Birthday Greetings: We would like to send
birthday greetings to the following: Roisin Enright, Liam Barron, Ann Marie
O’Connor, Anne O’Shea. Also a very special birthday greetings to Jason and
David Lenihan celebrating their 21st birthdays this week. Special birthday greetings to Fr. Tony Mullins PP of our parish.
Church News
Holy
Week Ceremonies:
Congratulations
to everyone involved in our Easter Ceremonies.
We thank our Readers, Choirs, Organists, Parish Clerks, Altar Servers,
Flower Arrangers, Ministers of the Eucharist, Collectors, all who prepared for
the Dawn mass in Dromin. All our
children and young people who were involved and all who helped out in any
way. Thanks to all our parishioners for
joining us for this special week.
Trocaire Boxes:
The annual Trocaire Collection will be taken up next Sunday 27th. Please use the envelopes included in your Trocaire Box. If you have misplaced the envelope there are some available at the front door of the church.
The annual Trocaire Collection will be taken up next Sunday 27th. Please use the envelopes included in your Trocaire Box. If you have misplaced the envelope there are some available at the front door of the church.
Sacred
Space is a weekly programme on West Limerick 102fm which includes inspirational
music, chat, interviews, what’s on locally and not so local including ratio and
TV and reflection of the Gospel reading of the day presented by John Keily,
regular panellists and invited guests.
It is broadcast every Sunday morning from 10am to 11am and repeated on
Thursday nights between 10.30pm – 11.30pm on West Limerick 102fm. Why not listen in.
Divine Mercy Novena: Will conclude in Athlacca Church on Sunday 27th
April at 2.00pm. The Novena Prayers,
Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and Mass will be led by Fr. Mullins. You are very welcome to attend this special
day in the life of our parish.
National Vigil for Life:
A
National vigil for Life will take place in Merrion Square, Dublin on Saturday 3rd
May from 3 to 4 pm. This is a moment in our
history when we have to persevere for what is right. If you would like to travel contact Willie
Cremin on 087-9513778 ASAP. A bus will
leave Rathkeale after 9.30am Mass on Sat 3rd May, returning for
9.00p.m.
Caring for Carers Limerick Sponsored 10Km Walk:
The
Limerick Lions Club have organised a sponsored 10 Km Walk in support of Caring
for Carers, Limerick Brance – Sunday April 27th 2014
Irish Cancer Society:
The
society is creating a new cancer walk-in information, support and advice centre
(Daffodil Centre) in University Hospital, Limerick for cancer patients, their
families and anyone concerned about cancer.
We’re looking for caring volunteers to work with the Daffodil Centre
nurse by: making visitors to the centre welcome, showing visitors the range of
information available, arranging for visitors to meet with the nurse.
If
you’d like more information on becoming a trained volunteer, please contact:
Aoife McSwiney, Nursing Service, Irish Cancer Society, 43/45 Northumberland Rd,
Dublin 4. Or tel: 01-2316635 or email amcswiney@irishcancer.ie Closing
Date for receipt of applications is May 1st 2014.
Cards
Results of 45 Drive Athlacca 18th April
Winners - Willie O'Brien &
Brendan O'Kelly, Ann Sweeney & Mick Maume, Tom Noonan & Liam Riordan,
Betty & Kathleen Lynch
Table Prizes -Mike Moloney &
Tim McAuliffe, Teresa Hayes & John Sheehan, Noreen Hayes & Pat Donovan,
Ann Frawley & James O'Leary
Raffle €50 Ann Potter €30
Kathleen Barry €20 Betty Lynch, Sean Madden €10 each to Noel Crowley, Sean
Madden, Ann Potter, Lucy Hynes, Betty Lynch.
GAA News:
Gaa Lotto Results 19th
April
No Winner Numbers: 16-19-22-23
Lucky Dips: €40 - Donal Walsh, €20 - Paddy Tierney, €20 - Tom Daly
No Winner Numbers: 16-19-22-23
Lucky Dips: €40 - Donal Walsh, €20 - Paddy Tierney, €20 - Tom Daly
Gaa
Match Results
Saturday the 19th April our Intermediate Premier
team took on Garryspillane in the first round of the championship. This game
was played in bruff at 6:30 and Refereed by Jason O’Mahony.
