

 

    Don’t just talk about mental health: Just be yourself, chat about everyday things as well.

 

 

 

Contact See Change The National Stigma Reduction Partnership: E: info@seechange.ie T: 086 0496311

 

 

 

See Change is a growing partnership of 90 Irish organisations, volunteers and ambassadors working together to change attitudes and behaviours to mental health problems and end stigma.

 

Some Stories.

FIGHT

 

My wife and I were watching "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire”

 

while we were in bed. I turned to her and said, 'Do you want to have sex?''No,' she answered.I then said, 'Is that your final answer?' She didn't even look at me this time, simply saying, 'Yes..'So I said, "Then I'd like to phone a friend." And that's when the fight started...

 

 

 

I took my wife to a restaurant. The waiter, for some reason, took my order first. "I'll have the rump steak, rare, please."

 

He said, "Aren't you worried about the mad cow?" "Nah, she can order for herself" And that's when the fight started....

 

 

 

My wife and I were sitting at a table at her high school

 

reunion, and she kept staring at a drunken man swigging

 

his drink as he sat alone at a nearby table. I asked her, "Do you know him?” "Yes", she sighed, "He's my old boyfriend. I understand he took to drinking right after we split up those many years ago, and I hear he hasn’t been sober since."

 

"My God!" I said, "Who would think a person could go on

 

celebrating that long?” And then the fight started...

 

 

 

My wife sat down next to me as I was flipping channels.

 

She asked, "What's on TV?” I said, "Dust.” And then the fight started...

 

 

 

My wife was hinting about what she wanted for our forthcoming anniversary. She said, "I want something shiny that goes from 0 to 225 in about 2 seconds.” I bought her bathroom scales. And then the fight started......

 

 

 

After retiring, I went to the Social Security office to apply for

 

Social Security. The woman behind the counter asked me for my driver's license to verify my age. I looked in my pockets and realized I had left my wallet at home. I told the woman that I was very sorry, but I would have to go home and come back later.The woman said, "Unbutton your shirt." So I opened my shirt revealing my curly silver hair. She said, "That silver hair on your chest is proof enough for me", and she processed my Social Security application. When I got home, I excitedly told my wife about my experience at the Social Security office. She said, "You should have dropped your pants. You might have got disability too." And then the fight started...

 

 

 

My wife was standing nude, looking in the bedroom mirror.

 

She was not happy with what she saw and said to me,

 

"I feel horrible; I look old, fat and ugly. I really need you to pay me a compliment." I replied, "Your eyesight's perfect."

 

And then the fight started........

 

 

 

I rear-ended a car this morning ... the start of a REALLY bad day! The driver got out of the other car, and he was a DWARF!! He looked up at me and said "I am NOT happy!"

 

So I said, "Well, which one ARE you then?"That's how the fight started.

 

 

 

 

 

On the Lighter Side

 

 

 

Domhnall de Barra

 

 

 

I am fed up with politics and politicians and the constant bickering and silly point-scoring by those we have chosen to run the country for us so, this week, I am not going to go on my usual rant and instead I hope to bring a little amusement to this column.

 

 

 

Going back a good few years there was a man born to Irish parents in New York. His father was a policeman and worked long hours in a dangerous environment for modest pay. His grandfather had  come to America from Tipperary and had worked on the building of the great railroads in even tougher times. Mick Moloney was very clever and figured that the country now owed him a living and he was determined not to follow in his father’s or grandfather’s footsteps. He was a great charmer and very soon got street wise. He soon became a con artist and lived on his wits until one day he was nearly caught and decided he had to find something better. He was watching a programme on TV one day, a documentary on psychiatry. He was amazed at how little the psychiatrist had to do  to earn big money so he decided there and then that this was his ticket to riches. One small problem was the fact that he had no qualifications. This was soon solved by acquiring a false set of papers from one of his friends in the underworld. He couldn’t operate in New York where people knew him so he upped sticks and headed for Chicago. He rented rooms in a fashionable area, put a brass plate on his door displaying his false credentials and put an ad in the local newspaper that read: “Dr. Moloney,  cures for all psychological ailments. Fee $50 per ailment”  Word soon got around and business was good. In most cases all he had to do was listen and turn on the charm and people left feeling better. Three lads from New York were visiting Chicago and saw Mick’s photo in the paper. They recognised him at once and, knowing he was a fake decided to have a little fun with him. One of them was unknown to him so he was deputised to go to the “doctor’s” rooms with three complaints that could not be cured.  John was the man’s name and he arrived at the door of the clinic and knocked. It was just after normal hours so a maid who answered the door told him he was late and to make an appointment. John informed her that he had not one but three complaints and that it would be worth the doctor’s time if he could cure him. After a brief wait he was shown into a well furnished room and was invited to sit in a very comfortable chair. “What seems to be the problem?” asked Mick. “I have three” John replied. “I can’t tell the truth, I can’t eat and I can’t remember anything”. Mick looked at him thoughtfully for a few moments and then rose and left the room. He quickly went upstairs where there was a cat’s litter. He got a tea spoon and filled it with cat’s shit and returned to the room below. “Open your mouth” he said and shoved the spoonful in. John grimaced and gagged a bit but eventually swallowed it. When he had regained his composure, the doctor asked him “what did that taste like”. “That tasted like shit,” he said. “That is correct” said Mick, “that is the truth and that is your first problem solved. As for your second problem, well, the man who can eat shit can eat anything and as for your third problem about not being able to remember; I guarantee you that, as long as you live, you will never forget the day you ate cat’s shit. $150 please”.

 

 

 

A priest came to a new parish and as he was out walking one day he came upon a man who was looking distressed and in some trouble. The priest asked him what was wrong and he told him that he was convinced his wife was trying to poison him. The priest thought he was exaggerating but the man insisted that he knew she was putting stuff in his food. The priest said nobody could be that bad and he said he would go and see the woman for himself and try and sort it out. The man told him where his house was and he promised to wait there until he returned. About 40 minutes later the priest returned. A great change had come over him. There was a stare in his eyes and his hair that was always neatly combed was now all over the place. “Did you meet her” asked the man. “Did I meet her”, said the priest, “I have never before in my life met anybody like her. I could barely get a word in edgeways from the time she opened the door to me and some of the things she said to me are unrepeatable.” Well” said the poor man, “having seen for yourself what she is like, what would you advise me to do?”   The priest looked at him for a minute and then replied; “I have only one piece of advice for you – TAKE THE POISON!!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RETIREMENT: Just came across these few lines about retirement which give us the ‘10 best things about it’

 

 

 

    Not having to wake up to an alarm

 

    No rush hour traffic

 

    Spending enough time outdoors

 

    Having ‘entire’ days to yourself.

 

    Keeping the house & garden in good order.

 

    Having time to read the books you want.

 

    Going for a day out mid-week.

 

    Sitting in the garden when the sun shines

 

    Having at least one hobby.

 

    Turning your hand to gardening.

 

 

 

            Indeed things to look forward to!

 

Holy Thursday Knockanure Hymns 2017

 

https://vimeo.com/213135720

 

 

 

 Coptic Christians

 

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/446673/palm-sunday-attack-coptic-christians-orphans-nermien-riad

 

 

 

 

 

TEL AVIV (JTA) – At a Shabbat service in Tel Aviv on Friday evening, congregants recited the mourner’s prayer for those killed in Syria’s civil war.

 

Ireland 1876

 

http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/115302373?searchTerm=christmas%20weather%20ireland&searchLimits=

 

Freeman's Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1850 - 1932) Sat 29 Apr 1876 Page 5

 

IRELAND.

 

A Memorable Scene After a day of feverish anxiety as the chill wintry clouds closed in, and the members were assembling, College Green became covered with a sea of upturned faces, lit by

 

the flicker of a thousand torches — by the flashing of a thousand emotions. Many were

 

the comments, grave and gay. of praise and scorn:— 'Come Mr. M — , you were paid this morning ; give us a tenpenny bit to drink your health.' ' Success to you, my Lord E— . It was you made the good bargain, it’s a credit to us all, you did not sell your country too cheap, Three cheers for Sir William, boys ; he bargained to be a lord when there's to be no lords at all.' Here's Harry D — G— , boys. How much did they mark on your brief, Harry ?' Castlereagh was almost shielded from popular scorn

 

by the superb beauty of his wife : but when Lord Clare appeared, many a fist was clenched, and groans were changed to cheers, wild, loud, and high as Plunkett reared his head, and glorious little Curran flashed his

 

Solo In South Sudan, By Helena Quinn

 

Posted on September 3, 2013

 

I found this in my purse when packing yesterday. I don’t know where it came from but I expect I found it once upon a time in my grandmothers things. I don’t know the context or which paper it appeared in. By the time my dad was 21 he had already served one tour of duty in Katanga Province in the Congo, had been involved in the Siege of Jadotville and spend a number of months as a hostage held by Katanga rebels. I think when this note was written, he would have been preparing for his second tour in the Congo.

 

 

 

I am thinking of him now and how different our journeys into Africa are. Aside from the purpose, I am aboard a very comfortable BA flight on what will be a journey of just over 8 hours. When Dad first went to the Congo, the journey was 13 hours with 120 or so other men in a military personnel carrier. I will have lunch served soon, he was given a plastic bag with a sandwich and some fruit for sustinence. He was wearing a bulls wool uniform, I have clothes suitable for the terrain which employ the latest technologies to keep me cool when I need to be cool and warm when I need to be warm. To combat malaria Dad took one quinine tablet each week. I have two months supply of very expensive and effective Malerone which taken daily will prevent my getting the dreaded disease.

 

 

 

As my dad loves to remind me “I don’t know how easy I have it!!”

 

 

 

FILM:  THE SIEGE OF JADOTVILLE AT GLÓRACH:  Through the very kind assistance of Helena Quinn, we look forward to showing the film The Siege of Jadotville on Saturday evening, October 29.  The siege took place during the United Nations intervention in the Katanga conflict in the Congo in 1961, and saw a small group of Irish peacemakers bravely holding out for as long as they could in the face of Katangan rebels who had a vastly superior numerical advantage.  Helena's father Tadhg was a corporal in that company and we will be having a question and answer session with Tadhg after the screening of the film.  The film has received critical acclaim, but most importantly has been given the thumbs up from the surviving veterans of the siege.  We hope to raise funds for both the Glórach Community Theatre and also for Fr. Tim Galvin's missionary work in Sudan, where Helena has volunteered in recent years.  Doors open at 7.30 pm and the film will begin at 8.  At the time of writing there are just 30 seats left so so booking is essential at 0871383940 to avoid disappointment.  Keep an eye on the Glórach Facebook page for further updates.

 

KILLARNEY

 

https://www.archive.org/stream/pioneeririshofon00bann/pioneeririshofon00bann_djvu.txt

 

Dennis Sullivan  and Mary Sullivan Sullivan

 

102 Pioneer Irish of Onondaga

 

Dennis Sullivan and his wife, Mary Sullivan

 

Sullivan, came to Syracuse from Killarney, County

 

Kerry, in 1836. They came here to improve their

 

fortunes, leaving behind them the life of the far-

 

mer. Dennis found his first work packing salt,

 

for which he received the standard price of three

 

cents a barrel, earning about seventy-five cents a

 

day. After three or four years he was appointed

 

sexton of Rose Hill Cemetery, and had charge of

 

the "pest" house on Highland Street, where the

 

victims of small-pox were housed. Dr. Pease was

 

then health officer. For five years he worked as

 

sexton and superintendent and then lost his job

 

because of the enmity of a man who hated his race

 

and did not want an Irishman to be above his

 

grave. The man's name, strangely enough, was

 

Pope.

