Fethard & Killusty Community Lotto Jackpot €9,550
The numbers drawn in the Fethard & Killusty Community Lotto on Tuesday 21st September were 7, 9, 19 and 26.  There was no Jackpot winner and four 'Match 3' winners who received €40 each:
Kathleen Lyons, Ballyluskin, Drangan
Eileen White, Drangan
Eilish Barrett, Red City, Fethard
Open Door, Day Care Centre, Fethard
The three €50 Lucky Dip winners were:
Thelma Griffith, Crampscastle, Fethard
Fr. Tim Walsh, OSA, The Abbey, Fethard
Michael Meehan Snr., Coolbawn, Fethard
Next weeks Jackpot is €9,550 and the Jackpot sellers prize is €845.

Fethard Living History Group

Fethard Living History Group being briefed before training on the use of medieval weapons by Colm McGrath. L to R: Tom McGrath, Michael O'Connell, Joan Denmeade, Miceál McCormack, Martin Phelan and Colm McGrath.

The newly formed Fethard Living History Group meet just once a month, which, at the moment is the third Sunday of each month in the Community Sports Field. This venue will change as not all the group’s activities are confined to the outdoors. Some workshops will be taken up with making and maintaining equipment such as armour, shields and weapons, while others will focus upon learning just what life was like back then.

Most big Living History gatherings have wound down for the winter months and will not get going again until next May or June. Now is the ideal time to join a group such as this as over the wintertime we can work together on the equipment and know how needed to take part in events next summer. Events will be taking place up and down the country and further afield in Scotland, England, Wales and on the continent. Hopefully we can also organise something in Fethard.

We are always on the lookout for new recruits so if you think you might be interested contact, Colm ‘Ivanhoe’ McGrath at Tel: 086 3502360.

Elsie with Winning Captain

Elsie O'Dwyer, Coolmoyne, photographed with Sinead Ryan, captain of the successful Tipperary camogie team, following the teams triumphant return with the O'Duffy Cup to Horse and Jockey after beating Cork in the All-Ireland camogie final played at Croke Park on Sunday 19th September.
Elsie, a former camogie player with Coolmoyne, celebrated her 90th birthday last February, and attended the game to cheer on this amazing Tipperary team's fifth All-Ireland title in six years.

Married Recently
The wedding took place, on Friday 17th September, in the Church of the Secred Heart, Killusty, of Ms Yvonne Murphy and Mr Thomas Halpin. The celebrant was Very Rev. Fr. Tom Breen P.P. The bridesmaids were Aisling and Rachel Murphy; best man, James Halpin and groomsman, Michael Kearney.

Fethard Athletic Club Cross Country Schedule
The club’s first competitive outing will be to the County Primary Schools cross country finals in Thurles on Wednesday 29th September. Fethard and Moyglass schools will be well represented at this annual event which will see children from Tipperary’s primary schools compete as teams in the major, large, medium and small categories.

The next upcoming event is the County Uneven Championships to be held in Ballynonty on the 10th October, followed a week later by the County Even Age Championships in Dundrum. Training continues on Mondays and Wednesdays at 6.30 pm in the Community Sports Field.

Fethard Bridge Club
The results for Wednesday 15th September were:
1st Gross: Carol Kenny and Gemma Burke
2nd Gross: Rita Kane and Kay St. John
1st Nett: Nell Broderick and Sean O’Dea
2ndNett: Teresa Cummins and Alice Quinn

On Wednesday next, 29th September we will be playing for the Gross Free Sub and on the following Wednesday, 6th October we will be playing for the Nett Free Sub. We hope all members will be able to play on both nights. Following both these competitions membership fees of €25 will be due - except for the lucky winners of the free sub!
Anyone looking for a partner can contact: Annie O’Brien, The Square, Fethard. Tel: 052 31862.

