Monthly Archives: May 2017

Special Day, Walk and Talk and Award Winning

Bridge News.

The results from the latest bridge game played on Monday May 15th are as follows:

1st: Patsy Roche and Kathleen Collins.
2nd: Joan Hartery and Theresa Greaney
3rd: Mary O Brien and Peggy Murphy
4th: Eileen Kirwan and Sean Hennessy

 

Can’t Stop The Beat!
Star Struck Theatre School which takes place in Ballyduff Community Centre will stage their production of Hairspray Jnr from Tuesday May 23rd to Thursday May 25th at 7.30pm nightly. Tickets can be booked by texting 087-9116711. The cast consists of all local boys and girls and promises to be full of fun and great music. You won’t be able to stop your feet tapping along because remember you can’t stop the beat.

 

Special Day

Congratulations and best wishes to all the boys and girls from 2nd class in Ballyduff N.S who made their First Holy Communion recently. They all looked beautiful and beamed with excitement. They performed the little jobs they had been allocated brilliantly and I’m sure their parents and families and their teacher Mrs. Brennan are very proud of them. Even though the weather wasn’t very nice it didn’t ruin their enjoyment and I know they will all have wonderful memories to look back on.

 

Award Winning
Congratulations to the gifted Niamh Kennedy, Stonehouse who picked up the award for Best Bridal Hair at The Great Lengths Ireland Awards Final which was held in Dublin recently. Niamh is a stylist with Willow Hair Boutique, The Glen and I am sure all her colleagues are very proud of her achievement. On behalf of you all I wish Niamh congratulations and continued success in her profession.

 

Good Wishes
Our local Tidy Towns committee have asked me to send get well soon wishes to Christy O Keeffe, Ballyduff. Christy is of course a true parish man and is always on hand to help out with anything that needs done. He does trojan work with the Tidy Towns group and we know we will see him back to his old self very soon.
The committee would also like to say a big thank you to Philip Simpson and Michael Fitzpatrick on the great job they did on clearing the ditches approaching Ballyduff.

 

Walk and Talk
Ballyduff GAA Academy and Nursery will hold a 5km walk along our beautiful Greenway on Saturday June 17th. We are blessed to have a wonderful new Greenway so come along and join in with everyone. This will be a nice leisurely walk with lots of chatting and laughter along the way. All clubs especially sports clubs support the idea of a healthy mind and healthy body so come along and have some fun. The walk will leave from Haughtons carpark at 11am and Gerry and Margaret O Connell have very kindly offered to provide some light refreshments for everyone on their return.

Gala News
We congratulate Damian and Majella and all the staff at Gala on their decision to expand their business. We hope they will enjoy every success. Damian is on the lookout for some old photos of Kilmeaden for the new planned seating area. If you think you might have something suitable please drop it into Damian and give him a look.

Reunion
There will be a reunion of all former employees of The Irish Tanners and Rubber Plant on Sunday June 25th at 2.30pm in The Cotton Mill, Portlaw. All husbands, wives and partners are also welcome to attend.

Notes
If you would like something included in these notes please contact me Linda Spillane on 087-9838392 or drop me an email on spillanelinda2017@gmail.com Please note this a new email address but dont worry I can still receive emails on my old address. Of course another way to get me is to stop me for a chat, I’m good at that!!!

Bridge News, Golden Jubilee and Hairspray

GAA Lotto Draw.
The numbers drawn in the Ballyduff GAA lotto draw were 5, 7, 9 and 17. There was no winner of the jackpot. The three lucky dip winners of €50 each were Paul Kelly, William Murphy and Nano, Ken, Maggie, Anthony and Sully. The next draw will take place on May 21st and will have a fantastic jackpot of €6,950. Tickets are just €2 or 3 for €5 and are on sale from all committee members and will also be on sale all day outside Centra on Saturday May 20th.

Bridge News.
The results of the last bridge game played on May 8th were as follows:

1st: Ann Marie Brown and Theresa Phelan.
2nd:Mary O Brien and Celia Nugent.
3rd:Nano Fitzgerald and Geraldine McMahon.
4th:Patsy Roche and Mary Prendergast.

 

AGM
The AGM of Ballyduff AFC will take place on Tuesday May 23rd at 7pm in Ballyduff Community Centre. All are welcome to attend this meeting and the club are always happy to welcome new members.

 

Recent Death.
We send our sympathies to Mary Bowman on the recent death of her brother Terry Power who was living in Kilmacleague East in Dunmore East. We pray that he may now rest in peace and we offer our thoughts and prayers to all his family.

Best Wishes.

There are are a number of people from our locality and surrounding areas who are recovering from operations or spells in hospital and on your behalf I would like to send them all our best wishes for a full and speedy recovery. I am 100% sure that many prayers are being offered for them and these prayers will continue.

