Tidy Towns Collection.
Many of you have been mentioning to me about the wonderful work our Tidy Town Group is doing and I must certainly agree. The neatly cut grass, litter free roads and the beautiful coloured flowers certainly add greatly to the beauty of our area. You might be wondering how you can become involved well there are many ways. Keep an eye out in these notes and on their facebook page for dates and places of litter picks etc. However not everyone may have the time or talent to help out manually but of course all groups need funds to keep going. Our local Tidy Towns Group will hold a church gate collection at the weekend masses in Ballyduff on Saturday August 8th and Sunday August 9th. We ask you to be as generous as possible.
GAA LOTTO.
The numbers drawn in the last lotto draw were 4,12,18 and 19 and they were the lucky numbers of local man Eamonn O Leary, Kilmagemogue,Kilmeaden. Eamonn is thrilled with his amount of €1,850 and I know he will spend it wisely and I expect he will buy something nice for his favourite sister in law!! The three lucky dip winners on the night of €50 each were The Harris Girls, Jacky Coughlan and Michelle Dunphy. The next draw will take place in O Donnachas on August 9th and will have a jackpot of €500.
Newcastle Mass.
Over 200 years ago our parish of Ballyduff/Portlaw was known as the parish of Newcastle/ Portlaw. The ruins of the Newcastle church are located in the townland of Ardeenlone. Many people who would have died in the Famine are buried in the adjoining graveyard in unmarked graves. A large cross stands on the hill in Newcastle as a reminder of all who are buried there. A former Parish Priest is buried there and his tombstone tells us that he died in 1810. Each year on the first Monday after the 15th of August we offer a special mass for all who are buried there. This years mass will therefore take place on Monday August 17th at 7.30pm. In those times everyone walked to mass so in memory of those people there will be a faith walk from Ballyduff Church to Newcastle. They will leave the church gates at 6.30pm and they will carry with them an old chalice which is almost 300 years old and was used in Newcastle. If the weather is unsuitable for an outdoor mass then mass will be said in Ballyduff church instead