Fethard & Killusty Community Lotto
The numbers drawn on Wednesday 2nd August were 14, 16, 20 and 25. There was no Jackpot winner and no ‘Match 3’ winners.  Three tickets were drawn and the following received €50 each:

Joe O’Meara, Ballinure, Thurles.
Michael McGrath, Rathcoole, Fethard.
Damien Trehy, Fethard.

The three €50 Lucky Dip winners were:
Vera Paine, c/o Marie Murphy
J. Purcell, c/o Tom Purcell
‘Open Door’ for Fethard Day Care Centre
Next weeks Jackpot is €6,150 and the Jackpot sellers prize is €615.

Fethard & Killusty Community Council
The next meeting of Fethard and Killusty Community Council will take place on Tuesday 15th August at 8.30pm in the Tirry Community Centre.

Fethard Connection
Fethard connection with Ireland's top gaelic football players was again illustrated on Saturday 5th August when Michael Prout, grandson of Christopher Prout, Killusty, lined out for Cork in their All-Ireland senior football semifinal against Donegal. Michael lives in Ringaskiddy and plays with the Shamrocks club in East Cork.

Bishop Matthew Ndagoso 
Dr. Matthew Ndagoso is the bishop of Maiduguri in north-eastern Nigeria, an area committed to the Irish Augustinians in the early nineteen fifties.  He is the first bishop there who is not an Augustinian.  In the demonstrations by Muslims last February against the infamous Danish cartoons of the prophet Mohammed, four Catholic parish churches in the state capital were burnt down, along with the bishops’ house, classrooms, parish offices and social centres.  Most of these had originally been built with money collected by mission helpers in Ireland.  Worst of all, a priest in one parish was assaulted and burnt.

Irish Augustinians because of their long association with Maiduguri, organised appeals last June in all their churches to help Bishop Matthew in his efforts to rebuild the burnt-down churches and schools.  There was a heart-warming response, which exceeded all expectations.  The bishop has been visiting the Augustinian churches here to thank the people personally for the generous help.

Mary’s Band receives a great reception  
Mary Morrissey, originally from St. Patrick's Place and now living in England, played with her band on Sunday 6th August in the Fethard Arms to a large appreciative crowd of friends and supporters. Mary led her talented band of musicians through a broad selection of music ranging from country to hits from the sixties. The dance floor remained full where many of Mary’s school friends renewed their acquaintance. Mary’s last number of the night was ‘Leaving on a Jet Plane’ — a very relevant song for the many who had to leave Ireland to work in foreign countries.

On Saturday night, at a family function at Slievenamon Golf Club, Mary happily announced her engagement to long time friend and partner Mike Falsey. We wish them both a great future.

Mary and her band are booked to play at this year's Fethard/ London Reunion later in the year. Further details to follow.

Children Helping Children 
The ‘Children helping Children’ committee would like to thank all those who generously donated prizes, bought tickets, and helped to see tickets for their recent fundraising event. Over €1,000 was raised for the Presentation Sisters Missions in Zimbabwe and presented to Sr. Winnie, Presentation Convent Fethard.

Fethard Town Wall a Protected Structure
South Tipperary County Council, are proposing to include the entire Fethard Town Wall in the list of Protected Structures. Local residents, whose lands are adjacent to the Town Wall, have been notified. The proposed amendment will be on public display at the Council Offices until Tuesday 22nd August.

Submissions or observations can be emailed to phil.ryan@southtippcoco.ie or in writing to Marie McGivern, Administrative Officer, Planning Section, South Tipperary County Council, Clonmel, on or before 4.30pm on Tuesday 22nd August 2006.

Fethard Leixlip Wedding 
Congratulations to Eric, son of Margaret and Pat O’Donnell, Monroe, Fethard, and Ailbhe Kinsella, Leixlip, Co. Kildare, who were married on Saturday 5th August in Leixlip.

Fethard and Killusty Community Games   
Best of luck to Andrew Maguire who will contest the HSE Community Games National Model Making Finals in Mosney next week. Competition takes place on Sunday morning at 9.30am. Philip Maher swims in the National Aquatic Centre on Sunday also. On Saturday Jack Ward competes in Art at 9.30am and Laura Rice competes in Art at 2.30pm.

Judo commences at 10am when Lorraine Feery, Gary Bradshaw and Padraig O’Shea all take their chance.

The first volleyball semifinal is Ulster v Munster and the second is Connaught v Leinster. The boys play Milford (Donegal), and the girls play Tydavnet (Monaghan). If they win their respective semifinals on Saturday, they will then meet the winners of the second semifinal, which in the boys match will be either Drumshanbo (Leitrim), or Graigcullen (Carlow); and in the girls game, either Claremorris (Mayo) or Graigcullen (Carlow).  The final and play off matches are on Sunday. Both Padraig O’Shea and Laura Rice now have double bookings as they are also members of the volleyball teams.