 

Golden Jubilee
Our Parish Priest Fr.Mick will celebrate his Golden Jubilee in June and he would like to invite you all to celebrate with him at a special mass on Friday June 9th at 7.30pm in Ballyduff church. There will also be light refreshments served afterwards in the school hall. If you are unable to attend that mass then you can go along to Portlaw church on Thursday June 15th where there will be another mass of thanksgiving. This is a very important occasion in Fr.Micks life and so he hopes that you will join with to mark this fantastic milestone.

 

Hairspray!
The Star Struck Theatre School who run from Ballyduff Community Centre and consists of boys and girls from our locality will host their end of term show “Hairspray Jnr” from Tuesday May 23rd to Thursday May 25th at 7.30pm nightly. Tickets can be booked at any of the classes on Mondays or Wednesdays or you can text 087-911671. Tickets cost €10 per adult and under 12’s are €8 while family tickets cost €30. Please come along and support if you can at all

Fun Day Out, Triumphant Return and Bluebell Delight

AGM.

Ballyduff AFC will host their AGM on Tuesday May 23rd in Ballyduff Community Centre at 7pm. All are welcome to attend this meeting. Please drop along if you feel you would like to get involved with your local club.

 

Happy Couple.

We send our heartiest congratulations to Deirdre Mackey, Ross who recently announced her engagement to Mark O Gorman. We hope this happy couple will enjoy a long and happy life together. I’m sure sister Louise will be on hand with lots of advice following her big day and brother Richard may know a good wedding band or two!

 

Bridge News.

The results of the last two bridge games are as follows:

24/04/2017

1st: Patsy Roche and Theresa Phelan
2nd: Michael O Donovan and Kathleen Collins
3rd: Anne Marie Brown and Nano Fitzgerald
4th: Geraldine McMahon and Anna Harney
02/05/2017
1st: Kathleen Collins and Patsy Roche
2nd: William and Anne Tobin.
3rd: Anne Marie Brown and Mary Prendergast
4th: Nan Murphy and Patrner.

 

Graveyard Mass.

Although it is a long while off yet it is a date that a lot of people like to mark in their diaries. Our annual graveyard mass will take place this year on Wednesday July 5th at 7.30pm. Many people from outside the parish like to attend this mass as they have relatives or friends buried here. Please spread the word to anyone you know who may be interested in attending. I will keep you reminded through these notes.

 

Training Hard.

The Ballyduff GAA Nursery and Academy are back in the field training hard. Aimed at boys and girls aged 4 to 10 years training takes place in Kildermody on Saturday mornings at 10.30am and on Wednesdays at 6.15pm. The children play and learn the skills of hurling and football in a safe and friendly environment. All coaches are fully trained and are Garda vetted. You are welcome to pop along to the training or if you need any further information please contact Brian on 087-2486423 or Rory on 086-6012394.

Fun Day Out.
The Swan Lodge Classic and Vintage Club will host The Mick Kirwan Memorial Tractor/Vehicle run on Sunday May 14th in Gardenmorris, Kill. Registration will take place at 11.30am. There will be a large amount of vintage machinery and vehicles on display but also a barbeque, music, displays and sideshows. All money raised will go to The Touching Hearts charity who are fundraising to build and equip a new more appropriate building for the students availing of The Sacred Heart Centre. If any of you have ever visited the centre you will know of the fantastic work the staff do but how badly they need more space and facilities. Imagine you can support their campaign while enjoying a brilliant day out. Come along and enjoy what is always a day of great fun.

 

Successful Morning.
I spent a lovely morning on Thursday last at our local Alzheimers Tea/Coffee morning. Ballyduff Community Centre was the venue and our annual hostess Niamh Larkin was on hand to welcome us all in with a warm smile and a hot cuppa. Of course the smell of freshly baked scones and cakes was enough to draw anyone in. Niamhs helpful assistant on the day was Ann McDonnell who made sure nobody was left wanting for anything. Beautiful cakes, tarts and buns adorned the plates all freshly made by Niamh and Christine Tubbritt and of course we also had the now famous Trish Keegans scones. We were all entered into a raffle which had some fabulous prizes and would you believe I actually won a gorgeous bunch of flowers. This really was a lovely morning as always and a fantastic amount of €600 was raised. Niamh brings this money into The Pine Grove centre so the money stays locally. Niamh would like to say a big thank you to all who contributed in any way. Your kindness and generosity is greatly appreciated.

Weekly Adoration

A reminder to you all that adoration of The Blessed Sacrament takes place every Tuesday in our church from 12 noon until 7pm. All are welcome to drop in at any stage even if just for a few minutes and sit and rest with your own thoughts and prayers.

 

Triumphant Return.

