By Dan Walsh at Gorey Kilmuckridge Municipal District Meeting
Recently, 60 people gathered in the Loch Garman Arms Hotel to support the newly formed Gorey Community Development Group where Cllrs Diarmuid Devereux and Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin represented Gorey Kilmuckridge Municipal District Council.
At last Tuesday’s monthly meeting of the district authority Cllrs Devereux and Ó Súilleabháin submitted a motion of support that was unanimously accepted by the members.
THE MARKET HOUSE, GOREY,
It read; “Following a major public meeting attended by several community organisations on the 9th of February, this Council notes that the meeting voted unanimously in favour of the Council working with the newly formed Gorey Community Development Group to explore the need to keep the Market House in public ownership, restore the Market House as a cross functional community, heritage building and explore the development of a multi-use community centre to the rear of the Market House.”
Cllr Joe Sullivan, supporting the motion, stated that the Market House is falling into a further state of disrepair and the proposal is good and represents people who want to develop the Market House, including many organisations, and gives everyone ownership.
Cllr Devereux said the inaugural meeting of Gorey Community Development Group had 40 organisations represented and here is support for securing a positive future for the Market House.
Cllr Willie Kavanagh favours anything that supports old buildings. He wondered if some group could take a lease on the property.
Cllr Anthony Donohoe supported the motion and said that basically terms and conditions would have to apply for any investor coming in.
Cllr Pip Breen noted that the Market House would need an awful lot of TLC (tender loving care) but if no expressions of interest were forthcoming to go down that road.
Director of Services Ms. Liz Hore agreed that a town the size of Gorey needed a community building where diverse groups would come together. She outlined that the December meeting agreed at “one last attempt at expressions of interest” and lodging a new procurement process for the Market House, which is a protected structure.
A scene from Kilrush Drama Group’s production of The Beauty Queen of Leenane; John Joe Murphy, Joanne Logue, Niall McGrath and Hilary Madigan (seated) in St. Brigid;s Hall, Carnew, this Friday and Sunday nights.
Kilrush Drama Group will take to the stage in St. Brigid’s Hall, Carnew, this weekend with their production of The Beauty Queen of Leenane before heading off on the Festival Circuit in a bid to reach the All-Ireland finals in Athlone.
Performances on Friday, February 24th and Sunday, February 26th and audience tickets are available.
Following from the success of last year’s production of Class by Iseult Golden and David Horan, which was directed by Pat Whelan and came fourth in the All-Ireland Finals in Athlone, this year Kilrush Drama Group are busy preparing for the All-Ireland Open Circuit with one of the modern classics of Irish theatre. The Beauty Queen of Leenane by world renowned playwright, Martin McDonagh.
It is set in the mountains of Connemara and tells the story of Maureen Folan, a plain and lonely woman in her early 40s, and Mag, her manipulative, aging mother.
Mick Byrne directs this powerful drama, and the role of Maureen Folan will be played by Joanne Logue. Playing the formidable role of Mag Folan, Maureen’s mother, is Hilary Madigan. Also in the cast are Niall McGrath from Carnew and John Joe Murphy from Kilrush who play the roles of Pato and Ray respectively.
Working on the set is Lar Duffy and his crew, and Lar will also take on the onerous task of Stage Manager for this year’s production. All-Ireland Best Lighting Award Winner, Kevin McEvoy will
take on the lighting of the show, and the sound engineers once again are Paddy Byrne and Dougie Doyle.
The man who died in last night’s three vehicle road traffic collision on the N25 Wexford-New Ross road on the Wexford side of Ballinaboola has been named as P.J. Whitty, Hillview, Carnagh, Gusserane, New Ross.
PJ is survived by his loving parents Kathleen and Paddy (Whitty), partner Melissa (Whelan), daughters Abby, Katie and Emily, brothers Larry, Mark, Liam, Diarmuid and Óisín, sisters Amanda, Jamie and Áine, nephews, nieces, extended family and a large circle of friends.
P.J. WHITTY
Funeral arrangements to be announced later.
The collision involving two cars and a tractor occurred at approximately 7.10pm last evening (Wednesday). The driver (P.J. Whitty) of one of the vehicles, a male in his early 40s, was pronounced deceased at the scene. Two juvenile female passengers of this vehicle were taken to University Hospital Waterford to be treated for serious Injuries. The two male drivers of the other vehicle, aged 70s and 30s, were taken to University Hospital Waterford to be treated for serious injuries. No other injuries have been reported. Gardaí are appealing for any witnesses to this incident to come forward. Any road users who may have camera footage (including dash-cam) and were travelling along this route between 6.40pm and 7.15pm are asked to make this footage available to Gardaí. Anyone with any information is asked to contact New Ross Garda Station on 051 426030, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111 or any Garda Station.
