Saturday, December 27, 2014

Death of Michael Conroy

It is with the heaviest of hearts that I today learned of the tragic death of Michael Conroy,son of John,late of this Parish and a good friend.
He died in Mayo over the Christmas.
Go ndeana Dia trocaire ara a hanam.

Monday, December 22, 2014

Mass times Dunderry Parish Christmas 2014

Christmas Eve 24/12/2014

6.00 p.m.Kilbride.Vigil Mass

7.00 p.m.Carol Singing  Dunderry

7.3o p.m.Vigil Mass.Dunderry

Christmas Day 25/12/2014

9.30 a.m.Robinstown.Mass

11.00 a.m. Dunderry  Mass.

St.Stephens Day

10.00 a.m. Mass Dunderry

8.00 p.m. Mass Kilbride.

Sunday, December 21, 2014

Lumberjacks move over.

Those older groovers of the Parish will remember the Dunderry show band of the above name who were very good musicians in their hey day and the crooners who fronted it .
Well after attending the concert of Scoil Ceol Dundoire last Sunday and the School concert of Christmas Carols in the Church during the week I have no hesitation in saying that there are a load of musicians and crooners of the highest calibre well on the way to competency and more on a variety of musical instruments and progress is encouraging and marked from last year.
A lot of the school kids attend the music school and it is a joy to behold the progress being achieved  as the kids advance in age,from the faltering notes of the starters to the confident renditions of the older lemons.
Guitars .tin whistles,fiddles,pianos.keyboards  and harps featured.
All to deadly effect.And the vocals were out of this world.
Both the Hall and the Church were full foe each performance.
You would want a rubber neck for the Church performance as adoring parents leaned hither and thither trying to capture their adored kids on camera and video.
And haven't we reached an awful impasse when the organisers had to issue warnings and invite any objections to photographing the kids performing.
How did we arrive at such a low point ?Is this political correctness gone bananas ?
Anymore great entertainment for all and a first for me."Fairy tale of New York" was sung ,to great effect as Gaelige.
And wouldn't ya know it .Christy Coogan's daughter ,a niece of Patsi,former lead singer with the Lumberjacks sang Kirsty' Mc Call's part in the Pogues famous song.
Auld tradition.
And lest anyone think that we had a musical drought since the Lumberjacks we have the Davey Family,Brian Darcy of Ham Sandwich and a rake of musicians tained by Cheolteas whose identity I dint know.
And the Church Choir is back in harness.
A Holy and Musical Christmas to all.

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Treatment of Marie Farrell an abomination

Marie Farrell is a mother and wife who has recanted evidence she gave against Ian Bailey arising from the murder of a French lady who lived in West Cork.
In short she alleges that she gave the false evidence because she was blackmailed ,forced and cajoled into doing so partly because some Gardai took unfair advantage of the fact that she,a married woman ,was in the company of a man who was not her husband on a certain night.
She has been pursued relentlessly by the Barrister representing the State,fully backed up by the presiding judge to reveal the identity of this  man.
What the identity of this man has got to do with the alleged false identification of Bailey  is beyond me.
It seems to me that it is being used as a stick to beat her with in an attempt to embarrass her and her family and that of the family of the man.
To me the  behaviour of the judge and the state legal people is sending out a clear message to everybody who finds themselves in the position she alleges herself to be in as follows :-If you believe you were forced /blackmailed by the State into making false statements don't ever  ever try to tell the truth and recant because the State and the Courts will use every scrap of their considerable wealth ,expertise and knowledge to crucify,discredit,humiliate and destroy you.
And there is no depths to which they won't sink to do this.

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

I have a long way to go.

Recently I attended again the Tridentine High Mass held each Sunday in Johnstown at 1.00 p.m.
I enjoyed it .
It is not for those in a hurry anywhere.
The celebrant is some man for one man.Not a political correct bone in his body.
He is a hermit and rarely appears in public.
Anyhow a met a couple who regularly attend the Mass and we spoke briefly.
It transpired that their home had recently been burgled ,much of value robbed and considerable damage done.
I am only too aware of the number of unresolved  burglaries perpetrated on the elderly here abouts and sympathised with them citing my deceased grandfather who was wont to say "the curse of God on them"
Wrong spake by mise."No Daithi ,no Catholic can feel that ,We are praying that they see the error of their ways".
Sure I am only playing at this Catholic thing.

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Dunderry GAA Ladies come up trumps.

The Auction in Geraghty's last Saturday raise just short of E.5,5000.00.
Well done ladies and well done all contributors ,buyers and auctioneers.
Top drawer stuff.

Saturday, December 6, 2014

Top men in GAA are pussycats.