As it was the first round of the championship it was vital
we came off the field with a win.
The ball was thrown in at 6:30 and no better way to start a
match then with a point two minutes into the game when the ball was put over
the bar by Paul Neenan from a free, so this settled the nerves of the
Dromin/Athlacca men. Jason Lenihan added his name to the scoreboard a minute
later with a great point, followed by Michael Reidy showing the Garryspillane
team that they meant business, but it wasn’t long until the Bouncers put a
score on the board. Young David Breen pulled of a magnificent save which was
put out for a 65 for the bouncers, so they weren’t ready to roll over to the
Dromin/Athlacca men just yet adding more and more points to the board. Seconds
before half time the Dromin/Athlacca men they needed another score before they
walked into the dressing room and this was helped by a goal from Eoin O’Leary.
This was a nail biting first half that ended Dromin/Athlacca
1-7 to Garryspillane 11 points.
The second half started with a point by David Reidy
levelling the score between the two teams, but he wasn’t ready to give the ball
back to the bouncers just yet as two minutes later David sailed the ball over
to put Dromin/Athlacca into the lead.
It didn’t take Garryspillane long to level the game again
keeping the fire lit under our boys. The
bouncers were putting the men of Dromin/Athlacca under some pressure on their
40m line until David Reidy robbed the ball off them and sent a rocket over the
bar to score a fantastic point. Garryspillane were not giving up just yet. They
were coming back faster and stronger scoring point after point but they were
struggling to keep David Reidy quiet and he sent another ball over the bar. It
wasn’t long until Michael Reidy sailed the ball over with the help of Paul
Neenan giving him the perfect offload.
The Bouncers were starting to quieten down when David Reidy
scored a goal from a free giving us that little bit of a gap between the two
teams. Michael made the gap bigger with a great point offloaded from Peter
Ryan. You could see the bouncers starting to get tired as James Kelleher adds
his second score of the game to the board.
The game Ended in the favour of Dromin/Athlacca. You
couldn’t ask for a better start to the championship.
Dromin/Athlacca 2-18 Garryspillane 15 points.
Team. David Breen, Gerard Kelleher, Brian Kelleher, Gearoid
O’Leary, Derek Kenny, Eoin Benson, David Mullins, Peter Ryan(0-1), Michael
Reidy(0-3), Paul Neenan (0-4), David Reidy(1-7), James Kelleher(0-2, Jason
Lenihan(0-1), Eoin O’Leary(1-0), Oisin Liston.
Subs
Andrew Barron, Morgan Walsh, Richard Ryan, Chris Riordan,
Donal Walsh, Eoin O’Connell ( went in for Jason Lenihan), Brendan Walsh, Mark
Moynihan, Patrick O’Donoghue (went in for Ger Kelleher)
Note: Membership must
be paid.
For anyone who intends to play this year all membership
needs to be paid. Only paid up members and paid up lotto members are able to
have their names put in for the Intercounty match tickets draw. €20 for Adults
and €10 for students.
Dromin/Athlacca GAA Club Draw: Our lotto
tickets are normally €2.00 a piece and last year we introduced the €100 for the
year entry. Considering the success we
had with this last year we are re-introducing it again this year from April to
December. This will entitle you to two
draws per week. If you would like to join please contact mark Moynihan on
0868554357
Scrap
Metal Collection: Dromin/Athlacca are having a Scrap Metal Collection
again. For more information contact Mike Geaney 0876494841
Folklore of some of our Native Trees. This week we are
going to let you know a little about the Whitethorn. .
The Hawthorn. Sceach Gheal. Classified in early Irish law as an Aithig fedo or Commoner of the Wood. The Hawthorn is known by a variety of different names, The May Tree, The Beltaine Tree, The May Blossom, The Whitethorn, The Quick etc. In Irish it is Sceach Gael but we also know it as the Faerie Tree for it is said to guard the entrance to the faerie realm and it is still considered bad luck to harm one. You may however collect sprigs of flowers during the month of May to place in and around the home to banish evil spirits or misfortune (always ask the guardians of the tree first).