Rachel’s First Winner
Well done to 14-year-old Rachael Blackmore, Mortlestown, who rode her first winner under Horse and Pony Racing Rules at the recent Clashmelon, Co. Cork, meeting on Sunday 12th September. Rachael won the 13.2h pony race on her own pony ‘Tommy’ and looks like being as successful at pony racing as she is at pony club events, where she has represented Tipperary and Ireland with distinction at national and international pony club competitions.

Civil Defence Reopens
Fethard Civil Defence resume their weekly meetings on Tuesday 28th September at 8pm in the Tirry Centre, Fethard. New members over-16 years of age are welcome to join. Some of the events that will be covered in the coming year include, rescue from heights, fire fighting, first aid, abseiling, boating and canoeing. For further information contact Rory Walsh, Tel: 086 0802782 or Civil Defence Headquarters, Clonmel. Tel: 052 34455.

Patrician Presentation Secondary School
The new school year is well underway and congratulations and good wishes are extended to, not only our Leaving Certs who did so well in the August results, but also to our Junior Certs who achieved excellent results on Wednesday 15th September. Hopefully this is a stepping-stone to future success at Leaving Cert level. Many of our Leaving Certs have gone on to 3rd level, others have commenced apprenticeships in carpentry, welding and electricity.

In association with ‘Transition Year’ the 2004-2995 school show will be the ever popular ‘Joseph, and the Amazing Technical Dreamcoat’, which will go on stage in the Abymill Theatre on 1st, 3rd and 4th December 2004

Awards Day will take place on Friday 22nd October, where students are given recognition for academic, personal and sporting achievements. The guest at this event is a past-student and the opening mass is attended by the student body, staff, board, parents’ association and guests.

Large crowd at George Plant lecture

Over 130 people attended the Abymill theatre in Fethard on Friday, September 17th 2004, to hear Nollaig Ó Gadhra's talk about George Plant and his family. Photographed at the lecture above were L to R: Mary Hanrahan (Fethard Historical Society), Catherine O'Flynn (Fethard Historical Society), Michael Moroney (author of the “definitive Plant story” published in the 1988 Tipperary Historical Journal), Nollaig Ó Gadhra (guest speaker) and Dóirín Saurus (Fethard Historical Society). READ NOLLAIG'S REPORT & SEE MORE PHOTOS

Nollaig Ó Gadhra, a prolific writer in Irish, is president of Conradh na Gaeilge and has taken a historical interest in the continuous tension of the belligerent relationship between constitutional nationalism and those nationalists who use violence to pursue their political grievances. Within this broad context, Mr Ó Gadhra had read the “definitive Plant story” by Michael Moroney in the 1988 Tipperary Historical Journal and he himself in 1992 recorded a taped interview with Elizabeth, George's sister, who had remained living in the family home in St. Johnstown, Fethard. Nollaig played his tape of this interview which, despite it's poor quality, was immensely poignant as we listened to her describe, with confidence and honesty, family difficulties; her two brothers, George and James, being beaten up in Killenaule RUC Barracks as young boys; their subsequent IRA activities which eventually culminated in her brother George being charged with the murder of Michael Devereux, his conviction and subsequent execution in Portlaoise Prison on March 5th 1942. She told of how news of her brother's execution reached the family via the radio and how, years later, she wished her brothers' commemoration would not be used for political gain, believing that there was little she could do as she was no Antigone.

Mr Ó Gadhra condemned unhesitatingly the execution of George Plant by the State and the legal methodology used to gain the conviction but then proceeded to severely question the republican and democratic credentials of George Plant himself. Such a stance led to active audience participation and in modern diplomatic language it might be said that a 'frank exchange of views' followed.

For those unacquainted with Mr Plant's narrative history, this was not quite the lecture for them as Nollaig Ó Gadhra attempted in a free flowing anecdotal lecture to place Plant’s execution among the many deaths of IRA members from the Civil War up to the mid forties. There were many political asides and the audience was left guessing as to the identity of the Garda who retired from the force in the fifties and who wound up being concerned about his pension before the recent Planning Tribunals in Dublin Castle.