 

 

 

Dennis Sullivan then bought a farm near Split

 

Rock and lived there two years. Returning to

 

the city he bought a horse and cart and spent

 

twenty years in carting. He drove the same

 

horse for the whole period of twenty years, surely

 

a record and a proof of his humanity.

 

 

 

 

 

Syracuse 127

 

 

 

Thomas Griffin

 

 

 

Welcome as a mother's arms to a sick child is

 

his native land to the suffering man. In his ill-

 

ness exile becomes a distressing circumstance.

 

Thomas Griffin and his wife, Ellen Lynch, and

 

their nine children came to Syracuse from Tralee,

 

County Kerry, in 1846. After several years

 

Thomas fell sick, and in his misery vowed a vow

 

that he would return to the land of his fathers.

 

He kept his vow in 1852 but, later, returned to

 

Syracuse with children and grandchildren. Two

 

sons, John and James, remained in Liverpool,

 

England, one son, Thomas, went South. His

 

daughter Mary married John, son of John and

 

Margaret Gallavan McDonald of Tralee, and came

 

with him to Syracuse. The other children who

 

reached maturity are Bridget, Michael, and Ellen.

 

 

 

Thomas Griffin was a grocer in Tralee, but here

 

he engaged in the clothing business at the corner of

 

Clinton and Water Streets. Some of his patron-

 

age was from travellers on the packet-boat.

 

 

 

One day two Irish boys boimd for the west were

 

put ashore at the packet-dock to die victims of

 

ship fever. Father Heas came to administer the

 

last rites of the Church. There was no shelter

 

for the unfortunates, for no one dared to receive

 

them. Thomas McManus as messenger for the

 

priest found Thomas Griffin ready to construct a

 

shed in the rear of his premises for the reception

 

of the dying youths.

 

 

 

 

 

Patrick Griffin

 

 

 

Patrick Griffin left his home in Ballylongfort,

 

County Kerry, to board a man-of-war, the

 

Rodney, in 1846. With 11 00 men it sailed the

 

Mediterranean, stopping at many ports, on to

 

Alexandria. One day they passed a vessel bear-

 

ing Pope Pius the Ninth and gave him the royal

 

salute of twenty-one guns. Returning to the At-

 

lantic, the cruise was along the west coast of

 

Africa to Cape of Good Hope and thence to Ports-

 

mouth. Here Patrick was paid off for two years

 

and nine months of service and with the money

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Syracuse 139

 

 

 

came to America. First he revisited his home and

 

saw the dreadful effects of the famine. Many of

 

his friends were dead.

 

 

 

In Syracuse he for the first time in his life was

 

sick. The prevalent fever and ague quenched his

 

desire for further travel. His first work was as

 

porter in the Brintnell Hotel. There were then

 

only two houses on Onondaga Street and one or

 

two on Fayette and nothing but swamp and fields

 

between the two streets.

 

 

 

WILLIAM TOBIN was in Otisco before 1850.

 

He was the son of John and Mary Hickey

 

Tobin, parish of Castle Island, County Kerry.

 

The other children of the family came to Otisco

 

after William. They are: William, who married

 

Mary McGuire; Mary, who married John Long;

 

John, who married Ann Sullivan; Richard, who

 

married Joanna Kinney; Patrick, who married

 

Ellen Ready ; Julia, who married Patrick Kinsella ;

 

and Cornelius, who married Martha McGuire.

 

 

 

The children of Richard and Joanna Kinney

 

Tobin are: Mary, who married Michael Lucid;

 

Sarah, who married Dennis Curtin. Their other

 

children are Julia, Ellen, James, John, Bessie, and

 

Kate, the four first of whom went to California.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

38 Pioneer Irish of Onondaga

 

James Lynch

 

James Lynch was the son of Cornelius and Jo-

 

anna Dooling Lynch of Tralee, County Kerry,

 

Ireland. Originally from the city of Dublin,

 

Cornelius Lynch married and settled among the

 

relatives of his wife in Kerry. Their sons, James

 

and John, both came to Onondaga County.

 

 

 

John Lynch, son of Cornehus and Joanna Dool-

 

ing Lynch, of County Kerry, Ireland, came to

 

Sahna in 1833, where his brother James had been

 

estabUshed since 1824. John had married Mary,

 

the daughter of Dennis Scanlon of County Kerry,

 

and they had brought with them from Ireland their

 

eight children. One child was born on board ship

 

and the youngest was born after they had taken

 

up their residence on a farm in Dewitt. There

 

 

 

Limerick

 

William Fitzsimmons, a native of Limerick, Ireland.

 

Her two sons, William and Robert Walton Ealden,

 

served in the I22d Regiment, N. Y. Vol. Inf., in the

 

Civil War. Robert was nineteen years old when

 

he enlisted, begging to be allowed to go with his

 

brother. Both contracted consumption, William

 

by swimming the Potomac to save some army

 

records and becoming chilled. He died in Los

 

Angeles. Most of the Fitzsimmons children

 

located in California.

 

 

 

Patrick Shaunessy

 

 T. E. Cheney.  From a Forest to a City.

 

Patrick Shaunessy and his wife, Mary Bustin,

 

came from Stone Hall, County Limerick, to

 

Syracuse about 1830. They had married very

 

young and Patrick was eager to come to America

 

when the boys of his neighborhood made up a

 

party to emigrate. He had paid his pound

 

sterling as guarantee, but his mother insisted that

 

he forfeit the deposit and wait until his family

 

could come with him. The boys who sailed

 

went down with the ship.

 

 

 

 

 

Clare

 

Michael Leyden, from whose note-book the above

 

extracts were taken, came to this country, from

 

Ennis, County Clare, Ireland, bringing with him

 

his wife, Anna Walton, daughter of Thomas, and

 

their five children, John, Michael, Jr., Mary,

 

George, and Anna.

 

The note-book above shows that he left Limerick April I, 1824, and reached New York May

 

7th, and May i8th left New York, paying eleven

 

dollars for their passage to Manlius. He evidently

 

came on to Salina and made various payments to

 

Mr. McCarthy

 

 

 

WALSH

 

John Walsh

 

 

 

It was early in the War of Independence that

 

John Walsh of Skaneateles enlisted and his

 

service lasted until peace was declared. In 1775

 

he enlisted in Col. Paul Dudley Loyrant's regiment,

 

in Captain William Scott's company, and served

 

 E. N. Leslie.

 

 

 

Stack  Salina 13

 

Thomas was the son of Thomas and Elizabeth

 

Stack McCarthy and when a boy about fourteen,

 

according to the custom of the country, he was

 

bound out until he was twenty-one. He went

 

to Dublin and there learned the draper's trade,

 

which he and his descendants exercised for more

 

than a century in this County. Under the condi-

 

tions of apprenticeship in Dublin, the apprentice

 

entered the family of his employer and worked in

 

the latter's shop, for which privileges the appren-

 

tice's father paid the employer a certain number of

 

pounds sterling a year. Whether it was the father

 

or step-father of Thomas who paid the fees, the

 

term of apprenticeship had not expired when his

 

mother came to America. When at last he was

 

free he invested his savings in merchandise and

 

with his brother John came to join his mother.

 

John settled in Canada and Thomas at Salt

 

Point,

 

 

 

KENNELLY

 

W. W. Clayton says:

 

The nucleus of the present church of the Immacu-

 

late Conception was formed by several families resid-

 

ing at Fayetteville and Manlius Square from 1846-

 

1855. Among these may be mentioned John Farrell,

 

John McCarrick, John O'Brien, and Jeremiah Bohan

 

of the former place, and Edward Gaynor, John Sheedy,

 

Patrick Holland, Timothy Holland, John Shea, Patrick

 

Tobin, William Griffin, John Kennelly, Patrick

 

Maloney, Michael Foley, Thomas Flattery, and others

 

residing at Manlius Square.

 

https://www.archive.org/stream/pioneeririshofon00bann/pioneeririshofon00bann_djvu.txt

 

 

 

Church Clark writes^:

 

Church of St. John the Baptist

 

In 1829 St. John's Roman Catholic Church in the

 

village of Salina was commenced and enclosed by the

 

exertions of Thomas McCarthy and James Lynch and

 

a few other Roman Catholics and the liberal donations

 

of their Protestant fellow-citizens in the villages of

 

Salina and Syracuse, and by collections made by said

 

McCarthy and Lynch from their friends in Utica,

 

Albany, and New York. Rt. Rev. John DuBois was

 

then bishop of the diocese of New York, and for the

 

two succeeding years the congregation being small was

 

visited by clergymen only once a month. Rev.

 

Francis O'Donohue, Rev. James O'Donnell, Rev.

 

Haes, and Rev. Cummings are the priests (Irish) who

 

have had charge there.

 

Murphy’s Law

 

 

 

“If things can go wrong, they will”. That is Murphy’s law and though it is a very pessimistic view what may happen it is occasionally correct. I was reminded of this the other day when I came across an old edition of Treoir, the Comhaltas magazine, that contained an article on a Tour of America I was involved in way back in 1973. I think this was only our second visit to the North American continent and for the first time we were to visit venues in Canada. Our first hiccup occurred at the Canadian border. It was the custom at the time to bring records and tapes of the artists for sale at the interval. This was a good money-spinner and we had no problem with customs in New York because one of the Comhaltas members  worked there and, as long as we declared them as presents for the families who would act as hosts to the travelling musicians, singers and dancers, they were allowed through. Not so at the Canadian customs.  The big trolley of goods was halted and  our leader, Diarmuid O Catháin, was trying to explain the situation here. He told the official that they were presents for the host families as each case was taken off and opened. In fairness we would need to have been staying for six months to get rid of all the goods!  Eventually the official put his hands in the air and shouted to his fellow officials who were nearby: “Hey guys, come on over; we got Santa Claus here”  the place erupted in laughter and after we all had  time to recover we were allowed through on payment of a small fine. Our next clanger was that afternoon in Montreal. We had a matinee performance in Leo’s Boy’s Club, a club set up to cater for underprivileged youths. We always began our concerts with the Irish and American anthems and, not realising the fact that we were in a different country and a city that is anti-American, we played the Soldier’s Song followed by the “Star Spangled Banner”. We were greeted by silence at first, closely followed by boos. Talk about egg on your face!. Eventually, after profuse apologies, we continued with the concert and won the crowd over before the interval by promising free gifts to all. As musical director, it was my job to get things right for the main concert that night. I went down town and found a music shop. They supplied me with the score of “O Canada”, one of the nicest anthems. A few quick rehearsals and we opened that night as if we had been playing it all our lives.

 

 

 

On that same tour we had two lady singers who could pass anything except a sweet shop. We had been through Canada and were at the airport in Ottawa ready to go back to Montreal for the final appearance in the country. Our flight was called and we made our way to the gate. All were accounted for except the two ladies. No mobile phones in those days so we couldn’t contact them. They didn’t make the flight. I had to make arrangements to fly them out on the next available flight and of course I had to stay with them to ensure they got on ok. I found the two of them filling their faces in a café, oblivious to the time. Eventually our flight took off. It was bound for Paris but was touching down in Montreal. The girls did not know this and  when the captain announced, soon after we were airborne,  that we were on board the flight to Paris, they panicked. One of them stood up and shouted “stop the plane, I can’t go to Paris, I have to be at a concert in Montreal tonight”. Needless to say this provided light entertainment for the flight attendants and the other passengers. I managed to calm them down and we eventually arrived, just in time to go on stage. That was our first visit to Canada, one I certainly will never forget, for all the wrong reasons.

 

 

 

Domhnall de Barra

 

ZIKA virus has spread to 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, and five governments have reacted to the news by advising women to avoid pregnancy until the epidemic has been controlled, perhaps for several years. Brazil’s ministry of health announced on Thursday that it is investigating 3,670 reported cases of microcephaly. Thus far, it has confirmed the condition in 404 infants — with just 17 of these cases linked to the Zika virus — and found that 709 infants do not have the condition.