I am shaking my head at the craven way the top men in the GAA throw in the towel so cravenly to the rugby confraternity.
Earlier this week I heard a rugby head from Australia blatantly pitch for all Gaa players to participate in some new form of rugby which would soon be introduced here and worldwide and which will have Olympic status.
Later in the week I hear the top guys totally roll over and promise the use of all GAA grounds to facilitate the holding of the world cup in rugby here and heard the Secretary of the GAA laud the pleasant and cordial relationship he had with the Rugby crowd.
All he was short of doing was to confirm the Aussie rugby man's call to GAA players to take up the new form of rugby too.
After selling out the GAA rights to Sky and denying the poorer grassroots supporters the right to view certain championship matches for the first time in our history these guys seem determined to pass the advantage yet again to a sport which we are in competition with and to popularise it even further at the expense of our own Association.
All the bullshit about giving Croker to the Rugby boys for  the English match in the national interest didn't amount to a tin of beans when it came to recruiting players from Rugby to the GAA  nor did even one Rugby a school convert to the GAA as far as I am aware.
And of course the political establishment did sfa to  settle the Garth Brooks situation in the GAA's favour.,thus causing it millions of euros in lost revenue
You would have thought that Sean Kelly who engineered the handing over of the stadium to the rugby people  in the national interest  and made his political name as a result might have remembered where he came from and get his finger out but not a word about it.Eaten bread is soon forgotten indeed.
One is tempted to say that were these guys in charge in 1921  the Auxiliaries might have had the keys of Croker bestowed on them after Bloody Sunday but I wouldn't go just that far.


How the ruling classes cover their asses

Anyone interested in this subject ought now read my article on "Tax dodging by ther political classes,"
Just as I predicted.This will be dropped quicker than a  hot snot.
And the people who call themselves journalists will lead the possee to see that it is dropped.

Friday, December 5, 2014

Dunderry V Boardsmill 30/11/2014 Div 3 Camogie league Final.

The continuing development and  maturing of this essentially young Dunderry team was well tested by a very promising Boardsmill team at a well appointed Drumree on a pleasant Sunday afternoon weatherise  (but not experience wise for me personally ).
After the disappointment of missing out on the knockout stages of the Intermediate Championship ,a factor which the management exploited as a motivator for this game,the young ladies were well up for the challenge.
They were not playing from a full deck as the Misses Blaithnid Keyes and  Emily Bray were unavailable due to injury.They were definitive losses as it transpired ,but one girls loss is another girl's opportunity and their replacements were well up to the mark.
The  team ,under the care of long time and dedicated managers,Tracey Fitzsimons and Evelyn Griffin ,assisted by Drumree man and trainer G.V.Troy, lined out as follows :-

                                                   Rebecca Scanlon

MIchelle Smyh                     Grainne Dowd                       Michelle Daly

Aisling Mac Donagh             Danielle Clarke                    Emer O Shea

                         Tara Scanlon                        Labaoise Martyn

Aoife MInogue                Aoife Mac Cormack                 Anna Stenson

Aoife O Shea                   Jane Martyn                           Emer Daly.