In the Press release for the talk, Mr Ó Gadhra congratulated the Fethard Historical Society for holding the talk as it demonstrated a willingness to try and come to terms on a local basis with all the muddle and suffering that recent historical events have had upon us all and that since the welcome ending of Section 31 of the Broadcasting Act, people can again debate what nationalism means for them in their lives.
(Review by John Cooney)

Killusty Soccer Club
Killusty Soccer Club will hold a church gate collection in the parish next weekend Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th September. Your support will be greatly appreciated.

Badgers Soccer News
As and from Wednesday 22nd September our playing times will change provisionally. These evenings are becoming too dark to play outdoors after 7.30pm and it has been difficult to cater for everyone’s schedule. Hence two options will be open and these are: Sunday afternoons at 3pm in the Community Field, and Wednesday nights at 9pm in the ballroom. These changes will begin on Sunday 26th September and Wednesday 29th September. For information call: Tel: 086 3502360.

Greetings from Br Paul in Eldoret
Greetings from Eldoret to where I have returned after an eventful (working) holiday. I owe you and some other people in Fethard an apology as I had planned to travel down there and spend some time as well. All my plans came to nought, as I was unfortunate to pull a disc in my lower back on my second last day in New York en route to Ireland. It nearly paralysed me for a few days and thereafter restricted my movements very severely. It is not yet cleared up but I am being told to be patient and at 65 it is not easy to be patient with so much work to do yet!

I hope you can tell Danny Kane and the people at the Abymill etc that I am very sorry I couldn't meet them to thank them all personally for their help to the children here in Kabongo. I did get a chance to speak with both Mick Ryan and Davy Fitzgerald near the end of my stay in Ireland. It looks likely that I will not be in Ireland again until 2006.

I hope to open the Health Centre here on the first of December 2004. It will cater for about 6000 people or more. Once again thanks to the Friends of Kabongo in the Fethard area. May God Bless you all. Bro. Paul (email: stpats@multitechweb.com)

International Coach visits Fethard Judo Club

Members of Fethard Judo Club photographed with international Welsh coach, Sensei Alan Jones who visited the club last weekend. Alan, who holds a 7th Dan, has recently been appointed as consultant coach to the Irish Judo Association.

Fethard Judo Club were honoured and delighted to have Sensei Alan Jones visit our club last weekend. Alan who coaches internationally for Wales holds a 7th Dan and has recently been appointed as consultant coach to the Irish Judo Association. Sensei Jones in conjunction with the National Coaching and Training Centre (NCTC) have now put a four year plan into operation and it is hoped that this will bring our players, who do well at C Grade competitions such as the Irish or Scottish Open, up to A Grade players able to compete in World Championships. We hope to see some Irish Judoka on the Irish Olympic team for Beijing. We would like to thank Michael Power, President of the Irish Judo Association, for arranging the training session, which was of great benefit to everyone, from beginners to our more experienced players. We are very lucky to hold the IJA presidency here in South Tipperary, as Michael is always willing to share his knowledge and expertise with the local clubs.

There are two Judo clubs in Tipperary at the moment, Koga Judo Club based in Clonmel and Fethard’s Judokwai. The Presentation Primary School in Clonmel also provides judo as an after school sport for its pupils. With Michael Power at the helm of the IJA we hope that more people will join the sport and that we will see many more clubs in the county in the next few years. Judo while considered by many as a martial art is also an Olympic sport and incorporates self-defence, Tachi-waza (throwing techniques), Ne-waza (grappling techniques), Shimi-waza, (strangling techniques) and Katame-waza (locking techniques). Shimi-waza and Katame-waza are only taught to players over the age of sixteen. Most importantly of all is the spirit of Judo where players learn discipline and respect.

All clubs are now back in training after the summer break and we look forward to a busy season of competitions, courses, gradings and squad sessions. With the many new techniques shown by Sensei Jones we hope to see plenty of medals coming home from not only the Leinster Open but also more importantly the Irish Open which is the biggest international competition held in the country. Anyone interested in finding out more about Judo can view the IJA website at, www.irishjudoassociation.ie