A man in his 40’s has died, and four others were taken to University Hospital Waterford following a road traffic collision involving two cars and a tractor on the N25 (Wexford to New Ross road) at Balinaboola at approximately 7.10pm on Wednesday. The driver of one of the vehicles, a male in his early 40s, was pronounced deceased at the scene. Two juvenile female passengers of this vehicle were taken to University Hospital Waterford to be treated for serious Injuries.
The two male drivers of the other vehicles, aged 70s and 30s, were taken to University Hospital Waterford to be treated for serious injuries. No other injuries have been reported. The road is currently closed for technical examination by Forensic Collision Investigators. Local diversions are in place. Gardaí are appealing for any witnesses to this incident to come forward. Any road users who may have camera footage (including dash-cam) and were travelling along this route between 6.40pm and 7.15pm are asked to make this footage available to Gardaí. Anyone with any information is asked to contact New Ross Garda Station on 051 426030, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111 or any Garda Station.
By Dan Walsh at Gorey Kilmuckridge Municipal District Council Meeting
Cllr Joe Sullivan has long been campaigning for action on the Ahare River (also known as the Kilgorman or Inch River) which flows into the sea at Clone Beach in North Wexford and he alerted members to current events at Tuesday’s monthly meeting of Gorey Kilmuckridge Municipal District Council held in the Civic Centre chamber in Gorey.
The Ahare River closed due to flooding (File Pic January 2021)
“The Ahare River has turned left and is heading north and there is a huge movement of sand and is destroying the beach as well,” said Cllr Sullivan who asked George Colfer, Environment Officer, if some kind of channel could be cut to assist the water levels like that done a few weeks ago at Tacumshane Lake in the southern region of Our Lady’s Island?
Cllr Sullivan was shocked at Mr. Colfer’s expert explanation as to why the Ahare River could not be treated like Tacumshane Lake!
He said the channel at Our Lady’s Island was under the National Parks Wildlife service and Wexford County Council performs the channel cutting “where properties are at risk”, and Mr. Colfer concluded that in the case of the Ahare River “no properties were at risk”.
“So, there are one set of rules for Our Lady’s Island and a different set of rules for Kilpatrick and North Wexford,” gasped Cllr Sullivan, who added that the swell of the river had been successfully handled by local farmers for hundreds of years.
Cllr Sullivan said the Ahare River had been managed by local people up to ten years ago. “You can’t beat local knowledge,” he quipped. His main concerns are water spilling onto the public road.
Cllr Pip Breen mentioned a sand bar at Courtown blocking access to the harbour. He also asked Mr. Colfer about issues relating to coastal erosion at Cahore.
Since I took up my role as Bishop of Ferns I have been visiting the parishes for weekend Masses as often as I possibly can. To date, I have visited about 35 of the 49 parishes and look forward to being in the others in the near future. I hugely appreciate the welcome given to me as a stranger and I thank everyone who has extended that “Céad Míle Fáilte” to me. Without exception, I have noticed that the beautiful churches of Ferns are maintained with tremendous care and affection which indicates to me the important role they play in the life of each Community. However, our Church is more than its buildings even if they are often the most visible, permanent evidence of the Faith in our communities. But just as a house is not a home without people our Church buildings are not our spiritual homes without people. The Covid Pandemic of the past few years has brought about many changes in our interaction with people and our participation in the Eucharist and Mass attendance has also changed greatly.
You may be tired of hearing about Covid and the effects it has had on our lives. Many rightly feel it is time to move on from Covid and indeed we have taken remarkable strides in doing just that and moving on from that dreadful experience.
We are amazed at how easy it is to forget the hardship of restrictions we lived through. It proves to us what we always believed that “life moves on”. I thank God for the progress we have made, but I am equally sensitive to the fact that Covid is still among us and that a lot of people are still suffering from its after-effects often referred to as “Long Covid”.
With the arrival of Covid, we were astounded at first that our Sunday Masses in Church had to be restricted and conducted without a congregation. Suddenly the words of Psalm 122, “Let us go to God’s house” no longer applied and we were left at home. It caused a great deal of pain to regular church goers even though they recognised this was vitally necessary to safeguard public health.
We surprised ourselves by how well we coped with the Eucharist without a congregation physically present. This was due in large part to the broadcasting of the Eucharist on television, radio and many Church webcams. This latter innovation is here to stay and will continue to provide a great service to the sick and housebound as well as allowing people to view funeral services from distant parts of the country and abroad. Technology served us well during Covid and continues to do so.
Up until recent times the word “tablet” just meant a pill but now tablets have become part of our lives even if we are in prefect health. We read the newspaper on them, play bridge against opponents on the other side of the world, hold business meetings and have family gatherings with people scattered all over the world. I heard a story recently about a couple in the west of Ireland who wanted to talk to their daughter in Australia and to see their new-born grandchild. While they were chatting and admiring the new arrival, the dog under the table in Ireland barked at something outside and woke the sleeping baby 10,000 miles away. This is now our world and we are learning to navigate it even in our spiritual lives.