 

http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/brazilian-bishops-reject-abortion-as-response-to-zika-virus/

 

WELSH WAR 1; For many of the men who returned home after 1918 (and around seven out of eight servicemen did return alive) their experiences of life beyond their home patch had changed their outlook, and they had difficulty going back to their previous way of life. They had gained knowledge of the outside world, perhaps lost their innocence, and it was tricky to try to put the genie back into the bottle.

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/lifestyle/nostalgia/welsh-history-month-welshmen-who-10247893

 

 

 

SMALL FEET ARE IMPORTANT Women of China Still Consider Them Sign of Beauty and Culture.

Mariposa Gazette, Volume LVI, Number 40, 25 February 1911

http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=MG19110225.2.52

 

"All the Chinese ladles of superior rank, and even those of the middle class, will strive by every means in their power to make their feet small," said Rev. Father Martin Kennelly, (a native of Listowel) If the women did not have small feet, continued the missionary, who has spent 25 years preaching the Gospel to the Orientals, "they would find it most difficult to secure a husband. From a long standing custom In China small feet are signs of culture, refinement. education and beauty." Father Kennelly has been attached to the Jesuit mission in Shanghai for a quarter of a century, and Is the only Catholic priest from an English speaking country in the Shanghai province, and one of the ten In all of China, the vast majority of Catholic priests in the empire coming from European countries. In America," said the missionary, "where woman occupies so Important a position In society, it is hard to realise the true state of affairs In China. A Chinese wife has little or no standing In society, and even but little authority in her own family, as her jurisdiction Is confined to the daughters who are less than eight years of age. Girls are considered of no account In the family, and at their marriage they are separated from their own family forever and become merged Into that of their husband, "When a marriage Is to take place the husband gives a dowry to the wife, which Is almost the same as a purchase of the woman for so much money. The girls were considered of so little importance that It Is only within the last five years that the Chinese could be prevailed upon to allow them to be educated. This is a great step forward, as at present the government and the missions are educating the women."


 

http://irishamericancivilwar.com/2014/10/11/dependents-portraits-of-50-irish-people-in-new-york-poorhouses-1861-1865/

 

 

Mary Schackion,Co. Kerry. Admitted to New York City Alms House, 18th May 1864.

Mary was a 28-year-old single woman when she was admitted. Her mother had been from Kerry, while her father was a Co. Clare carpenter. Mary was unable to read or write and had worked as a domestic. The cause of her dependence was rheumatism, from which it was felt she was unlikely to recover.

 

Catherine Brown, Aghada?, Co. Cork. Admitted to Kings County Alms House, 1865.

Catherine was 50-years-old and widowed when admitted. She had been in New York for 8 years. Her father was recorded as being a farmer from Co. Limerick. She was unable to read or write and was a housekeeper by profession. She had one child. Her cause of dependence was described as resulting from old age and destitution. It was determined that she would remain a dependent.

 

 

James O’Rourke, Co. Limerick. Admitted to Albany City Alms House, 7th June 1861.

James was recorded as a 40 year-old widower when he was admitted. He had spent his working life as a tailor, and in 1861 had one surviving child. His father in Limerick had been a farmer; James had received some education as he was able to read and write. The cause of his dependence was recorded as insanity, from which it was felt he would not recover. Despite this it was still felt that he may be able to do some farm work in the future. It was said that his ‘insanity is supposed to have been cause in this case by excessive drinking. Is very violent at times exacting much of the attendants time to keep him quiet. Is not unclean in person or habits. It cannot be learned that any other member of the family were insane.’

 

James O’Harra, Co. Limerick. Admitted to Monroe County Poor House, 14th June 1863.

James was a 40-year-old married man when he was admitted. He was a laborer, as his father had been before him. He could read but not write and had never become a naturalized citizen. The cause of his dependence was recorded as a ‘rupture.’ He was thought able for light farm work, but the potential for his recovery was deemed improbable. It was noted that ‘J. O. Harra is a chronic pauper. He is husband to No. 34′ [suggesting his wife was also in the Poor House].

 

 

 

 

Duagh

 http://www.irishabroad.com/Blogs/PostView.aspx?pid=4782

 Young Workers

 http://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q=young&co=nclc

 

 EPILEPSY drug found to cause autism...

 

Women who take valproate (Depacon) during pregnancy may increase the risk of childhood autism and its spectrum disorders in their children, a population-based study showed.

 In utero exposure to the drug was associated with a five-fold elevated risk of autism and three-fold elevated risk for autism spectrum disorder, Jakob Christensen, PhD, of Denmark's Aarhus University Hospital, and colleagues found.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NOBEL: Established by Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel in 1895, the Nobel Prize is a set of annual awards bestowed upon individuals in recognition of cultural and/or scientific advances in six categories - Literature, Chemistry, Economics, Physics, World Peace, and Medicine.

 

 

 

Between 1901 and 2013, the Nobel Prize has been awarded to approximately 855 laureates.

 

 

 

At least 193 (22%) of them have been Jewish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MISSION in Tarbert till 25th Oct 2013.

 

 

 

John Pridmore, The Presbytery, Gowel, Carrick on Shannon, Co. Leitrim

 

 

 

born in the east end of London. At the age of 10, his parents got divorced and he made an unconscious decision not to love any more.

 

 

 

At the age of 13, started stealing. By 15 put in a detention centre (youth prison), left home after having been released, my only qualification was stealing, so that's what he did. At 19 in prison again and because the way he dealt with pain was with anger, was always fighting. They put him on 23 hour solitary confinement and came out of there even more angry and bitter.

 

 

 

He had Money, power, girls, drugs the lot. But yet there was something missing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

His life began to change and began working with at risk youth .

 

 

 

More at http://johnpridmore.yolasite.com/about-me.php

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/29/report-suggests-sweeping-changes-to-cancer-detection-and-treatment/?hp&_r=0

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“We need a 21st-century definition of cancer instead of a 19th-century definition of cancer, which is what we’ve been using,” said Dr. Otis W. Brawley, the chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society, who was not directly involved in the report.

 

 

 

The impetus behind the call for change is a growing concern among doctors, scientists and patient advocates that hundreds of thousands of men and women are undergoing needless and sometimes disfiguring and harmful treatments for premalignant and cancerous lesions that are so slow growing they are unlikely to ever cause harm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/26/medical-procedures-may-be-useless-or-worse/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More than 40 percent of established practices studied were found to be ineffective or harmful, 38 percent beneficial, and the remaining 22 percent unknown. Among the practices found to be ineffective or harmful were the routine use of hormone therapy in postmenopausal women; high-dose chemotherapy and stem cell transplant, a complex and expensive treatment for breast cancer that was found to be no better than conventional chemotherapy; and intensive glucose lowering in Type 2 diabetes patients in intensive care, which not only failed to reduce cardiovascular events but actually increased mortality.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

, PepsiCo’s VP of Global Public Policy, Paul Boykas stated that “Senomyx will not use HEK cells or any other tissues or cell lines derived from human embryos or fetuses for research performed on behalf of PepsiCo.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tom Nestor born Coolcappa, He now lives in Birr County Offaly has donated his papers to the University of Limerick. The material is contained in 110 files and covers the years from 1964 to 2012. he is a regular contributor to Ireland’s Own Magazine

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

O’Brien Press is launching a series of 16 books documenting the lives of the 16 men who were executed for their part in the Easter Rising of 1916. At present 3 of the books are on sale James Connolly, Joseph Plunkett, and Michael Mallin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back to Life

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

by HHAmbrose on Mar 25, 2012 • 8:54 am

 

 

 

March 25, 2012

 

 

 

I had to drive about 10 miles to a hospital where there was an emergency call.

 

 

 

I drove quickly, thinking that the nurse in charge of the ER, Anne, would be waiting for me. I knew her and her husband and children from the parish. When I walked in I could see paramedics at the foot of the only occupied gurney there, so I hurried and walked in. “Sorry, Fr. John, you’re too late. He’s gone.” Anne said, smiling. She had a lot of compassion, but also understood that I’d come as fast as I could. They were removing wires from an older man. I noticed that he was wearing a Brown Scapular, one of the old cloth ones. I reached and said “He’s wearing an old fashioned Scapular”. When I touched it there was a beep from a monitor, then another. The nurse, Anne, said “What did you do?” I said “Nothing!” She and another nurse jumped to work, reconnecting wires and calling for help. The Paramedics stood with their jaws dropped. The patient opened his eyes and said (in an Irish accent) “Oh, good, Father. I’ve been waiting for you. I want to go to Confession.” I nearly fell over. I’d done nothing but seen and touched his Scapular. The next thing I knew they were working on him. He didn’t get to go to Confession, but I gave him an emergency absolution as they worked. One of the Paramedics asked if I was OK and sat me in a chair.

 

 

 

A couple of weeks later the man came to me for Confession and told me that the doctor couldn’t figure out what happened and had to tear up the Death Certificate he’d already started to fill out. The Paramedics had come to see him in the hospital and shown him their notes. At the bottom of the page they’d written the time and place of his death and then in big bold letters had added “BROUGHT BACK TO LIFE BY GOD”.

 

 

 

Miracles still happen. And no, I didn’t do it. It just happened according to God’s will. Why does He intervene in some cases and not in others? I really don’t know. I haven’t figured that out yet. But I do know that God has worked miracles in my life, the most important for me not being what He did for someone else, but what He has done over and over to bring me back from sin and death, through the Sacraments into His Covenant Relationship.

 

 

 

That man still had to die a natural death to be raised from the dead into eternal life. The resurrection Jesus offers all of us is eternal too. And that’s what we look forward to at Easter.

 

 

 

Father Higgins

 

 

 

Friend Father on Facebook

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ST Patrick

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Much of what I learned in school about St. Patrick has no basis in history, writes Sean Sean McDonagh.

 

 

 

He did not come to Ireland in 432 AD, with papal approval to convert the Irish. We know from Prosper’s Chronicles that Palladius was ordained by Pope Celestine in 431 AD and was sent “as the first bishop, to the Irish who believe in Christ.” He probably arrived in Ireland in 432 AD.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Legend tells us that Patrick banished the snakes from Ireland. In fact, the absence of snakes was as a result of our island geography. Reptiles were not able to cross over the land bridge from Britain at the end of the last ice-age.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is no historical evidence for the claim that St. Patrick converted the High King of Ireland at Tara and used the shamrock as a catechetical tool to explain the doctrine of the Trinity to the king and his retinue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, the parade which now is such a central element in current St. Patrick’s Day celebrations around the world owes it origins to the Irish Americans in New York. According to The New York Gazette the first parade took place in 1756.

 

 

 

So, should we decommission St. Patrick and send him into the saints’ limbo with Sts. George, Philomena and Christopher?