Brian and his teamates from the Portlaw Village Wheelers cycling club have returned safe and sound from their 500 km charity cycle in aid of Crumlin Hospital and the Portlaw Red Cross. Talking to them all they were all overwhelmed by the fantastic response they received everywhere they went. They arrived back to Portlaw to be greeted with a heroes welcome. They would like to thank everyone who has donated money to these worthy charities and if you would like to donate you still can. We are all very proud of their achievement and we hope they are proud of their own committment and dedication to the event.

 

Bluebell Delight.

One of my most favourite sights at this time of year is the glorious sight of the bluebells on Ballyduff Hill. It always brings back memories of walking to primary school with my mother and stopping to pick bluebells on the way to put on the May altar in school. The smell and the sight of the bluebells always make me smile when I pass and now I pick them with my children . Do yourself a favour and stop to pick a bunch someday, you’ll love them.
“I walked into the lonely wood
And stared about the place I stood
The beauty of the tree lined glade
with shafts of light that pierced the shade
All filled me with a sense of awe
The bluebell carpet best of all.”

Thank You, Pretty Wedding and Tea Day

Bridge News.
The results of the latest bridge games played are as follows:

1st: Kathleen Collins and Celia Nugent
2nd: Mary Prendergast and Mary Flavin.
3rd: Breda Cowman and Patsy Roche.
4th: Joan Hartery and Ann Cox.

27-04-2017

1st: Patsy Roche and Theresa Phelan
2nd: Michael O Donovan and Kathleen Collins
3rd: Anne Marie Brown and Nano Fitzgerald
4th: Geraldine McMahon and Anna Harney.

 

Recent Deaths

We extend our deepest sympathies to May McGrath, Ballygarron on the death of her sister in Cork recently. We offer our thoughts and prayers to the family and pray that she may rest in peace.
We also extend our sympathies to Nano Fitzgerald, Ross on the recent death of her mother Mary Goff, Faithlegg. We pray that she may rest in gentle peace.

 

Thank You.
The Irish Pilgrims Trust recently held a church gate collection in Ballyduff and would like to thank everyone who supported them. Your generosity is greatly appreciated.

 

GAA Lotto
The numbers drawn in the last lotto draw were 3, 14, 19 and 25. The three lucky dip winners of €50 each were Tina Mullins, Michael Mackey and Tony Larkin. The next lotto draw will take place on May 7th and will have a fantastic jackpot of €6800. Tickets cost just €2 or 3 for €5 and will be on sale all day at Centra on May 6th. Choose those four lucky numbers carefully and the jackpot could be yours!

 

Pretty Wedding

We send our warmest congratulations to Rory Smith, Ballyduff East and his beautiful bride Karen Caulfield who were married recently in Ballyduff Church. The couple were certainly blessed with beautiful weather on the day and the sun shone brightly for them and I hear that everyone had a wonderful day and weekend. We wish the happy couple many years of wedded bliss and wish them a bright and happy future together.

 

Community Alert
On Tuesday May 25th our local community alert group held their final meeting until the Autumn. The group would like to thank all those who have attended the monthly meetings and the guards from the Kilmacthomas station for all their support. This doesn’t mean that the group are going anywhere they will still be as active and the text alert scheme will still be up and going.
The group would like to thank James O Neill for attending the meeting and giving a very informative talk about the “Operation ID” scheme which involves marking your valuable items with your unique Eircode number, recording your marked property on a register list and displaying your operation ID sign on your property showing your participation in the program and discouraging burglaries and theft on your property. This is all done in conjunction with An Garda Siochana and the group hope to roll out this scheme in our area over the Summer months. Keep an eye out in these notes for more information and on the groups facebook page High Road/Ballyduff Community Alert.

 

Date To Remember.
A very important date for your diary is Sunday May 14th when the Mick Kirwan Memorial Tractor/Vehicle Run will take place. Hosted by The Swan Lodge Classic and Vintage Club the venue is the stunning Gardenmorris, Kill and registration will be at 11.30am. The charity benefiting this year is The Touching Hearts charity who are fundraising to purchase and equip a new building as the present Sacred Heart Centre is not suitable for the childrens needs. What a great charity to support while having a most enjoyable day not only viewing the vintage vehicles but enjoying a BBQ, Music, Displays and Sideshows. Come along and join in the fun.

 

Tea Day.
The annual Alzheimers Tea Day will be celebrated on Thursday May 4th this year and you can support this wonderful charity by attending a tea/coffee morning in Ballyduff Community Centre on that day between 9.30am and 11.30am. All money raised stays local and is donated to The Pine Grove centre in Waterford. This is always a lovely event and one I look forward to every year. I happen to have been given some inside information and I can tell you that there are some very tasty treats lined up all homemade and fresh from the ovens that morning. Some fantastic raffle prizes have also been donated so you could have a very lucky day. Why not pop along for a cuppa and a chat, I can guarantee you’ll enjoy it. If you are unable to attend but would like to contribute pop it into an envelope and if you want to give it to me I will bring it along for you or pop into the hall and drop it in. I look forward to meeting you for a chat.