There are many superstitions surrounding the Hawthorn and here are just a few of them:
The Hawthorn. Sceach Gheal. Classified in early Irish law as an Aithig fedo or Commoner of the Wood. The Hawthorn is known by a variety of different names, The May Tree, The Beltaine Tree, The May Blossom, The Whitethorn, The Quick etc. In Irish it is Sceach Gael but we also know it as the Faerie Tree for it is said to guard the entrance to the faerie realm and it is still considered bad luck to harm one. You may however collect sprigs of flowers during the month of May to place in and around the home to banish evil spirits or misfortune (always ask the guardians of the tree first).
There are many superstitions surrounding the Hawthorn and here are just a few of them:
During birth if a calf is born prematurely hanging its
afterbirth on a Hawthorn tree was said to magically protect it and give it
quick growth (one of the other names given to the Hawthorn is Quickset as it
will take very easily as a cutting) This could be magic by association?
The Hawthorn has long been associated with fertility and at Beltaine (May 1st) young women would take a sprig of blossom and keep it close as a way of attracting a husband.
On the morning of Beltaine (dawn), men and women would bathe in the morning dew of the Hawthorn blossom to increase wealth, health, luck, good fortune, and beauty. Women would become more beautiful and men by washing their hands in the dew would become skilled craftsmen. Today it is still practiced and it is one of the woods used in the Hand fastening ritual as it will ensure a lasting relationship.
The Hawthorn is also known as a tree of protection and for this reason it will be found growing near a house. It will offer protection from storm and lightning.
On Beltaine it is the custom here in Ireland to hang strips of cloth or ribbons on a Hawthorn (especially if it grows near a well) in order to make a wish (the wishing tree of legend). This is also done to ask for Brigid’s blessing on the cloth as these will then be used in healing (I hang crepe bandages on ours). It is also the custom to hang strips of coloured cloth from the branches, blue for health, red or pink for love, green or gold for prosperity etc. These will then be used as bindings in the hand fastening.
You may also use discarded pieces of wood in order to make wands or ritual tools but NEVER cut the wood from the tree. If you look in winter you will ALWAYS find pieces of windblown wood.
It has an immense amount of folklore attached to it in Ireland. The young leaves and flower buds are used as both a food – eaten in spring salads, and as a medicine.
Medicinally, an infusion is prepared which has been shown to be valuable in improving the heartbeat rate and strength, especially in heart failure, and in balancing the blood pressure; it also helps with irregular heart beats and improves the peripheral circulation, helping with conditions such as Reynaud's and with poor memory since it improves the circulation to the brain. The bioflavonoids relax and dilate the arteries and blood vessels thereby relieving angina. The bioflavonoids and proanthocyanins are also valuable antioxidants which help repair and prevent tissue damage, especially in the blood vessels. Hawthorn also helps to relieve anxiety and is traditionally thought to mend broken hearts, both emotionally and physically.
The berries are gathered in the autumn and have similar medicinal properties – they can be used fresh or dried in a decoction or infused in brandy to make a heart tonic for the winter months. For culinary use the berries are traditionally gathered after the first frost which converts some of the starches to sugars and makes the berries more palatable. Berries are used as an ingredient in hedgerow wine, or to make haw jelly as an accompaniment to wild game. The berries can also be mashed, removing the skin and seeds, and used to make a fruit leather as a way of storing them.
Hawthorn is at its most prominent in the landscape when it blossoms during the month of May, and probably the most popular of its many vernacular names is the May-tree. As such, it is the only plant which is named after the month in which it blooms. It has many associations with May Day festivities. Though the tree now flowers around the middle of the month, it flowered much nearer the beginning of the month, before the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in 1752.