 

 

 

Not at all, St. Patrick has left us two wonderful documents, his Confessio and his Letter to Coroticus. The issues which are discussed in those two documents are as relevant to the well-being of the Church in Ireland as they were when Patrick wrote them in the 5th century.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In order to understand the cultural journey which St. Patrick undertook, it is important to situate him in his own historical milieu. He tells us in the first paragraph of his Confessio that his father, Calpornius, was a deacon and his grandfather, Potitus was a priest. His family were quite well off as they possessed a country seat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As he grew up, Patrick would have imbibed the attitudes of Roman citizens towards barbarians. Roman rule extended from the foothills of Scotland, through western European and North Africa over into Asia Minor and as far east and south as Persia. Roman citizens believed that their empire stood at the apex of human achievements. Despite the violence which was often used to extend the boundaries, Romans believed that their empire had brought peace and prosperity to the known world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the great tools in achieving this flowering of human endeavour was the city of Rome itself and other Roman cities across the Empire. Barbarians did not have cities and they were utterly depraved. The extent of this depravity is given to us in lured details by the Strabo a geographer and historian (64 BC -21 AC). He described the Irish as “more savage than the Britons, since they are man-eaters as well as heavy eaters, and since, further, they count it an honourable thing, when their fathers die, to devour them, and openly to have intercourse, not only with other women, but also with their mothers and sisters.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many of the senior Church leaders in Briton, who were criticising Patrick’s mission among the Irish, would have shared similar views about the Irish. For them the Irish needed to be civilised first by taking on the Roman values, before being Christianised.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the very first line of the Confessio, which was written partly as a response to these charges, Patrick rejects this caricature and identifies himself with the Irish. He writes,” I am Patrick, a sinner, most unlearned, the least of all faithful and utterly despised by many.” The Latin word which he uses is rusticissimus, which is the word Romans would have used to dismiss Barbarians. Even though Patrick was kidnapped and enslaved by Irish people, he did not see them as murderous barbarians. In fact, he was grateful for what happened, because it was during his times in Ireland that he recovered his faith and developed a prayer life which sustained him throughout the rest of his life. In his writings Patrick refers to the Irish as the plebs Dei or the people of God. Their conversion has been so profound that “the sons and daughters of the kings of the Irish are seen to be monks and virgins.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Patrick’s detractors accused him of not being worthy to be a missionary to the Irish. Rather than deny the charge, Patrick points to a similar criticism made

 

 

 

about St. Paul by the Corinthians (I Cor. 2: 1-5). Like Paul he came in weakness and did not use plausible words of wisdom, but he relied on the Holy Spirit, in order that their faith might not rest on human wisdom but on the power of God. We thank God for that faith and I wish you beannachtaí Lá Fhéile Pádraig oraibh go léir (May the blessings of St. Patrick’s Day be upon all of you).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lima Dec 2011 school teacher from Kerry

 

 

 

My work in Manuel Duato School, 35 years old this year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overall it’s a happy place, though from a western perspective, somewhat disorganised. The children are loved and the work gets done. I have been working mostly with a group of nine children - Jemina, Cristhian, Emmanuel, Jean Carlos, Estrella, Anthony, Yuyita, Tifany and Rodolfo, all of whom have a physical disability and so this group is lead by Flor, a physiotherapist.

 

 

 

But all the children have very different needs in light of very different levels of both motor and intellectual disability. This poses many challenges. Parents too are equally varied in their needs. Some have expectations, others don’t and so are not so open to any change that might be possible. I have had to be content with this too, coming slowly to realise that the daily journey to the school is made for many reasons. Others can’t afford to make that daily journey!

 

 

 

I have met parents, siblings, uncles, aunts and neighbours who are all part of the Duato family. Some parents have more that one child with additional needs and now that the 5-week summer break is here I wonder what that will mean for them!

 

 

 

Some will attend the 5-week long non-residential summer camp held in the school but, for many, this will be too expensive - 60 soles or 14 euro. It will be a good way to spend some of the Irish gifted money.

 

 

 

I have done some training with parents over three sessions and this seems to have gone quite well. All have coped with my emerging Spanish/Castellano.

 

 

 

My school day is 8am to 1pm. It’s in walking distance so I hope it’s helping to keep me fit! Though the walk home at 1pm means sun cream(factor 80), my hat and trying to find the shady side of the street.

 

 

 

My work with adults with additional needs has evolved slowly since my arrival and is now being done mostly through art projects - painting, making cards of the famous Nazca lines for Advent and of course now for Christmas. It’s a relaxed way of working and allows me to enter their world in a gentle way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course my life has not been all “work”. I have done lots of dancing, both of various folk dances and popular. Dancing is an integral part of life here and even the babies and young children are already dancing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

martyrdom of Father Francisco Vera, Parish Priest of Sangre y Cuerpo de Cristo in the city of Jalostotitlan, Jalisco.Mexico. He was celebrating the Mass in secret for his people, but was discovered, and sentenced to death. He was not allowed to remove his vestments, and this photograph was sent to President Calles by the leader of the squad, to prove how zealous he was being against the Church. This took place sometime early in April, 1927. Father Vera’s body was taken to a garbage dump outside the city, and was further desecrated.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For every look at self take ten looks at Christ Robert Murray M'Cheyne

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BBC

 

 

 

Love Me Love My Dog... and my pigs and my cows...

 

 

 

Graham Clarke met Jo on a Lowdham Young Farmers trip to Ballybunion on the

 

 

 

West Coast of Ireland when he was just 16.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

March 2004 BBC

 

 

 

Oxford's Chris Kennelly believes his crew were robbed by an umpiring

 

 

 

decision in favour of Cambridge in the 150th Boat Race.

 

 

 

Last Updated: Monday, 14 March, 2005, 10:12 GMT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BBC

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Women's WCT ratings after 6 events:

 

 

 

1. Sofia Mulanovich 5268 points

 

 

 

2. Chelsea Georgeson 5040 points

 

 

 

3. Layne Beachley 3765 points

 

 

 

4. Rochelle Ballard 3744 points

 

 

 

5. Megan Abubo 3564 points

 

 

 

6. Melanie Redman-Carr 3156 points

 

 

 

7. Keala Kennelly 3744 points

 

 

 

8. Rebecca Woods 2952 points

 

 

 

9. Jacqueline Silva 2736 points

 

 

 

9. Samantha Cornish 2736 points

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Child's play at 20,000 toy museum

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A collection of 20,000 toys is to be put on display at a new museum of

 

 

 

childhood in west Wales.

 

 

 

The museum, at Pen-ffynnon Farm near Llangeler in Carmarthenshire, has been

 

 

 

planned for more than 10 years by three toy collectors.

 

 

 

The trio have spent a combined 120 years amassing their collection.

 

 

 

It includes toys from as far back as the 18th century and covers everything

 

 

 

from dolls, train sets and toy cars to a talking parrot.

 

 

 

Collectors Paul and Hilary Kennelly and Vic Davey are behind the West Wales

 

 

 

Museum of Childhood.

 

 

 

As well as providing amusement for children of all ages, the toys also

 

 

 

provide an insight into the social conditions of the period, according to

 

 

 

the collectors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"We have got a Noah's Ark made [in the UK] during the Great War [WWI]

 

 

 

because there was a great feeling against German toys, and this was the

 

 

 

start of the British toy industry," Mr Kennelly told BBC Radio Wales.

 

 

 

"We have got toys made during the Second World War when the toy

 

 

 

manufacturers were on essential work, so granddad had to go out to the shed

 

 

 

and make things from wood."

 

 

 

Mrs Kennelly said: "An awful lot of toys reflect the political, the social

 

 

 

attitudes of the times they were made, and that is a very interesting facet

 

 

 

of collecting."

 

 

 

The oldest toy in the collection is a little girl's tea set dating back to

 

 

 

the 1790s.

 

 

 

The collection also includes one of the first fully articulated baby dolls.

 

 

 

Mrs Kennelly said: "It's only a tiny little thing, about eight inches long,

 

 

 

but its ankles and wrists move and it has this wonderful squeaker in the

 

 

 

middle.

 

 

 

"After 150 years, the squeaker still works."

 

 

 

A lack of toys in childhood was the spark for Vic Davey's interest in

 

 

 

collecting them once he was older.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He explained: "I think it's the fact that when I was a kid, we were a poor

 

 

 

family.

 

 

 

"It was just after the war and I didn't have any toys, so I resolved to get

 

 

 

myself a Dinky eight-wheeler, which would have cost me two months' pocket

 

 

 

money, as soon as I got my first working wage."

 

 

 

Mrs Kennelly added: "We have had our collection for so long, and we'd just

 

 

 

love to share it with other people as well.

 

 

 

"Little children can laugh at things their grandparents used to play with.

 

 

 

Grandparents can remember the pain of saving up their pocket money for

 

 

 

something."

 

 

 

Tea-rooms and a shop at the site open on Good Friday, with the museum proper

 

 

 

opening in mid-May.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surfing 2005

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mulanovich lost to Keala Kennelly in the quarter-finals - not once gaining a

 

 

 

heat lead over the Hawaiian whom she beat in the final in France last year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Women's WCT ratings after 6 events:

 

 

 

1. Sofia Mulanovich 5268 points

 

 

 

2. Chelsea Georgeson 5040 points

 

 

 

3. Layne Beachley 3765 points

 

 

 

4. Rochelle Ballard 3744 points

 

 

 

5. Megan Abubo 3564 points

 

 

 

6. Melanie Redman-Carr 3156 points

 

 

 

7. Keala Kennelly 3744 points

 

 

 

8. Rebecca Woods 2952 points

 

 

 

9. Jacqueline Silva 2736 points

 

 

 

9. Samantha Cornish 2736 points

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paul Kennelly, Llangeler

 

 

 

My father was George Albert Kennelly who served with the RAF at Sealand in

 

 

 

the late '20s and early '30s. I have a host of wonderful photos of his time

 

 

 

there including fellow airmen and aircraft along with football team

 

 

 

pictures. One photo is of George stood alongside Winnie Mae, Wyley Posts

 

 

 

transatlantic plane. I am sure these images are of historical importance and

 

 

 

I intend scanning them and making them generally available. One name on a

 

 

 

photo is Bill "Ginger" Dicken and another is Jack Norris. John Seabrooke

 

 

 

also served alongside George at Sealand. Do any of these names ring bells?

 

 

 

It is a very long time ago.

 

 

 

Fri Sep 5 08:45:19 2008

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/northeast/sites/flintshire/pages/rafsealand.shtml

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 2005

 

 

 

BBC

 

 

 

Fire-hit factory workers helped

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Workers who lost their jobs when a Plymouth pastry factory burnt down have

 

 

 

been told a city supermarket is recruiting 100 staff.

 

 

 

About 250 employees from Hilliers attended a meeting organised by unions to

 

 

 

hear Safeway is looking for staff to fill the vacancies.

 

 

 

Safeway told the meeting its Outland Road branch was expanding.

 

 

 

Nearly 400 factory employees were made redundant after a large fire

 

 

 

destroyed their workplace in Plympton last week.

 

 

 

Sixty firefighters attended the fire on Friday 15 July, which destroyed

 

 

 

ovens and machinery inside the building of the pastry manufacturer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The company then announced on Thursday it had gone into administration when

 

 

 

managers said they had no real choice but to call in the administrators.

 

 

 

At the meeting on Friday, representatives from Safeway said they were

 

 

 

holding an open day for potential employees next Tuesday and that staff from

 

 

 

the factory would have many skills they could use.

 

 

 

Safeway Personnel Officer Paul Kennelly said: "A lot of the employees had

 

 

 

good lengths of service with Hilliers. That's very valuable to us.

 

 

 

Pension protection

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shuttle 2003

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The US space shuttle Columbia has broken up soon after re-entering the

 

 

 

Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven crew on board.

 

 

 

The space agency Nasa lost contact with the craft about 15 minutes before it

 

 

 

was due to land at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nasa administrator Sean O'Keefe told a news conference it was a "tragic day"

 

 

 

for the Nasa family.

 

 

 

He paid tribute to the dead crew as "extraordinary" people, and said

 

 

 

everything would be done to help their families through this period.

 

 

 

Mr O'Keefe said there was no indication that the disaster had been caused by

 

 

 

anything or anyone on the ground.

 

 

 

Hundreds of state troopers, police and rescue workers are searching large

 

 

 

areas of rugged terrain in eastern Texas for debris from the shuttle.

 

 

 

President Bush has been briefed about the disaster and is expected to make a

 

 

 

statement shortly.

 

 

 

Heightened security had surrounded Columbia's latest mission because of the

 

 

 

presence of Colonel Ramon, the first Israeli in space.