This Lent I am inviting you, the people, priests and religious of the diocese, to think about your own attendance at Mass in your parish and your commitment to your local Christian community.
I hope you will be gentle with yourself as you think about this, but I also hope that you will be honest in assessing how your life has changed and whether or not it may be time to revert back to a former practice that was seriously altered for the sake of health and safety throughout the pandemic.
I ask you to allow your thinking be guided by the two aspects of the Christian life – the personal and the communal – and especially where the two meet or are intertwined.
The initial comeback to public Masses, even though it involved the wearing of masks and other serious guidelines such as social distancing, was a welcome relief. People braved the risks, and their hearts echoed the gospel words, “Lord, it is good for us to be here.” (Matthew17:4).
There are those who for varying and understandable reasons of health have chosen to stay at home and follow the Mass on television, radio or online. Their participation reflects the Eucharist in its original and formative celebration – the church of the house or the upper room. It is a valid and worthy form of participation in the Eucharist for those who are unable to be present in their local church.
But it is also true to say that a large number of people have not returned to the Sunday Eucharist in their parish churches. It is a personal choice that they have a right to make, whether their choice is a result of serious consideration or simply lightly taken without much thought given to it. Many participate in very beautiful Masses from all parts of the world and find great nourishment in them. But this is Mass as a product to be consumed when in fact Mass is ideally a relationship. This is a reality that we as a Community of believers must learn to accept even if it causes us some regret.
BISHOP OF FERNS GER NASH
The purpose of this Pastoral Letter is not to guilt anyone into returning to active participation in Sunday Eucharist. However, it is the responsibility of all who value the Eucharist and the Sunday gathering to preach love and loyalty to the Eucharist to all our sisters and brothers. This is where the personal and communal aspects of being a Christian come into play.
The Eucharist is our meeting with Christ in a special way. The teaching of the church on Eucharist speaks fittingly of Christ’s real presence after the changing of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ in the Mass. It is something we do because Christ invited us to do so when in the words of the Last Supper he said “Do this in memory of me”.
A return to the Sunday Mass in our public places of worship (Parish Churches) is our way of honouring Christ’s sacrifice. We give thanks for his real presence in the Eucharist by offering our own real presence at Church and thus making real our participation in this most communal of acts.
I gently invite people who have not been back in Church since before the Pandemic to rethink their decision this Lent and to come back to Sunday Mass so that they will enjoy its benefits and blessings in their lives. Come back only for the love of Christ and this purest of motives will benefit you greatly.
It is my firm belief that parishes need to play their part in the return to worship and to be innovative and imaginative in building up the Christian community again. In churches where Covid restrictions are still in place I encourage them to be relaxed so that a sense of normality can be restored to our Sunday celebration.
At meetings recently I was encouraging the priests in the parishes, with the co-operation of parents, to re-establish the ministry of Altar servers where it has been lost. When I visit the schools, the teenagers I speak to who served Mass, without exception, remember it as a time when they were connected to church. We yearn for the participation of young people generally in Church life and so we need to take positive steps to encourage it. In the same way, preparation Masses for First Holy Communion and Confirmation and other family Masses can be ways in which parishes could rebuild the links to the Sunday Mass. These tasks are challenges to all of the people across the Diocese who value their “own place”. The building that you hold in your heart, and which has been at the centre of your family story with weddings, funerals and baptisms deserves to be honoured by the “real presence” of the community honouring the Real Presence that lies within.
My prayer for the Diocese of Ferns this Lent is that we, as a community of believers, will take part fully in our Eucharistic celebrations in our Parish Churches. May the words of the Psalm inspire and motivate us: “And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever”. (Psalm 23:6)
In a way I am inviting you to a New Beginning on your faith journey. But you might say – “there’s nothing new in what I will see and hear on a Sunday”. But I think newness can be found when we open our eyes to it. Every day is a new day, different to what went before and different to what is to come. Who best recognizes newness? Parents with a new baby or indeed parents whose child has taken their first step, gone to big school for the first time, gone to secondary, got their first car, flat and so on. But newness also comes when we begin, the day after a funeral, to navigate life without a partner, a friend, a parent. Newness also comes when we are told to lay aside a fear that we had about our health or indeed when we begin a new stage of life with the accompaniment of a new lifelong companion of a health condition. Every moment in the Liturgy becomes new when we recognize that we are always living in new moments, good or bad, and that the Mass is the place where the journey through the Cross to the Resurrection is renewed in our own community, in our own local church.