The blossoms were used for garlands, and large leafy branches were cut, set in the ground outside houses as so-called May bushes and decorated with local wildflowers. Using the blossoms for decorations outside was allowed, but there was a very strong taboo against bringing hawthorn into the house. In the early 1980s the Folklore Society's survey of 'unlucky' plants revealed that 23% of the items referred to hawthorn, more than twice as many instances as the second most unlucky plant. Across Ireland there was the belief that bringing hawthorn blossom into the house would be followed by illness and death, and there were many instances of hapless children being scolded by adults for innocently decorating the home.
Mediaeval country folk also asserted that the smell of hawthorn blossom was just like the smell of death. Botanists later discovered that the chemical trimethylamine present in hawthorn blossom is also one of the first chemicals formed in decaying animal tissue. In the past, when corpses would have been kept in the house for several days prior to burial, people would have been very familiar with the smell of death, so it is hardly surprising that hawthorn blossom was so unwelcome in the house.
It has also been suggested that some of the hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) folklore may have originated for the related woodland hawthorn (Crataegus laevigata) which may well have been commoner during the early Middle Ages, when a lot of plant folklore was evolving. Woodland hawthorn blossom gives off much more of an unpleasant scent of death soon after it is cut, and it also blooms slightly earlier than hawthorn, so that its blossoms would have been more reliably available for Beltaine celebrations.
It was normal to decorate a hawthorn at this time with flowers, ribbons and bright scraps of cloth and sometimes candles or rushlights were attached to the tree and lit on the eve of Beltaine. In some areas of Ireland small gifts of food and drink would be left under the tree for the fairy’s.
The hawthorn has many uses, the young leaves can be eaten and were commonly referred to as bread and cheese, the blossom and berries were made into wines and jellies, and decoctions of the flowers and leaves were used to stabilise blood pressure. The strong, close-grained wood was used for carving, and for making tool handles and other small household items. Probably its greatest practical use to people has been as hedging.
In common with other ‘unlucky’ trees it was widely believed that whitethorn was the tree upon which Christ was crucified, and Christ’s thorns were also supposed to be made of whitethorn. It was believed that if one of your neighbours used a whitethorn (hawthorn) stick to herd cattle then he was up to no good. An old Irish custom was that the first milk of a newly calved cow should be taken and poured under a fairy tree as a tribute to the fairy’s. It was also planted around the house and sheds to keep away witches.
The Hawthorn has long been associated with fertility and at Beltaine (May 1st) young women would take a sprig of blossom and keep it close as a way of attracting a husband.
On the morning of Beltaine (dawn), men and women would bathe in the morning dew of the Hawthorn blossom to increase wealth, health, luck, good fortune, and beauty. Women would become more beautiful and men by washing their hands in the dew would become skilled craftsmen. Today it is still practiced and it is one of the woods used in the Hand fastening ritual as it will ensure a lasting relationship.
The Hawthorn is also known as a tree of protection and for this reason it will be found growing near a house. It will offer protection from storm and lightning.
On Beltaine it is the custom here in Ireland to hang strips of cloth or ribbons on a Hawthorn (especially if it grows near a well) in order to make a wish (the wishing tree of legend). This is also done to ask for Brigid’s blessing on the cloth as these will then be used in healing (I hang crepe bandages on ours). It is also the custom to hang strips of coloured cloth from the branches, blue for health, red or pink for love, green or gold for prosperity etc. These will then be used as bindings in the hand fastening.
You may also use discarded pieces of wood in order to make wands or ritual tools but NEVER cut the wood from the tree. If you look in winter you will ALWAYS find pieces of windblown wood.
It has an immense amount of folklore attached to it in Ireland. The young leaves and flower buds are used as both a food – eaten in spring salads, and as a medicine.
Medicinally, an infusion is prepared which has been shown to be valuable in improving the heartbeat rate and strength, especially in heart failure, and in balancing the blood pressure; it also helps with irregular heart beats and improves the peripheral circulation, helping with conditions such as Reynaud's and with poor memory since it improves the circulation to the brain. The bioflavonoids relax and dilate the arteries and blood vessels thereby relieving angina. The bioflavonoids and proanthocyanins are also valuable antioxidants which help repair and prevent tissue damage, especially in the blood vessels. Hawthorn also helps to relieve anxiety and is traditionally thought to mend broken hearts, both emotionally and physically.