 

 

 

In Israel, officials described events as a national tragedy.

 

 

 

Columbia, which had been due to land at 0916 (1416 GMT) was returning from a

 

 

 

16-day mission orbiting the Earth and was in its re-entry procedure when

 

 

 

contact was lost at about 0900 local time.

 

 

 

Nasa said the shuttle was about 200,000 feet up and travelling at 12,500 mph

 

 

 

(20,000 kph) at the time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Television pictures showed a vapour trail from the craft as it flew over

 

 

 

Dallas.

 

 

 

It then appeared to disintegrate into several separate vapour trails, and

 

 

 

witnesses in the area said they heard "big bangs".

 

 

 

Texas public safety department spokesman Clive Kennelly said there were more

 

 

 

than 2,000 debris fields, scattered from the small town of Nacogdoches about

 

 

 

170 miles (290 km) south-east of Dallas, to the Louisiana border.

 

 

 

Nasa has warned that any debris found should be avoided as it could be

 

 

 

hazardous, and that people should report such finds to the authorities.

 

 

 

Pieces of debris have been reported in fields and on roads, and one

 

 

 

Nacogdoches resident, Jeff Hancock, said a metal bracket about a foot (30

 

 

 

centimetres) long crashed through his office roof, the Associated Press news

 

 

 

agency reported.

 

 

 

June 2000

 

 

 

BBC

 

 

 

Noel Kennelly Llanfairfechan Safety Action Group

 

 

 

"People are angry, they are upset...emotions are still running high"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Around 150 people packed a meeting in north Wales to discuss their concerns

 

 

 

about a medium secure unit for psychiatric patients in their village.

 

 

 

Ty Llewelyn has been under fire from local residents in Llanfairfechan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jesuit College New Orleans

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Norman Francis earned a B.S. degree from Xavier University of Louisiana in 1952. He then became the first African-American to enroll at Loyola University New Orleans and then Loyola University Law School, where he received his J.D. in 1955.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Francis served in the U.S. Army from 1956-57, and then returned to Xavier as Dean of Men. After holding several other positions at Xavier, he was appointed President in 1968. At Xavier, Francis presided over a major expansion of campus facilities and enrollment growth of 35 per cent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Civil Rights Era

 

 

 

In 1952, at 21 years of age, Norman Francis was one of two African-American students selected to integrate Loyola University Law School in New Orleans, Louisiana. In 1955 became the school’s first Black graduate. Francis served in the Army for two years, then joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office to help integrate federal agencies. During the turbulent times preceding the Civil Rights Movement he returned to Xavier University to begin his climb up the administrative ladder. In 1961, while serving as dean of men, Francis played a key role in Xavier's decision to house the Freedom Riders – an integrated group testing application of the Supreme Court decision banning discrimination in interstate rail and bus travel – in a campus dormitory after they were flown to New Orleans by Federal Marshals after having been attacked in three Alabama cities (Anniston, Birmingham and Montgomery).citation needed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About that same time, Francis acted as counsel for the Xavier student body president – Rudolph Lombard – who had been arrested for attempting to integrate the lunch counter at McCrory’s on Canal Street in New Orleans. It was those experiences that led Francis to choose the path of education over that of a law career. Ironically, he accepted the presidency at Xavier on the very day that the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated in Memphis in in 1968.citation needed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Honors and awards

 

 

 

Francis has been chairman of the board of Educational Testing Service, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Southern Education Foundation, and president of the American Association of Higher Education and the United Negro College Fund. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has received 35 honorary degrees.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In December 2006, Francis was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Background

 

 

 

citation needed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Norman Francis started out in life as poor and under-privileged, but — as he said later — he did not know that he was poor and under-privileged. Francis was born in Lafayette, Louisiana, the son of poor parents, neither of whom had finished high school. His father was a barber who rode to work each day on a bicycle because the family did not own a car. He earned pocket money by shining shoes on Lafayette's main street. His parents felt that Norman, his three sisters and his brother needed an education. Norman and his brother and sisters attended Catholic schools and his parents saw to it that the children rarely missed school. "I had to have a fever, and really be ill before I dared to try to miss school", he has said. His parents also made certain that the children attended Mass on Sunday, and were punctual in their religious duties.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After he graduated from St. Paul High School in 1948, he turned his interest toward the military, but because of the interest of one of the teaching sisters at St. Paul High School, Norman found himself with a work scholarship to Xavier University in New Orleans. The "work" part of this scholarship landed him in the university library, where he repaired damaged books. By his senior year he had worked himself up to night supervisor of library services. Francis was an honor student and was elected president of his class all four years. In his senior year he was chosen the president of the student body.citation needed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After his graduation from Xavier with a bachelor’s degree, he applied for entrance to Loyola University’s School of Law and was the first black student to be accepted by the school.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He feels that one reason he was accepted was because he had been active in the National Federation of Catholic College students. In that organization he became acquainted with several of the Jesuit fathers on the Loyola University faculty. Francis graduated from Loyola with honors with a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree in 1955 and he began to practice law. He soon decided that the law was not for him. "I could have made a great deal of money," he said later, "but I could help only a few people. The future belongs to those who are educated, so I turned to education."citation needed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Because of his scholastic record, the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, the religious order which conducts Xavier University, offered him the post of dean of men, which he accepted. He then began a steady rise in administrative positions at the university. From dean of men in 1957, he advanced to director of student personnel services in 1963, assistant to the president for student affairs in 1964, assistant to the president in charge of development in 1965 and executive vice president in 1967.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 1968 the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament promoted him to the post of president of the university — the first lay, male and black head of the university. During the following 25 years, Francis guided Xavier University’s growth in both size and dimension. The university has more than tripled its enrollment, broadened its curriculum and expanded its campus.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Affiliations

 

 

 

Norman Francis is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity established for African Americans.1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He belongs to the National Commission on Excellence in Education. He has also served as president of the United Negro College Fund and chairman of the board of directors of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and Educational Testing System.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He is chairman of the board of the Southern Education Foundation, a member of the National Advisory Research Council of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Resources, and the National Assessment of Higher Education Program.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He has been a member of the Vatican's Pontifical Commission of Justice and Peace, a member of the Advisory Board of the Society of St. Joseph, a member of the executive committee of the College and University Department of the National Catholic Educational Association, member of the Board of Trustees of the Catholic University of America, member of the Board of Regents of Loyola University, and member of the board of directors of the National Catholic Council for Interracial Justice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Francis was named among the 100 most effective college presidents in a poll published in the Chronicle of Higher Education. He has been awarded honorary degrees by 35 colleges and universities and he was invested as a Knight of Malta in 1991.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Francis shared the spotlight with his brother, Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Francis of Newark, who retired from active ministry in 1995, and died in 1997.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On November 21, 2008 in New Orleans at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, Francis celebrated his 40th year as President of Xavier University at the 40th Anniversary Gala, themed "Legacy for a Legend". The event was hosted by Bill Cosby, and featured a performance by Grammy winner Gladys Knight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

American Civil War

 

580 Timothy Dalton

 

143rd Rgmt, IN Inf, born 1835 Ireland, in Allen Co. IN in 1860, wife Johanna also born Ire. , died 1916 at Ft. Wayne, Ind (Allen Co), age 82

 

 

 

263 John Dalton

 

Pvt. Old Co. A. and Co. K. 5th LA Infty. Enlisted May 7th, 1861, New Orleans, LA Roll to June 30th, 1861, Present, Transfd. from LA Grays to Monroe Rifles, 5th Regt., C. S. A., at Camp Moore, LA, June 4th, 1861. Rolls from July, 1861, to Feb., 1862, Present. Federal Rolls of Prisoners of War, Captured Bottom Bridge, Va., May 2nd, 1862. Forwd. to Fort Monroe, Va., May 24th, 1862. Born Ireland, age 35 years, height 5 ft. 8 in., hair dark, eyes brown, complexion fair. Recd. at Fort Columbus, N. Y. Harbor, June 4th, 1862. Exchanged at Aikens Landing Va., Aug. 5th, 1862. Rolls from July, 1862, to Dec., 1862, Absent. Detailed as Nurse for the wounded. Rolls from Jan., 1863, to May, 1863, Absent. Detailed as Hospl. Nurse, Aug. -, 1862. Has not reported since. Roll for May and June, 1863, dated Aug. 10th, 1863, Detailed as Hospl. Nurse, Aug. 25th, 1862. Deserted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

321 Martin Dalton

 

1st Bn, TN Inf. (Colm's) Co. B, b. Ireland, wife Margaret.

 

 

 

580 Timothy Dalton

 

143rd Rgmt, IN Inf, born 1835 Ireland, in Allen Co. IN in 1860, wife Johanna also born Ire. , died 1916 at Ft. Wayne, Ind (Allen Co), age 82

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Captain D. P. Conyngham was an officer in the Irish Brigade and described the incident shortly after the war:

 

 

 

"I had a Sergeant Driscoll, a brave man, and one of the best shots in the Brigade. When charging at Malvern Hill , a company was posted in a clump of trees, who kept up a fierce fire on us, and actually charged out on our advance. Their officer seemed to be a daring, reckless boy, and I

 

 

 

 

 

said to Driscoll, 'if that officer is not taken down, many of us will fall before we pass that clump.'

 

 

 

'Leave that to me,' said Driscoll; so he raised his rifle, and the moment the officer exposed himself again bang went Driscoll, and over went the officer, his company at once breaking away.

 

 

 

As we passed the place I said, 'Driscoll, see if that officer is dead - he was a brave fellow.'

 

 

 

I stood looking on. Driscoll turned him over on his back. He opened his eyes for a moment, and faintly murmured 'Father,' and closed them forever.

 

 

 

I will forever recollect the frantic grief of Driscoll; it was harrowing to witness. He was his son, who had gone South before the war.

 

 

 

And what became of Driscoll afterwards? Well, we were ordered to charge, and I left him there; but, as we were closing in on the enemy, he rushed up, with his coat off, and, clutching his musket, charged right up at the enemy, calling on the men to follow. He soon fell, but jumped up again. We knew he was wounded. On he dashed, but he soon rolled over like a top. When we came up he was dead, riddled with bullets."

 

 

 

 

 

References:

 

Conyngham, D.P., The Irish Brigade and Its Campaigns, With Some Accounts of the Corcoran Legion, and Sketches of the Principal Officers, (1867) (reprinted in Botkin, B.A., A Civil War Treasury of Tales, Legends and Folklore, 1960); McPherson, James P, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era, (1988)

 

 

 

How To Cite This Article:

 

"Battlefield Tragedy, 1862" EyeWitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (1999).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Traveling on an Emigrant Train, 1879

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was 1879 and twenty-eight-year-old Robert Louis Stevenson - future author of the novels Kidnapped and Treasure Island - was in love. Her name was Fanny Osborne. She was an American, ten years his senior and married to another man. The two had met in France three years earlier and Stevenson had fallen hopelessly in love. She returned to California and her husband, but in 1879, Stevenson received a cable from her that immediately set him off on a voyage to be by her side.

 

 

 

Stevenson's parents were not happy with his plans and refused to fund his journey - so the young author decided to travel to America as an emigrant. This allowed him to take advantage of the low one-way fares to America offered by the American railroads. Special "Emigrant Boats" sailed to America's eastern ports and were met by "Emigrant Trains" that carried the foreign passengers to their final destinations. Stevenson kept a journal of his experience and soon turned this into a book.

 

 

 

"There was a Babel of bewildered men, women, and children."

 

 

 

We join Stevenson's story after he has landed in New York City. A ferry has taken him and his fellow emigrants across the Hudson River to board the Emigrant Train:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"There was a Babel of bewildered men, women, and children. The wretched little booking-office, and the baggage-room, which was not much larger, were crowdedthick with emigrants, and were heavy and rank with the atmosphere of dripping clothes.