Track suits on loan for the weekend will be given to all competitors at the Tirry Community Centre on next Thursday evening, 17th August at 7pm sharp. These tracksuits must be returned laundered and in perfect condition by Tuesday 22nd August as they are required for athletes on the second weekend.

Best of luck to all competitors.  Further details of programme on sports page of Nationalist or for enquiries, contact the Community Game Office Tel: 052 31906.

Fethard and District Juvenile Rugby Club
Fethard and District Juvenile Rugby Club wish to thank most sincerely all those who supported their highly successful golf classic held at Slievenamon Golf Course last week.

SSIA and the Art of Spending
As soon as the SSIA money started to mature, there was a frenzy of institutions trying to relieve people of their cash. You couldn’t open a paper or magazine, listen to a radio show or turn on your television without being bombarded by SSIA advice. Most of the advice appeared to be ignoring the reason for the Government handout in the first place, which was to encourage people to start saving money instead of spending it at an alarming rate. It is, of course, in the Government’s best interest to get us to save for our old age, so that they won’t have to provide for us in an era when the general populace is living longer.

And so we’ve been bombarded with people soliciting their wares. Buy a new car, get a new conservatory, add a deck to your house, or buy a property in exotic Swaziland. Or just cut yourself off from the world for a few weeks and discover yourself on a luxury holiday in the Amazonian jungle with only an exotic bird nibbling your ear to wake you in the morning. Aah . . . the SSIA bliss!

And then this week, as I waited to be served in the bank, I perused one of their brochures. It pointed out a list of options for investment. The risks varied from low to medium to high. And then I turned the page. Investment in Art was the general subject. The man who wrote the column whinged about the day that he had been offered a Jack B Yeats painting for a mere £3,000 back in the pre Celtic Tiger days. He passed up on the offer and recently saw the same painting sold for over £90,000. Not once did he mention the beauty of the piece or the merits of the artist. I just hope that the painting is adorning a wall somewhere and not the drawer of a bank vault rising in value because the artist is currently very fashionable. I will leave the final word on this matter to the New Zealand Artist Pat Hanly, who, upon hearing that his paintings had become a good investment, as opposed to good art, said about the purchasers, “I hope that the paintings fall off the wall and kill them”.
— (N Gawe)

Fethard not in Decline!
We’ve had many replies to the recent comments made in the ‘Stop the Decline in Fethard’ article published two weeks ago.  The following replies are representative of the general opinions of those who did reply:

“I don’t agree. I'm English by birth, but have lived here for about ten years. Fethard is a wonderful little town and very, very fortunate in lots of ways, it has great pubs the shopping is stress free, Protestant and Catholic Churches, lovely people and a seriously fascinating history!

It also has the somewhat rural living while only 10-15 minutes away from the major industrial town of Clonmel. That is why I feel we don’t really need a new factory in Fethard, we have the best of both worlds — rural living without the trappings of a major urban centre.

Another point that was made refers to the local Garda presence, while I feel that a Garda living in Fethard would certainly be a bonus, we can’t insult the Gardai we have. This is totally unfair. Every town and village have their gurriers, it’s part of life, get over it. We can’t expect Gardai to work 24/7, if anyone is to blame it is this Government which always promises more than it gives. With an election coming up next year, now is the time to do something about it, confront the canvassers on your doorstep!

Finally with regards to Fethard schools, if overflowing classrooms is a sign of progress, you can keep it. Making a complaint about a decent teacher / pupil ratio is stupidity of the highest degree and judging by last years leaving cert results I'm sure the pupils would agree.”

Katie & John Knott wrote the following:
“Why is it we don't get any information about Fethard especially here on the Gold Coast in Australia no matter how many times I mention Fethard people keep saying they have never heard of such a place, everyone seems to know Cashel, Thurles etc. If I can help in any way to promote Fethard with our Travel Agents from this side I would love to do so. Fethard has to stop advertising the pub scene and provide much more B&Bs, 4 Star at least, as that is what travellers want today. Gone are the ‘Pub Crawls’. I am delighted you are at least looking at the problems of Fethard.”

Denis Burke (Red City ) sent us the following letter:
“I would like to ask, regarding this article, what decline is the writer referring to?
Without any doubt, Fethard, like every town and village in Ireland, has anti-social behaviour problems, e.g., the drink and the litter. I doubt very much if Fethard’s problems are any worse than any other town. For every one engaged in this way there are fifty young people who are not. Yes, perhaps we do need a greater Garda presence but describing two experienced Garda officers, as “fly by nights” is hardly the way to agitate for more Garda presence on the beat.