The berries are gathered in the autumn and have similar medicinal properties – they can be used fresh or dried in a decoction or infused in brandy to make a heart tonic for the winter months. For culinary use the berries are traditionally gathered after the first frost which converts some of the starches to sugars and makes the berries more palatable. Berries are used as an ingredient in hedgerow wine, or to make haw jelly as an accompaniment to wild game. The berries can also be mashed, removing the skin and seeds, and used to make a fruit leather as a way of storing them.
Hawthorn is at its most prominent in the landscape when it blossoms during the month of May, and probably the most popular of its many vernacular names is the May-tree. As such, it is the only plant which is named after the month in which it blooms. It has many associations with May Day festivities. Though the tree now flowers around the middle of the month, it flowered much nearer the beginning of the month, before the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in 1752.
The blossoms were used for garlands, and large leafy branches were cut, set in the ground outside houses as so-called May bushes and decorated with local wildflowers. Using the blossoms for decorations outside was allowed, but there was a very strong taboo against bringing hawthorn into the house. In the early 1980s the Folklore Society's survey of 'unlucky' plants revealed that 23% of the items referred to hawthorn, more than twice as many instances as the second most unlucky plant. Across Ireland there was the belief that bringing hawthorn blossom into the house would be followed by illness and death, and there were many instances of hapless children being scolded by adults for innocently decorating the home.
Mediaeval country folk also asserted that the smell of hawthorn blossom was just like the smell of death. Botanists later discovered that the chemical trimethylamine present in hawthorn blossom is also one of the first chemicals formed in decaying animal tissue. In the past, when corpses would have been kept in the house for several days prior to burial, people would have been very familiar with the smell of death, so it is hardly surprising that hawthorn blossom was so unwelcome in the house.
It has also been suggested that some of the hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) folklore may have originated for the related woodland hawthorn (Crataegus laevigata) which may well have been commoner during the early Middle Ages, when a lot of plant folklore was evolving. Woodland hawthorn blossom gives off much more of an unpleasant scent of death soon after it is cut, and it also blooms slightly earlier than hawthorn, so that its blossoms would have been more reliably available for Beltaine celebrations.
It was normal to decorate a hawthorn at this time with flowers, ribbons and bright scraps of cloth and sometimes candles or rushlights were attached to the tree and lit on the eve of Beltaine. In some areas of Ireland small gifts of food and drink would be left under the tree for the fairy’s.
The hawthorn has many uses, the young leaves can be eaten and were commonly referred to as bread and cheese, the blossom and berries were made into wines and jellies, and decoctions of the flowers and leaves were used to stabilise blood pressure. The strong, close-grained wood was used for carving, and for making tool handles and other small household items. Probably its greatest practical use to people has been as hedging.
In common with other ‘unlucky’ trees it was widely believed that whitethorn was the tree upon which Christ was crucified, and Christ’s thorns were also supposed to be made of whitethorn. It was believed that if one of your neighbours used a whitethorn (hawthorn) stick to herd cattle then he was up to no good. An old Irish custom was that the first milk of a newly calved cow should be taken and poured under a fairy tree as a tribute to the fairy’s. It was also planted around the house and sheds to keep away witches.
On the Tree Council of Ireland website it states: A single
tree may be left in a field as a 'fairy thorn', especially where there may be
an archaeological site.
The Fairy Tree
All night around the
thorn tree, the little people play,
And men and women passing will
turn their heads away.
They’ll tell you dead men hung
there, its black and bitter fruit,
To guard the buried treasure
round which it twines its root.
They’ll tell you Cromwell hung
them, but that could never be,
He’d be in dread like others to
touch the Fairy Tree.
But Katie Ryan who saw there in
some sweet dream she had,
The Blessed Son of Mary and all
his face was sad.
She dreamt she heard him say
“Why should they be afraid?”
When from a branch of thorn
tree the crown I wore was made.
By moonlight round the thorn
tree the little people play
And men and women passing will
turn their heads away.
But if your hearts a child’s
heart and if your eyes are clean,
You’ll never fear the Thorn
tree that grows beyond Clogheen.