 

 

 

I followed the porters into a long shed reaching downhill from West Street to the river. It was dark, the wind blew clean through it from end to end; and here I found a great block of passengers and baggage, hundreds of one and tons of the other. I feel I shall have a difficulty to make myself believed; and certainly the scene must have been exceptional, for it was too dangerous for daily repetition. It was a tight jam; there was no fair way through the mingled mass of brute and living obstruction. Into the upper skirts of the crowd, porters, infuriated by hurry and overwork, clove their way with shouts.

 

 

 

The landing at Jersey was done in, a stampede. I had a fixed sense of calamity, and to judge by conduct, the same persuasion was common to us all. A panic selfishness, like that produced by fear, presided over the disorder of our landing. People pushed - and elbowed - and ran, their families following how they could. Children fell, and were picked up to be rewarded by a blow. One child, who had lost her parents, screamed steadily and with increasing shrillness, as though verging towards a fit; an official kept her by him, but no one else seemed so much as to remark her distress; and I am ashamed to say that I ran among the rest. I was so weary that I had twice to make a halt and set down my bundles in the hundred yards or so between the pier and the railway station, so that I was quite wet by the time that I got under cover. There was no waiting-room, no refreshment-room; the cars were locked; and for at least another hour, or so it seemed, we had to camp upon the draughty, gas-lit platform."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.todayscatholicworld.com/cardinal-manning.htm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christ And Antichrist

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Sermon At The Mass Of Requiem For Those Who Fell In Defence Of Rome

 

 

 

By

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cardinal Henry Edward Manning

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vicar of Christ and Ruler of the World, Pope Pius IX, shown Giving His Benediction to Catholic Military Defenders of His Domains

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"In that little band were men of noble blood, of time-honoured memory, of high culture, fighting side by side with simple, hard-handed, broad-hearted peasants, who, full of devotion, left their hamlets and their homes to defend the Vicar of our Lord, and with striplings of seventeen, eighteen, and nineteen years of age, mature in faith, and the manhood of Christian chivalry. These were the men who, forsaking home and all that life holds best and dearest, went to bear arms as private soldiers, without hire and without hope, except that of defending the person and authority of the Vicar of Christ, and of shedding their blood, if need be, in the justest warfare and for the holiest cause." -Cardinal Manning

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHRIST AND ANTICHRIST: A SERMON AT THE MASS OF REQUIEM FOR THOSE WHO FELL IN DEFENCE OF ROME.

 

 

 

BY CARDINAL HENRY EDWARD MANNING

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Today's Catholic World (TCW)

 

 

 

April 15, 2007 A.D.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Minneapolis) -April 15- In 1867 as the Freemasons of Modern Italy attempted to sack Eternal Rome (that is situated in that region of Western Europe) many Catholics from all parts of Christendom, including Italy, courageously dropped all they were doing/their plans and converged to the locale of the Holy See to protect Christ's Vicar (Pope Pius IX and His domains) as generations of past European Catholics had always done (i.e. helped defend the Pope from evil aggressors).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Today's Catholic World is posting an important sermon from His Excellency, Cardinal Henry Edward Manning, who eloquently and justly shows the honor due to these Catholic military heroes and specifically to certain ones who bravely gave their lives (140 years ago) for de fide in the war (that continues today) against satanic masonry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course a prudent (as directed by the True Hierarchy) Catholic military option against the sacrilegious V-2 criminal usurpers of Church property is both holy and lawful. Pray for Papal Restoration.-The Editor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Basilica di S. Pietro, Roma

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christ And Antichrist

 

 

 

A Sermon At The Mass Of Requiem For Those Who Fell In Defence Of Rome

 

 

 

by

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cardinal Henry Edward Manning, Archbishop of Westminster

 

 

 

(Given in 1867 A.D.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We fools counted their life madness, and their end without honour. Behold, they are

 

 

 

numbered among the children of God, and their lot is among the Saints. WISDOM, v. 4-5.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THERE is a day to come which will reverse the confident judgments of men. In that day 'the first shall be last and the last first.' The wise in this world will be fools, and the fools in this world wise. The mad in this world will be the heirs of a better. It is no wonder to us that, day after day, base, craven, hireling names should be showered upon the noble-hearted men who have joyfully laid down their lives for the Vicar of Jesus Christ. I should break the peace of this hour if I were to repeat the heartless and bitter railings which have been pelted at them. They would taint the fragrance of this sanctuary. I will, therefore, examine the cause for which they fell; and I will appeal from their nameless accusers to a tribunal which is seldom unjust to the broad, calm, common sense of Englishmen, and to the nobler and higher instincts of Christians.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The dead for whose repose we offer the Holy Sacrifice to-day were slain in battle for the defence of the sacred person of the Vicar of Jesus Christ, of his lawful authority over the city which, under the providence of God, he and his predecessors have held, by martyrdom, suffering, and sovereignty, for 1,800 years; for the liberty of his person and office as Head of the Universal Church, for his supreme guardianship of the faith and law of Jesus Christ, in which all Christendom has its vital interest; and finally, for the rights and spiritual liberties of the whole Catholic world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If it be madness or baseness to die for such a cause, tell me what cause is holy, what cause is glorious? If the world call such men hirelings, the whole Christian world will honour them as martyrs; and we will bide the sentence of the Judge from Whom is no appeal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was a time when the whole of Western Christendom held it to be noble and glorious to volunteer in arms to defend the Holy Sepulchre from the powers of Mahometanism. Why is it not in like manner noble and glorious to defend the Vicar of Jesus Christ, the liberty, the purity of the Church itself from an anti-Christian revolution? If it was an act of Christian chivalry to defend the frontiers of Christendom, why is it not both Christian and chivalrous to defend its head and centre? If it was a noble courage to fight and to fall for the Christian liberty and purity of souls and of homes threatened by Mahometanism, how is it ignoble and hireling to defend the Christian Church at the centre of its liberty, purity, and life, against the violence of men who have blasphemously trumpeted their hatred of Christianity, and stained the cities of Italy with impurity and blood? If a war for justice be sacred, and if all Christians may lawfully and with dignity help their brethren of every nation, and die in such a cause, how can a Christian hand write names of infamy upon them? I appeal from such wresting of judgment to the Christian conscience arid Christian justice of Englishmen. I say, of Englishmen, because the hearts and consciences of Irishmen are already wounded and burning at this violation of every instinct of their faith.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But perhaps we shall be told that Rome is the capital of Italy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We deny it. Rome is not the capital of Italy. It is the capital of Christendom. God has so made it, and man cannot unmake it. All Christian nations have a right in it. Italy has its share in Rome as France has, and all other Catholic people; and neither less nor more. But Rome is in Italy, and 'Italians speak one tongue. Geography and language create no rights. If it were so, Canada would justly be annexed to the United States. North America, 'one and united' would not be made ' till it had incorporated Canada in its national unity of language and geography. Spain may say the same of Gibraltar, Italy of Malta, and the races of India in their several limits of territory and language. To this portentous theory of nationalism we answer, that it is a denial of all true national and international justice, the source of schism in religion, and of revolution in politics. Until the schism of the sixteenth century shattered the unity of Christian Europe, this theory of confusion was never known. A higher unity and a higher law bound together the nations of the Christian world, and consecrated the authority of States, while it protected the liberties and rights of the people. As Christians, and as Catholics, we refuse to break up the unity of Christendom for the unity of Italy, and to sacrifice the Christian and supernatural order of the world to the ' national aspirations ' of any people.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ven. Pope Pius IX "You must fight energetically, since you know very well what great wounds the undefiled Spouse of Christ Jesus has suffered, and how vigorous is the destructive attack of Her enemies.-His Holiness, Venerable Pope Pius IX

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the last thirty years the doctrine of nationalities and non-intervention has been preached with a subtlety and a confidence which has seduced many and stunned more. Men have been afraid of raising their heads against the claim of a nation's right to make revolutions. The doctrine which the Protestant Reformation used as a wedge to split off nations from the unity of the Church has been since applied as the lever to overturn thrones, and to destroy international rights. It is now wielded to overturn the Holy See. We are told that the highest and ultimate unity on earth is the unity of a nation; that each nation may isolate itself both in religion and politics at will; and that non-intervention is a reciprocal and universal duty of all nations to each other. Against this system of national supremacy, anti-Christian and immoral, we protest in the name of Christendom. There is a unity higher than the unity of any nation, in which the welfare of all nations is bound up : the unity of the Christian world. The maintenance of this unity, in its head and centre, in its order, and laws of national justice and co-operation, is the highest interest of all nations, and the guarantee of their reciprocal duties and rights. England isolated itself from the Christian world in religion three hundred years ago, and its present attitude of political isolation is the inevitable result, Russia in like manner is cut off from Europe by its schism, and its schism dictates its policy. Prussia is still half united to the Catholic world. The other nations of Europe are, for the most part, or altogether, members of the Catholic unity. It is not possible for any one of them to claim the Russian or English exemption from national responsibility to a higher unity, without renouncing their Catholic character. This, in an evil hour, Italy has been lured, taunted, tempted to do. And in an evil hour it has listened. It has claimed the capital of Christendom by a vote of its Parliament as the capital of Italy. But the Catholic world will not submit to this usurpation : and France, not as France, but as the mandatory of the Catholic Powers, has defeated, and will defeat, the usurpation, and protect the centre of Catholic unity and the Head of the Catholic world. This is our answer. The unity of Christendom will not make way for the unity of Italy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was for this cause these brave men fell.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And yet it was not against the Monarchy of Italy they fought. They were face to face with an anti-Christian horde, which the King of Italy disowned. Some ten thousand men of all parts of Italy, and of many other countries, armed and organised, without authority of public law, and in direct violation of the same, invaded the States of the Church. They made a private war in the name of the Red Revolution. This horde was led by the man who in 1848 stained Rome with innocent blood, and the other day demanded the overthrow of the Christian religion as essential to the welfare of the world. They were on their way to Rome to dethrone, not the Pontiff only, but Jesus Christ. God has not permitted the outrage to be perpetrated. While we were praying, day by day, in the Holy Mass, and before the most Holy Sacrament; while in Rome households were saying at the first hour of night the Litany of our Blessed Mother, with an invocation of St. Peter and St. Paul for the protection of the City; the head of the revolution, with its leader in all his prestige, was crushed and swept off the Patrimony of the Church by a blow so sudden and so complete that not a vestige, except the dead, wounded, and arms of the invaders remained on the field. Men will read this event differently. Some will see in it no more than a battle and a victory. We see in it also an answer to prayer, and an act of the power of God. It has once more saved the head and centre of Christianity from outrage and sacrilege; and they who gave their lives in the defence of Christianity may be numbered with the martyrs. But over that field of slaughter and of flight there hangs a gloorn as of a funeral pall. The unhappy men who fell with weapons in their hands raised against the Vicar of Jesus Christ were regenerate in baptism, and once illuminated with faith, and members of the Holy Catholic Church. In boyhood they had made their first confession and first communion as you did. But some terrible illusion of Satan, and the snares of secret societies, blinded and entangled them. I would fain say, 'Father, forgive them, they know not what they do!' But how could they be ignorant of their sin? There is mourning for them in many homes, and we mourn over their misery; but our tongues are tied, and our thoughts suspended. Our hearts can only ascend in secret to the infinite perfection of the Divine mercy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have said that those for whom we pray did not fall before the Italian Monarchy. But there are depths in these events which we cannot fathom. The armies of the King of Italy did not disarm or hinder the invaders. They were bound to do it, but did it not. They entered the Roman State in the rear of the revolution, and stood awaiting its success. I know not how to interpret this conduct : but I know how it would have been interpreted in England if the armies of the United States had not repressed the armed bands which a year ago, from their frontier, threatened Canada; still more, if they had advanced in the rear of the marauders to hold for the American Union what might be successfully seized by force. Such a course would not be ignoble because Great Britain is strong, nor is it noble because the Pope is weak. Neither are the ' national aspirations ' of Italy for Rome more legitimate than the national aspirations of the Union for Quebec. Italy has no more claim on Rome than on Dresden or Paris. Rome is protected by as sacred a right of sovereignty against the usurpation and ambition of Italy as Vienna or Madrid. Sovereigns do not lose their rights because they are in the neighbourhood of stronger powers. If proximity and geography and the unity of language constitute a right for the greater powers to absorb the weaker, then Brussels may be lawfully annexed by France, and Amsterdam by Germany. We have loudly aided and encouraged Italy in this usurping policy. We have lavished upon it ' the moral support ' of leading articles, and we shall reap the fruit of our labours.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fleur De Lis

 

 

 

It is a strange simplicity which pretends to wonder why France should ever have made a Convention when it withdrew its protection from the Holy See; and why it should have surrounded it with 'a moral cordon,' reserving to itself the right of intervention.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It did so because the Holy See is to France and to the Catholic world a centre in which they have supreme and vital rights; and it placed the security of the Holy See within the same defence which protects our persons and properties from burglars and murderers: the justice and conscience of Christian men, the public law of Christendom, backed by a supreme power which ' bears not the sword in vain.'