“Olivia” seems to fear the loss of our schools unless we attract more workers and residents. May I reassure “Olivia” that the schools will not be lost to Fethard unless it is the decision of the people. The present, relatively smaller, numbers attending local schools does not reflect any reduction in the quality of education given in those schools but rather the fact that the economic prosperity of the Celtic Tiger has given many people more choices than they had before.

Fethard is not in decline economically. In fact, at no time in history has the parish enjoyed so much prosperity. Fethard is not in decline in the sporting area with GAA, rugby and soccer clubs catering for the children and adults of this parish. Fethard is not in decline socially or spiritually as the huge amount of voluntary organisations such as Meals on Wheels etc plus the phenomenal generosity of people in supporting all worthwhile charities clearly shows. Fethard is not in decline educationally with record numbers of our young people doing exceptionally well at second and third level colleges etc.

I find the entire tone of “Olivia’s” letter to be negative with little in the line of positive suggestions as to ways of improving things that admittedly may not be perfect. This however is fairly typical of those who hide behind anonymity. Indeed I find it disturbing that anonymous views, especially those containing such strong criticisms should be given any credibility or publication.”

The Ned Kelly Story on Stage
Australian author and director, Brenda Addie, will be in the Abymill Theatre this Friday night to direct a Stage Reading of her most recent play ‘Quilting the Armour’– the story of the Kelly women.

An enthusiastic group of local actors and actresses are joining up with the author and in four days are getting the show on the road, and a cast of over ten will perform the stage reading with local musicians adding ‘a soundtrack’ to the production.

Brenda Addie has a thirty-year career in the performing arts and has worked with some real luminaries like Meryl Streep and Michael York, and in Fethard she will  meet some more ‘famous’ actors that she can add to her list!

The play ‘Quilting the Armour’ is mainly the story of the Kelly women especially Ned’s mother and sisters. The play was written (in 2005) for the 125th anniversary of the famous siege at Glenrowen where Ned Kelly was finally captured when the police shot at his legs, as the rest of his body was covered by the heavy home-made metal armour that he was wearing. The title of the play refers of course to the famous armour, which in turn became an iconic theme in the paintings of artist Sydney Nolan, and the print he donated some years ago can be seen hanging in the Abymill.

So the Fethard performance of the stage reading of the play should be an unique event and afterwards the author will join in on a discussion with the audience, both on the play itself, and also on the whole Kelly story and how it has become a central part of the whole Australian folk experience.

The performance will begin at 8pm on this Friday, 11th August, the entrance fee is €4, and afterwards refreshments will be available to all who attend the Irish premier of this new Kelly play.

Sliabh na mBan Holy Year Cross
Our annual pilgrimage to the Holy Year Cross takes place this coming Sunday August 13th with ceremonies beginning at 2 o'clock at the hill wall. For those who intend to make the climb, please allow at least 20 minutes to walk from the car park in O'Donnell's field. Rosary will be recited at the mass rock for those who are unable to make the climb. Mass will be celebrated on the return of the walkers. This will take place at approx 4.15pm.

Fethard Juvenile GAA Club
The under-6, 8 and 10s will recommence training on this Friday night from 7 to 8.30pm. All children are asked to attend and bring their hurleys and helmets as training will be for both hurling and football. Please make every effort to attend as numbers have been small for previous weeks. Competitions for these ages will be coming up soon and training is vital.

The under-8s played a ground-hurling tournament at the Rosegreen field day last Sunday and did extremely well to win out the competition. The captain, Dean Kenny, led by example and was outstanding on the day, as were, Owen O’Donovan, Dean Dorney, Jessie McCormack, Jack Ward, Ross McCormack, Shane Curran, Tom Morgan, Derek O’Brien and Aimee O’Donovan. Well done to all the lads. Also well done to Tommy Sheehan who had the highest score on the target shooting in hurling, and Owen Dillon on winning the penalty shoot out — all on the same day.

The under-14 hurlers are now down to the quarterfinal stages with one game yet to be played against Mullinahone this weekend. These boys are doing very well in the league stages. Keep it up lads.

The under-16s have three games yet to play with one win and loss so far. These games will be vital to secure a semi-final spot and the team are proving very capable of playing in this grade. A bit more support would be appreciated for these young lads.

Our annual Summer Camp will commence on the 21st to the 25th August. This has always been a great success and more of the same will be guaranteed for this year. Anyone wishing to enrol their child please contact the secretary as soon as possible on Tel: 086 1713502 as places are limited and filling up fast this year.  A complete camp kit will be on offer and these will also be limited.