Subs,Megan Doherty,Laura O malley,Freda O Leary,and Niamh Martyn.
Like ourselves Boardsmill draw from a relatively few houses and are properly a family dominated club,a sense of unity and respect being fundamental to fielding successful and progressive teams.This policy has been for generations a basic principle of the wider GAA movement,which includes this team ,in Dunderry.
As an example of what I am talking about you will see that we have three sets of sisters on the team .It is worth noting that the dedication of Tracey and Evelyn is such that they have stuck to the job despite the fact that their own daughters were not available for selection on the day .
.In a nutshell we cannot afford divisive influences if we are to progress.
Referee for the day was Martin Ennis a good Longwood Gael,who I last encountered at the under 21 B Hurling Final,where we pipped them at the final post.I had seen him refeering football and hurling matches before now ,but I understand he is new to the Camogie scene.
Overall he has vast experience in the general refeering scene but has not ,as far as I know ,reached inter county status,but then very few do.Like us all he makes the odd wrong call.
I was a tad late for the game but Seanie Duffy and Caroline and Mark Stenson were of great help in getting me close to the pitch and placing my stool close to the sideline ,where I sat and had a mainly good view of the game.
We have one outstanding adult inter county forward in the shape of Aoife Minogue who is our scorer in chief.But as man does  not live by bread alone neither dies one player make up a team.And we do have a good team.
The older,well tried and tested  and more experienced girls very properly formed the spine of our team and the emerging future stars were at midfield and on the wings.
Jane Martin ,who played at midfield thus far,has been tried at full  forward during the year and ,I am told ,to good advantage.Today I could judge for myself.
AS I thought these teams are  fairly evenly matched.There was committed end to end play ,some of it not too pretty  stuff ,as both teams strove for dominance.Minogue was watched like a mouse under the gaze of an attentive cat.Despite this she opened our scoring when a well taken free fooled the goalkeeper and skipped into the net .It transpired that she scored a total of 1-3 of our overall total of 2-3 over the seventy minutes played,the remaining goal falling to Martyn after an impressive dummy sold to the full back.
For the remainder of the half our back line were under the most severe of unrelenting pressure as our goal line was under siege and how they held out is still a mystery to me .Rebbecca made at least three incredible saves in this half ,all the backs played out of their skins,with Aisling wommaning the trenches without regard to personal safety and with considerable skill.The midfielders had to channel back to help out their rearguard and did so with considerable skill and full effect and the forwards were dependant on the  quick break when the rare ball did reach them.
When Minogue got a sniff panic broke out in the Boardsmill rearguard and she scored another few points before the half time whistle.(I didn't keep a written account ,much to my discredit ,but we went in two points to the good ,if I remember correctly.)
Martyn had the beating of her immediate opponent and when she got her hands on the ball laid it off to a better placed colleague ,mostly Minogue ,to effect.but in general the opposing backs were well versed in defending their territory and conceded few opportunistic scoring chances to us.Mostly we shot under pressure. But then again so did they.
There was good Dundrry support at the game ,so much so that all it took was for one person to intrude onto the pitch to follow the play and  create a mass reactive intrusion that limited the view of those standing behind and this happened so often that  I had to change my pitch a number of times to follow the platy with comfort ,but such if s life without a wife.
I was reasonably happy at the half time score but apprehensive
The second half repeated the pattern of the first but we were more involved in the play ,which was more end to end.It was dogged tough stuff in which all gave all that could to the cause.Martyn took a goal which raised Dunderry hopes momentarily and O Shea kicked against the upright ,but a dogged and skillful Boardsmill team clawed their way back into contention and the final whistle blew with us on the score of 2-3 and them equalling that .
Before the start of the extra time I went to the far sideline which was more sparsely populated to have a better view of the proceedings ,well assisted by Ciaran O Shea who carried my stool across and on which were located the parents of many Dunderry players and the subs and  mentors.
The first period of extra time was a repeat of earlier proceedings with both teams struggling for supremacy and nether succeeding.The referee made some conrtroversial decisions which induced a n initial muttering amongst the Dunderry support,which soon ascended to a more voluble level clearly and undisguisedly directed at the man in the middle.
Whatever you think about referees you can't manage without them and my life experience says that you would be wise to keep your thoughts during action to yourself less you turn then totally against your team.
I advised this to trainer Troy ,whose response that he didn't give a       about me,that he wasn't afraid of me and that he would say whatever he wanted no matter what I said ,took me totally by surprise .
In my fifty years involvement with the GAA in Dublin and Meath I have never experienced such an ignorant  attitude from  a trainer towards a former Chairman and existing President of the same club.
Not a only am I a former Chairman and existing president of the camogie Club but I am also hold similar positions in the GAA club and am also a member of the Executive there.
He has by his remarks debased not only me and mine personally but also debased and insulted the offices of Presidents of both Clubs and all offices I hold.
The fact that he did it so volubly and in front of so  many supporters adds  to the insulting behaviour and displays a complete ignorance of what membership and responsible behaviour of any GAA Club incorporates.
One only hopes that this attitude towards me is not being encouraged by any persons in authority within the Club and if it is I will get to the root of it.
Back to the game itself after that diversion.
Neither team scored in the first period of extra time and the final ten minutes commenced.
End to end stuff again but by degrees they crept more into dominance and our ladies ,in my view adversely affected by the voluble and spreading criticism of the referee.finally cracked and in the final ten minutes the defensive dam broke and and Boards mil register a combined goals and points total of 13 points to nada for us.
A heartbreaking result for us after a huge effort.
But better and more rewarding days beckon.
A brighter aspect to the day out was the performance of our Camogie tots ,under the tutelidge of the dedicated and well respected Stella Keyes who did beat a similarly aged Boardsmill as part of the half time entrertainment.
All in all an interesting and informative outing.

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

GAA auction in Geraghty's pub 6/12/2014

The GAA Club is strapped for cash.This may be because most of its members are strapped for cash also.Nonetheless there may be some who have a few bob to spare as Christmas approaches.
These latter people and all others of goodwill towards the GAA Club will have the opportunity to dig deep and part with some of their hard earned cash next Saturday evening in Geraghty's Pub.
There will be no tickets for sale for soccer  or rugby matches which would encourage players to absent themselves from vital GAA Matches in the future ,please God.