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have no doubt that they who counsel to Italy moderation ' for the present,' and hold out the hope of Rome in reversion when Pius IX. goes to his rest, sincerely believe themselves to be wise and equitable men. We are told also that the signs of the times are enough to show that Pius IX. is the last Pontiff who will hold a temporal sceptre. Some" men will read even Holy Scripture backwards. They can also reverse the signs of the times. Those signs rather indicate that so long as there is a Christian world so long the Pontiff will be Sovereign. If the world should apostatise from Christianity, it then may be that God would scourge it by the fulfilment of its heart's desire.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enemy of the Italian People: Freemasonic Pervert Giuseppe Garibaldi

 

 

 

But it is well for them to know that the Catholic world, neither now nor hereafter neither at the decease of Pius IX., nor yet at any time will yield one shadow of the inalienable right "of the Sovereign Pontiffs to the capital of Christendom; nor will it for a moment suffer the denial of its own supreme right and duty to intervene for the protection of the Holy See. The moral cordon of justice and order will be always drawn around it: and the right of execution will never depart from the Catholic world. In the days of Pius IX, it is France alone which has executed the will of Christendom; in the days of his successor it may be a league of Catholic Powers, or the force of two hundred millions concentrated and brought to bear by some future organisation which shall give expression and effect to their will.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For twenty years the anti-Christian seditions of all the world have aimed at the overthrow of Rome, at the destruction of the Temporal Power first, of the Spiritual Power afterwards. They hate the Temporal Power much, but they hate the Spiritual Power more. They think that if it were possible to destroy the Temporal Power, the Pontiffs would be either persecuted or subject. A Pope subject to a Royal Supremacy would reduce the Spiritual Supremacy to absurdity; and derision would be a keener and more deadly weapon against Christianity than persecution. For this end, therefore, all the spirits of anti- Christian revolution have united against Rome. They have poisoned the public opinion of Europe against it by lying, or by truths perverted, which are the worst of lies. They have misled and influenced Governments, stirred up popular bigotry, painted the Government of Rome in the darkest and falsest colours, organised in secret a propaganda of sedition to disgust, alienate, and goad on the subjects of the Holy See to discontent and to rebellion. Finally, when the people of Rome would not rebel, nor accept them as deliverers, nor take the baits of sedition, the revolutionary hordes of all countries entered the Roman State in arms. It was at once proclaimed as the rising and insurrection of the Roman State. Foreign invasion played the part of domestic insurrection. Every act to seduce or to compel the peaceful population to rise has been used. Provisional Governments, revolutionary committees, petitions signed by imaginary thousands, plebiscites, proclamations, conspiracies in Rome, shells thrown among the loyal inhabitants, gun powder plots, mines under the walls all has been tried, but all in vain. In the end, moved by a just indignation, delayed, through Christian endurance, only too long, the soldiers and protectors of the Holy See crushed and scattered the lawless bands of the revolution. It was a just and noble act for the Catholics of all countries to sweep the seditions, conspiracies, and armed outrages of foreign invaders* out of the Patrimony of the Church. If the unbelievers of other countries, banded in secret societies, have a right to plot the overthrow of the Sovereign Pontiff, the faithful of other nations have likewise a just and perfect right, in open and lawful array, to defend his

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

* A private letter from one who is in attendance on the prisoners in Rome states that there are ten Englishmen among them. The foreign correspondent of one of our newspapers stated that four Spaniards fought under Garibaldi in the uniform of General Prim's army.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

person and his throne. If the revolution invade his State, the Catholic world has a right to turn it out. Foreign aggressors may justly be destroyed by foreign troops. And yet no Catholic power is foreign in Rome. Every Catholic has a right in the Holy See, and in the city where God has placed it. The theory of non-intervention has no application in this case. Non-intervention may be a policy of the natural order; but it must be confined to the sphere of politics, and to the mutual respect of civil Governments. When applied to Rome, it is a mere deceit, in order to mask the question. No Catholic Power can proclaim the policy of non-intervention when the Vicar of Christ and the Head of the Catholic Church is threatened, To do so would be to renounce the Catholic character and name. Protestant or schismatical Governments may, perhaps, proclaim non-intervention as their policy, because they have forfeited their rights in Rome. They may also in their theories divide the Temporal from the Spiritual Power of the Pontiffs. But all Catholics know these things to be providentially united for the free and peaceful exercise of the mission of the Church among the nations of the world. The intervention of the French people to defend the person and authority of Pius IX. against external violence, from whatsoever nation, race, or Government it may come, would be, by all the prescriptions of Christian international law, an honourable, just, and noble act. How much more, when France has intervened against a lawless and immoral band of invaders, rebels to their own Government, and disturbers of the peace of the Christian world! By this act, which is only one more in the traditional office of France in protecting the Centre and Head of Christendom, she has placed herself in the lead of the Christian order, the Christian justice, the Christian chivalry of the world. May God maintain her firm and inflexible in this noblest mission upon earth! The Catholic world will confirm her acts by the sympathy and assent of its heart and conscience. France has thereby invoked upon her self the enmity, scorn, and railing of anti-Catholic and anti-Christian factions. But she has won to herself the confidence and the sympathy of every man among the two hundred millions in all lands, who refuse to offer up the supernatural unity, order, and purity of the Christian world as a homage to the tyranny of modern Nationalism, the deification of the civil power, the anti-Christian hatred against the Church of God. Let France stand firm, and she may stay the plague which is devouring Christian Europe. The prayers of all good men will ascend for her. These things bring to my mind others of a sadder cast, and nearer to ourselves. But I forbear to speak of my own country.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are, however, happier thoughts, to which I gladly turn.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The late events have detected and exposed with a terrible but just retribution the hollowness, the imposture, the falsehood, the vainglory, the impotence of the Revolution. Grandiloquence, mystery, pretended ubiquity, for a long time terrified or distracted the friends of order. But the veil is rent, and the idol is broken. On the 1st of November the ring leader of this godless anarchy proclaimed to the world from Monte Rotondo : ' I here, alone a Roman General, with full powers from the only lawful Government that is, of the Roman Republic, and elected by universal suffrage have the right to maintain myself in arms on this territory of my jurisdiction.' * Before the moon was up on the night of the 3rd, he and his hordes were swept away, not by the soldiers of Christendom, nor by the armies of France, but by the just judgment of God, Whom, in the Vicar of His Incarnate Son, he had outraged and defied.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thus, then, is one vast scandal and danger swept out of Italy. Year by year there have been arising in Italy the harbingers of a better day. It has suffered much, and the shadow of a greater suffering which may yet come is cast before upon it. But there is yet time, and there is yet hope. Italy is both Christian arid Catholic. Infidelity and Revolution have tormented and tainted Italy, but Italy is neither revolutionary nor infidel. Factions have risen, from time to time, to the surface; and the traditional mind and will of Italy is for a while confused and paralysed. But it is evidently rising again in vigour and control; and if only wise and Christian counsels prevail, the Christian mind of Italy will be once more in the ascendant. Then, and only then, can the reconciliation of Italy and Rome be accomplished. No worse enemy ever came between them than the Infidel Revolution. When Italy returns upon the path of its old Catholic glories, the heart of the Catholic world will return to it. We love and venerate it as the soil on which the greatest glories of the Catholic Church are inscribed,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

* Unita Cattolica, Nov. 7, 1867.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and the Head of the Christian world is divinely placed. Apart from these prerogatives Italy has no claim upon our goodwill beyond other nations; against these supreme laws of Providence Italy has no rights. We pray that all temporal prosperity may be upon her, but on condition of her fidelity to the order and unity of the Christian world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"You will pray for the dead, though the sanctity of their cause almost forbids it, that they may enter into the joy of those who, face to face, see Him for whom they died. And we may trust that their places here will be filled up tenfold a hundredfold that the manhood and chivalry of Catholics in all nations will spring forward with a new energy of devotion and close around the person of Pius IX. and of those who shall come after him, as an impenetrable wall of living strength, against which, if revolutionary violence or ambitious nationalism shall hereafter dash itself again, it may be for ever broken."

 

 

 

-Cardinal Henry Edward Manning

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There remains but one more thought; an image which rises in our minds high above all in calmness, dignity, and grandeur the Vicar of Jesus Christ, immovable in confidence, inflexible in justice, the Father of his people. Against him can be found no accusation. Many have borne witness against him, but their testimonies do not agree together. No man can convict him of injustice, of cruelty, of oppression, of even lawful severity. He has been conspired against and betrayed; but he has pardoned the conspirators and betrayers, to be conspired against and betrayed again. He has taken no man's goods, not so much as a shoe's latchet. He has never harassed the poor of his people, nor driven them from the humble homes of their fathers, nor wounded their conscience in that which is dearest to a Catholic people. The line of Pontiffs stands alone for justice and mercy in the history and the assembly of kings. One accusation against him can alone be proved. He is a Priest of Jesus Christ. Some men are to be found who think this enough to justify his dethronement. The Christian world is not yet of their opinion. Neither were these noble hearts who gave their life-blood, as millions in all nations are likewise willing at this hour to do, in order to forbid this great sacrilege. In that little band were men of noble blood, of time-honoured memory, of high culture, fighting side by side with simple, hard-handed, broad-hearted peasants, who, full of devotion, left their hamlets and their homes to defend the Vicar of our Lord, and with striplings of seventeen, eighteen, and nineteen years of age, mature in faith, and the manhood of Christian chivalry. These were the men who, forsaking home and all that life holds best and dearest, went to bear arms as private soldiers, without hire and without hope, except that of defending the person and authority of the Vicar of Christ, and of shedding their blood, if need be, in the justest warfare and for the holiest cause. God has accepted this offering only from a few; but there will be fathers, mothers, sisters, wives, who will mourn over this bier. You will pray for the dead, though the sanctity of their cause almost forbids it, that they may enter into the joy of those who, face to face, see Him for whom they died. And we may trust that their places here will be filled up tenfold a hundredfold that the manhood and chivalry of Catholics in all nations will spring forward with a new energy of devotion and close around the person of Pius IX. and of those who shall come after him, as an impenetrable wall of living strength, against which, if revolutionary violence or ambitious nationalism shall hereafter dash itself again, it may be for ever broken.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This outrage and its chastisement warn all nations of the Christian and civilised world to provide for their own safety. It is but one more of the outbursts of anti-Christian and anti-social revolution which have in time past struck at the head and centre of Christendom. It will soon renew its assault. It has been utterly and bitterly foiled, but we do not deceive ourselves with the hope that it is crushed or extinct. It will return again. Its hordes are driven out of view, but they lie under the horizon. They will reform, their array, and return hereafter. We have need, therefore, to prepare more solidly and resolutely than ever.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Three things, we may trust, will come of this offence against the Christian order of nations, which has all but plunged Europe into war.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First : That France declare to all comers, and to all who may affect to doubt it, that the traditional mission of a thousand years as the Protector of the Holy See will not be relaxed; that it will execute it hereafter, as it has now, with inflexible decision; that in all diplomatic calculations this must be taken into account; that, while others talk, France will do.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Secondly : That all European nations take security against the renewal of these dangers to both their external and internal peace. The Catholic nations have a vital and all-pervading interest in the safety and independence of the Head of their Religion. The nations not Catholic have among them so many millions of Catholic brethren and fellow-subjects that their own internal welfare, as well as their external peace, is perpetually threatened by these outrages and scandals. It is the highest interest of all to protect, by international law and reciprocal engagements, the neutrality and exemption of Rome from all political conspiracies and conflicts, and to secure the independence and dignity of the Head of the Catholic world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lastly: The example of this noble blood from Rome, from France, from Switzerland, from Belgium, from Holland, from Ireland, from England, and from other lands, which has been generously shed, calls with the voice of a trumpet upon the youth of all Catholic people to form a circle around the Vicar of Jesus Christ. Let the world count their Christian chivalry to be madness, and their end to be without honour. There is One reigning in the realms of light above this dark world Who will accept their reproach, and, if so be, their life-blood, as an offering to Himself. [END]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PRESIDENT KENNEDY