As Lenten reflection leads into Easter we are reminded of the confusion of the apostles in the early days of Christ’s resurrection. They were confused, disappointed, and angry and upset in so many ways. Likewise, many people are left confused in the wake of Covid and the many challenges of our world today. It shouldn’t surprise us that we have mixed feelings around our faith – sometimes confused, angry, disappointed, disillusioned and indifferent.
On the road to Emmaus Jesus appeared to two of his downcast apostles. They did not recognise him and laid their woes upon him. In turn he explained to them the path Christ took to resurrection. It was only when he joined them for a meal in an upper room of a house (a place of worship) that they recognised him in the breaking of bread. Afterwards, they said, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32).
In an echo of the Emmaus story, we might once again sit at the table of the Eucharist and invite Jesus to join us as the disciples did. The synodal journey that Pope Francis has invited us to be on with him is a journey that can best be done in personal and real contact with each other and with the Lord. I want to conclude by wishing each of you and your families a rewarding journey this Lent.
Residents of Harbour Court estate in Courtown Harbour gathered on the steps of the Civic Offices in Gorey to highlight concerns affecting their homes.
By Dan Walsh in Gorey
About 30 residents of Harbour Court estate at Courtown Harbour gathered outside the Civic Offices in Gorey today where the monthly meeting of Gorey Kilmuckridge Municipal District Council was taking place. Many were bearing placards that read ‘No To The Land Swap’.
Residents of the 27-house estate said that all agree that a new hotel is essential for the survival of Courtown, but not at its proposed location in the public car park!
“The proposed hotel would be 50 feet away from our houses, virtually building a 100 feet wall parallel to our homes,” said spokesperson for the residents, David Millard, who added their disappointment; “We have had no communication from Wexford County Council, the developer or local public representatives since 2019. We have been ignored!”
They say that nobody has communicated with the residents most impacted by the proposed development or discussed their legitimate concerns and opinions. “We strongly suspect that right now, we are merely perceived as no more than a possible future hindrance and irritant and have no doubt whatsoever, that this proposed hotel is going to have a profound, immediate and long term devastating impact on all of the residents of Harbour Court and all of our immediate neighbours around and above us up to the top of the hill.”
They talk about a double volume top floor designed where large groups of people/guests will party the night away and then will board buses (10 bus parking bays provided plus nearly 300 car parking bays under the hotel) and then depart the village. “We repeat, this will be a nightmare for all local residents. If this succeeds, our lives as we now experience it, will change permanently to a daily grinding noisy misery, our nights and days will be guaranteed misery.”
The concerned residents said; “We welcome the upgrading plans for the village and beach development. We welcome the removing of the derelict hotel in the village and the proposed marina, the upgrading of the harbour side. We welcome a hotel, but not in the location being sought and on the massive disproportionate scale envisaged.
“We will, when required, produce a detailed and precise objection, once we are provided with more accurate plan details, dimensions, business plan and impact study by the developers.
“Finally, we strongly oppose the proposed land swap between a portion of the private land (Bay View site) and publicly owned land (the Car Park). Is this good value for the public purse”, they ask?
Revenue officers seized over 22,230 litres of beer at Rosslare Europort last Wednesday. The smuggled beer of multiple brands has an estimated retail value of almost €89,000, representing a potential loss to the Exchequer of over €41,500.
The beverages were discovered in an unaccompanied trailer that had arrived from Dunkirk, France.
Investigations are ongoing.
This seizure is part of Revenue’s ongoing work targeting smuggling and shadow economy activity. If businesses, or members of the public, have any information regarding such activities, they can contact Revenue on Confidential Phone Number 1800 295 295.
By Dan Walsh at Enniscorthy Municipal District Meeting
There was a warm welcome for the newly appointed District Manager for Enniscorthy, Claire Lawless, and some words of expectation from the members at the February monthly meeting held in the Presentation Centre Council Chamber today. Cllr Aidan Browne was in the chair.
CLAIRE LAWLESS new Enniscorthy District Manager
Longevity appeared to top the agenda. First up to wish Ms. Lawless “the best of luck” was Cllr Jackser Owens, who recalled that in his political career he served under 10 managers and town clerks.
Cllr Cathal Byrne said he was three years on the Council and this is the third manager he has had in the room!
And to add laughter to the occasion, Cllr Aidan Browne said he has only been six months in the chair and Ms. Lawless is his third manager.
Cllr Barbara-Anne Murphy said the Monageer manager was very welcome to the chamber. “You are putting on the Enniscorthy jersey, that’s what we do as councillors, and you need to fight with us, not for us!”
Cllr Kathleen Codd-Nolan stated; “We need to push on with plans for the town. Let’s get hope and get people back into the town,” she concluded.
Cllr John O’Rourke felt “It was great to have a woman in the position, a new broom sweeps clear. It’s all about team Enniscorthy and getting projects over the line.”
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