Easter Thanks.
Fr.Mick would like to say a huge thank you to all who helped in any way during the Holy Week and Easter ceremonies. It is always a very busy time of year and so he appreciates all the people coming forward to help. He will remember you all in his prayers.
May I give a special mention to our hardworking and dedicated sacristan Ann Nolan who does a terrific job all year around and always with a cheery smile.
Night Of Fun.
Ballyduff GAA club will host a night of fun and laughter as they play host to “The 2 Johnnies” in The Woodlands Hotel on Friday April 13th. These guys have gathered a huge following around the country and this is a great opportunity to get to see them while supporting your local club. This event is to help raise funds to construct a ball wall in the hurling field. This is an over 16’s event but those under 18 must be accompanied by an adult. Doors open at 8pm with the show starting at 9pm and following the show you can dance the night away with DJ extraodinaire John O Shea. Tickets cost €20 and are available from all committee members, The Woodlands hotel or by contacting 087-2486423.
GAA News.
The U8 footballers had a very successful outing to the Gold Coast last week where they beat St.Patricks, The Nire and St.Olivers. This group of players show great attitude and skill and it is wonderful to see the children enjoy themselves so much. Training continues on Saturday mornings in Kildermody and all are welcome to come along.
Morning Of Fun
I would like to cordially invite each one of you, your families and your friends along to a lovely morning of fun and chat in Ballyduff Community Centre on Sunday April 15th from 10.30am to 1.30pm. My children Ava and Adam and I are hosting this morning ahead of my husband Brian heading off the following week to take part with 24 others from the Portlaw Village Wheelers cycling club in The 4 Munster Airport Challenge cycle. This 500 km cycle will this year raise money for the Touching Hearts charity. All expenses for the trip are paid for by the cyclists and so every penny raised goes to the charity.
To help out and raise as much money as we possibly can we will host a coffee/tea morning with a few extra bits. There will be lots of treats to eat and also buy to take home. Adam will be selling some books and dvds at knock down prices he tells me. They have also gathered some lovely spot prizes for a raffle. The lovely kindhearted Deirdre Giani has offered to do some face painting and my popular cousin WLR’s John O Shea will be on hand to play a few tunes. Some of the cyclists who will take part in the challenge will pop in after their training cycle.
I hope that you will be able to drop in for a few minutes, an hour, a few hours whatever length of time you stay for you will be made very welcome indeed. If any of you wish to know anymore or if I may be so cheeky to ask if any of you lovely bakers out there would like to bake a few buns or a cake, we would be delighted. You can contact me on 087-9838392.
One Of The Best
I must admit I sat staring at a blank screen before writing this piece in fact I just couldn’t work out where I was going to start. Too many times in recent months and years I have been writing about wonderful parishioners who have been called home to God and then I realised that my only worry is what will I write and not the pain and grief felt by family members. All these wonderful people just mean so much to me because I’ve lived here and grown up with them for the past almost 45 years. They are all people I have greatly admired and have tried to be somewhat like them, my only hope is that what I write reflects who they were.
One of the finest men I have ever known, Frankie Carlin returned home to God on Easter Sunday. To me this was a very fitting day with Easter Sunday being one of the biggest days in the church calendar. It is only right that the best of the best would be called on that day. Frankie was a Ballyduff man through and through growing up in the village with his parents Jim and Maria and his brothers and sisters. Having wandered over to the Portlaw side of the parish he met his one true love Margaret Walsh and they married and settled in Ballyduff. Their family grew as they welcomed sons Anthony, Michael and David and daughter Nicola. Frankie was first and foremost a family man. He adored his wife Margaret and worshipped his children. His 9 grandchildren brought him such delight and he always loved talking about them. He and Margaret certainly meant their wedding vows when they said them and they lived them throughout their married lives. Their devotion and love for each other was evident to all and Margaret care for Frankie during his illness showed that great strength of love and I’m sure Frankies hard days were made better by having Margaret at his side.
Frankie worked hard all his life providing for his family and always gave 100% to his work. He spent many happy years in Waterford Crystal but I think the job of caretaker in Ballyduff N.S was just made for him. The staff and pupils all loved him and he was always on hand to help with anything that needed to be done often going completely out of his way to help. His good humour and infectious smile was contagious and every child in the school loved Frankie.
He gave many many years to Ballyduff Soccer club and helped tirelessly to make it into the thriving, vibrant club it is today. They enjoy fabulous facilities thanks to many good men like Frankie. Of course when he wasn’t cheering on Ballyduff he was shouting for Man Utd. He had a great love for the game and shared some great memories of years gone by.
His green fingers shone out from his garden. You could most definetly eat your dinner from the perfectly mown lawns and he was
always to be seen with the headphones on mowing the lawn happily.
Frankie was all these things but to me Frankie was a community man. He believed that community and parish life worked when everyone worked together and used their strengths and talents for the good of everyone around them. He was always on hand to help in whatever was going on and many a good laugh or two was had along the way.
A man with great family values, a community spirit, a hard worker but above all a man who respected others and whose heart was most definetly made of gold. Although he has been taken home way to soon he has left Margaret, his children and his grandchildren with memories that time will never erase. He touched all our lives in some way and he has left us all hoping that in some small way we can be a little bit like Frankie. Our parish and community is a much poorer place without him but God obviously needs the grass cut and a peacemaker for some sporting and political arguments up there. Rest in peace Frankie and thank you for allowing us a little share in your life, we are certainly much the better for it. Ar Dheis De Go Raibh se.