 

 

 

50 years since his election Oct. 2010

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert F. Kennedy

 

 

 

Atlantic City, New Jersey

 

 

 

August 27, 1964

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mr. Chairman, I wish to speak just for a few moments.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I first want to thank all of you delegates to the Democratic National Convention and the supporters of the Democratic Party for all that you did for President John F. Kennedy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I want to express my appreciation to you for the efforts that you made on his behalf at the convention four years ago, the efforts that you made on his behalf for his election in November of 1960, and perhaps most importantly, the encouragement and the strength that you gave him after he was elected President of the United States.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I know that it was a source of the greatest strength to him to know that there were thousands of people all over the United States who were together with him, dedicated to certain principles and to certain ideals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No matter what talent an individual possesses, what energy he might have, no matter how much integrity and how much honesty he might have, if he is by himself, and particularly a political figure, he can accomplish very little. But if he is sustained, as President Kennedy was, by the Democratic Party all over the United States, dedicated to the same things that he was attempting to accomplish, he can accomplish a great deal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No one knew that more than President John F. Kennedy. He used to take great pride in telling of the trip that Thomas Jefferson and James Madison made up the Hudson River in 1800 on a botanical expedition searching for butterflies; that they ended up down in New York City and that they formed the Democratic Party.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He took great pride in the fact that the Democratic Party was the oldest political Party in the world, and he knew that this linkage of Madison and Jefferson with the leaders in New York combined the North and South, and combined the industrial areas of the country with the rural farms and that this combination was always dedicated to progress and all of our Presidents have been dedicated to progress.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He thought of Thomas Jefferson in the Louisiana Purchase, and also when Jefferson realized that the United States could not remain on the Eastern Seaboard and sent Lewis and Clark to the West Coast; of Andrew Jackson; of Woodrow Wilson; of Franklin Roosevelt who saved our citizens who were in great despair because of the financial crisis; of Harry Truman who not only spoke but acted for freedom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, when he became President he not only had his own principles and his own ideals but he had the strength of the Democratic Party. As President he wanted to do something for the mentally ill and the mentally retarded; for those who were not covered by Social Security; for those who were not receiving an adequate minimum wage; for those who did not have adequate housing; for our elderly people who had difficulty paying their medical bills; for our fellow citizens who are not white and who had difficulty living in this society. To all this he dedicated himself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But he realized also that in order for us to make progress here at home, that we had to be strong overseas, that our military strength had to be strong. He said one time, "Only when our arms are sufficient, without doubt, can we be certain, without doubt, that they will never have to be employed." So when we had the crisis with the Soviet Union and the Communist Bloc in October of 1962, the Soviet Union withdrew their missiles and bombers from Cuba.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even beyond that, his idea really was that this country, that this world, should be a better place when we turned it over to the next generation than when we inherited it from the last generation. That is why--with all of the other efforts that he made--the Test Ban Treaty, which was done with Averell Harriman, was so important to him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And that's why he made such an effort and was committed to the young people not only of the United States but to the young people of the world. And in all of these efforts you were there all of you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When there were difficulties, you sustained him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When there were periods of crisis, you stood beside him. When there were periods of happiness, you laughed with him. And when there were periods of sorrow, you comforted him. I realize that as individuals we can't just look back, that we must look forward. When I think of President Kennedy, I think of what Shakespeare said in Romeo and Juliet:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"When he shall die take him and cut him out into stars and he shall make the face of heaven so fine that all the world will be in love with night and pay no worship to the garish sun."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I realize that as individuals, and even more important, as a political party and as a country, we can't just look to the past, we must look to the future.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So I join with you in realizing that what started four years ago--what everyone here started four years ago--that is to be sustained; that is to be continued.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The same effort and the same energy and the same dedication that was given to President John F. Kennedy must be given to President Lyndon Johnson and Hubert Humphrey.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If we make that evident, it will not only be for the benefit of the Democratic Party, but, far more important, it will be for the benefit of this whole country.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we look at this film we must think that President Kennedy once said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"We have the capacity to make this the best generation in the history of mankind, or make it the last."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If we do our duty, if we meet our responsibilities and our obligations, not just as Democrats, but as American citizens in our local cities and towns and farms and our states and in the country as a whole, then this generation of Americans is going to be the best generation in the history of mankind.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He often quoted from Robert Frost--and said it applied to himself--but we could apply it to the Democratic Party and to all of us as individuals:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"The woods are lovely, dark and deep, but I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mrs. Kennedy has asked that this film be dedicated to all of you and to all the others throughout the country who helped make John F. Kennedy President of the United States.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I thank you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired.”

 

 

 

- Robert Frost, irresistible poet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Love is a state in which a man sees things most decidedly as they are not.”

 

 

 

- Friedrich Nietzsche, philosopher

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit.”

 

 

 

- Peter Ustinov, actor and writer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Love is a gross exaggeration of the difference between one person and everybody else.”

 

 

 

- George Bernard Shaw, writer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward in the same direction.”

 

 

 

- Antoine de Saint-Exupery, writer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2: Mad for you

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.”

 

 

 

- Friedrich Nietzsche again

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Love is a great beautifier.”

 

 

 

- Louisa May Alcott, who probably added: “what was I thinking?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That's relativity.”

 

 

 

- Albert Einstein – as good with words as he was with bunsen burners

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“I was nauseous and tingly all over. I was either in love or I had smallpox.”

 

 

 

- Woody Allen, movie maker

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3: Cheese from the heart

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Fairy-tales are nice.”

 

 

 

- Syd Barrett, rock n' roll poet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Passion makes the world go round. Love just makes it a safer place.”

 

 

 

- Ice T, fella with jewellery

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Who, being loved, is poor?”

 

 

 

- Oscar Wilde, the missing link between Queen Victoria and Stephen Fry

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live without you.”

 

 

 

- Winnie the Pooh, bear

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is better than your dreams.”

 

 

 

- Dr Seuss, cat man

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“If we could decide who we loved, it would be much simpler, but much less magical.”

 

 

 

- Chef from South Park

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4: Harsh but fair

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Before I met my husband, I'd never fallen in love. I'd stepped in it a few times.”

 

 

 

- Rita Rudner, comedian

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Always get married early in the morning. That way, if it doesn't work out, you haven't wasted a whole day.”

 

 

 

- Mickey Rooney, actor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Friendship often ends in love, but love in friendship – never.”

 

 

 

- Charles Caleb Colton, 18th century cleric

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Marriage is like a bank account. You put it in, you take it out, you lose interest.”

 

 

 

- Irwin Corey, US writer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“The trouble with some women is that they get all excited about nothing, and then marry him.”

 

 

 

- Cher, happily divorced rock chick

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Scratch a lover and find a foe.”

 

 

 

- Dorothy Parker, 1920s writer and serial New York dater

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Love is a thing that can never go wrong... and I am Marie of Romania.”

 

 

 

- Dorothy Parker, 1920s writer and serial New York dumper/dumpee

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5: What men want

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Women need a reason to have sex. Men just need a place.”

 

 

 

- Billy Crystal, comedian

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Marge, I'm going to miss you so much. And it's not just the sex. It's also the food preparation.”

 

 

 

- Homer Simpson, yellow husband

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6: Hollywood legends FTW

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“How beautiful you are, now that you love me.”

 

 

 

- Marlene Dietrich, Hollywood legend

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Love is a fire. Whether it is going to warm your heart or burn down your house, you can never tell.”

 

 

 

- Joan Crawford, Hollywood legend

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Before marriage, a girl has to make love to a man to hold him. After marriage, she has to hold him to make love to him.”

 

 

 

- Marilyn Monroe, Hollywood legend

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“I'd marry again if I found a man who had fifteen million dollars, would sign over half to me, and guarantee that he'd be dead within a year.”

 

 

 

- Bette Davis, Hollywood legend

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“If you want to sacrifice the admiration of many men for the criticism of one, go ahead, get married.”

 

 

 

- Katharine Hepburn, Hollywood legend

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Marriage is a great institution, but I'm not ready for an institution yet.”

 

 

 

- Mae West, Hollywood legend

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“A man in love is incomplete until he has married. Then he's finished.”

 

 

 

- Zsa Zsa Gabor, Hollywood legend

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7: Lyrics of love

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“It's the stupid details that my heart is breaking for.”

 

 

 

- Elvis Costello

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“The more you ignore me the closer I get.”

 

 

 

- Morrissey

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“I'm in love with the person in the sandwich centre. If she didn't exist I'd have to invent her.”

 

 

 

- Ian Dury

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“One day he went away and I thought I'd die, but I didn't. And I said to myself: 'is that all there is to love?'”

 

 

 

- Peggy Lee

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8: Pearls of wisdom

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“The way to love anything is to realise that it may be lost.”

 

 

 

- GK Chesterton, novelist

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Love makes the time pass. Time makes love pass.”

 

 

 

- Euripides, playwright

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.”

 

 

 

- William Shakespeare

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Taken from New Advent

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While listening to a recent TV news story about the late Christopher Hitchens, I heard a Pakistani interview subject accuse Hitchens of being an unreconstructed “American apologist.” The other four or five people interviewed all heaped lavish praise on Hitchens. With all due respect to the dead, allow me to further elaborate on the views of the lone dissenter.

 

 

 

Hitchens died recently of cancer of the esophagus. His main claim to fame was as a writer, most recently for Vanity Fair magazine and before then for The Nation and other publications.

 

 

 

My criticism of Hitchens was his blind, unquestioned and totally flawed support for the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003. By happy coincidence, that war just ended after eight years and nine months, the deaths of almost 4,500 American service members, more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians and the cost of more than $800 billion in precious American tax dollars.

 

 

 

The number of Iraqi deaths is probably much higher but no one knows for sure because neither the Iraqi nor U.S. government kept statistics on how many Iraqi’s were killed during that war.

 

 

 

During the months leading up to the war, Hitchens and other pro-American apologists were virulent, frenzied, almost crazed in their hatred for Saddam Hussein, the dictator of Iraq at the time.