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Death Of Paddy Fanning, Thurles, Co. Tipperary.

It was with great sadness that we learned of the death, yesterday Wednesday 3rd January 2024, of Mr Paddy Fanning, Maxfort, Horse & Jockey, Thurles, Co. Tipperary.

Pre-deceased by his parents Joe and Ellen brothers Rodge, Danny and Joe, sisters Mary Darmody, Josie Sheil and Peggy Power; Mr Fanning passed away peacefully, while in the care of staff at Padre Pio Nursing Home, Holycross, Thurles, surrounded by his loving family and his good friend David O’Hea.

His passing is most deeply regretted and sadly missed by by his sister Biddy Moloughney, brother Mattie, brother-in-law John Power, sisters-in-law Biddy Fanning and Joan Fanning, nephews, nieces, extended relatives, neighbours and friends.

Requiescat in Pace.

Funeral Arrangements.

The earthly remains of Mr Fanning will repose at Devitt’s Funeral Home, The Green, Cashel, this afternoon, Thursday, January 4th from 4:30pm, before being received into the Church of St. Peter, Moycarkey, Thurles at 6:30pm .
Requiem Mass for Mr Fanning will be celebrated on Friday afternoon, January 5th at 1:00pm, followed immediately afterwards by interment in the nearby Old Graveyard, Moycarkey, Thurles, Co. Tipperary.

For those persons who are unable to attend Requiem Mass for Mr Fanning, same can be viewed streamed live online, HERE.

The extended Fanning family wish to express their appreciation for your understanding at this difficult time, and have made arrangements for those persons wishing to send messages of condolence, to use the link shown HERE.


Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.

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Man Found Dead At Ballycrana, Kilross Co. Tipperary Named Locally.

The dead man located at a rented house in Ballycrana, Kilross Co. Tipperary has been named locally as Mr Maciej Nowak, a Polish national aged 32 years.

This evening a 27-year-old man arrested by detectives on Thursday afternoon last, in Dublin, and named as Mr Tomasz Rozpeda; latter of no fixed abode, but originally also from Poland, was brought before a special sitting of Nenagh District Court, presided over by Judge Elizabeth MacGrath.

Mr Rozpeda is charged with assaulting Mr Nowak, causing him harm, latter who worked in the construction industry and was one of a number of Polish nationals renting the house at Ballycrana, Kilross.

We understand that Mr Nowak was celebrating his 32nd birthday on St. Stephen’s night with a number of other people, when the assault took place.

Solicitor for the accused, Mr Vincent McCormack, applied for legal aid and handed in a statement of means on his client’s behalf, before same was granted.

Judge Elizabeth MacGrath presiding, remanded the accused in custody, to appear in person before Tipperary District Court, which will sit in Nenagh, on next Wednesday, January 3rd, 2024.

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Minister For Justice Helen McEntee Welcomes Attestation Of New 151 Gardaí.

  • 151 Gardaí – 38 women and 113 men – will be placed in Divisions throughout the country for immediate deployment.
  • 115 Gardaí from this intake to be deployed in the Dublin Region.
  • New recruitment campaign to be launched on 15th January to help build stronger, safer communities.
  • Next intake of recruits will enter Templemore College on 27th December.

The Minister for Justice, Mrs Helen McEntee TD, has welcomed the attestation of 151 members of An Garda Síochána at the Garda College, Templemore, today.

The attestation of the new Gardaí was brought forward by one month to allow for improved Garda visibility over the Christmas period.

Of the 151 attesting today, 113 are men and 38 are women. 11 of the new recruits were born outside of the State. 115 of the new Garda Members will be deployed in the Dublin Region.

Minister McEntee said: “I want to congratulate the recruits attesting in Templemore today, and I want to thank this group particularly for the commitment and flexibility they have shown in being deployed a month earlier than they had expected. It is a shining example of the dedication to public service that makes An Garda Síochána the envy of many police services around the world.
Their commitment to building stronger, safer communities is something to be commended and which we are all grateful for.
Garda recruitment is well and truly back up and running and I am delighted to be able to announce that a new Garda recruitment campaign will launch on 15 January 2023.
This will be the first recruitment campaign since we increased the age limit from 35 to 50 and Budget 2024 also provides for a 66% increase in the weekly training allowance for Garda trainees.”

The 151 newly-attested Gardaí will be assigned to Garda Divisions throughout the country for immediate deployment. 115 are being deployed to the Dublin Region. They will return to Templemore to complete their exams in due course.

Budget 2024 reflects the commitment of Government to building stronger, safer communities and that An Garda Síochána has the resources required to operate effectively.

The budget provided by Government to the Garda Commissioner continues to increase to unprecedented levels, with an allocation of €2.3 billion for 2024.

The ongoing financial support provides for better technology, better wellbeing supports, and importantly it will fund the ongoing recruitment of between 800 and 1,000 new Gardaí throughout next year. It also provides for a 66% increase in the weekly Garda training allowance, rising to €305 per week.

Garda recruitment is building momentum and there was a very strong interest in the 2022 and 2023 Garda recruitment campaigns.

A new recruitment campaign for the Garda Reserve will also take place in early 2024 – the first such recruitment campaign since 2017.

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Home For The Christmas

Home For The Christmas – A short story from the pen of Thurles Co. Tipperary, poet and author Tom Ryan.

Home For The Christmas ©

It was just a small town in a small country, but in that town beat ten thousand hearts, each with his own book to write; each unique, with thoughts, feelings, doubts, hopes, frustrations, dreams and dreams shattered. On this Christmas Eve, like many other Irish towns, it was like a picture postcard; with its wide, spacious, traffic-jammed main street, and its monuments to dead heroes, lying covered with a thick mantle of snow and ice.

The bells in the little church were summoning the populace from the Christian community, to a Christmas Carol Service. Last-minute shoppers were slipping and slithering from cosy, brightly lit, damp-floored shops, latter packed with hardy rural folk, almost contemptuous of the weather, and urban townsfolk, all excited and exchanging seasonal greetings with one another.

In the hotel on the main street, there in the cosy bar, one man drank alone.

This worst-case scenario was indeed quite a feat; for just about everybody drinks together or at least in smaller groups, in a small town on Christmas Eve. All troubles and daily problems are generally swept aside, like the icy, slushy snow outside, while that rare, but precious, Christmas warmth and conviviality, takes precedence over all else.

The man who drank alone was in his late sixties, a somewhat medium sized man, wearing silver-rimmed glasses; behind the lens of which were grey misty blue eyes that stared somewhat indifferently at a pint glass of Guinness. It was his first drink since he had alighted from the train that morning. He brushed a few remaining, now melting snowflakes from off his tweed overcoat, on the seat beside him.
He had thought about this trip home only about a week before after he had buried his wife, Biddy, back there in New York city. The loneliness swept over him now again, as he envisioned her as she had been when he had met her at a céili in a rural hall, not many miles from the warm setting, wherein he now sat. He clearly recalled that the year in question was 1944, just before D–Day, and it was around Christmas time, too.

That old man of hers had never approved of his darling daughter, Biddy; her being a farmer’s daughter, wishing to get hitched up with a scallywag of a farm labourer. It was after many rows, that they had decided to run away secretly, in order to get married. He smiled thinly now at the memory, but in that chosen new ‘Land of the free’, they had somehow made it, though never rising to massive heights in the dollars stakes. They continued to warm to one another and even more so, as the years came and went, although they were never blessed with children.

Thirty five years, God, how the old country had changed, he thought. So modern and alive; a modernity that made him feel a little out of touch. He noted the wall-to-wall carpets in the hotel bar, the television blaring and flashing to a heedless audience, and the screaming kids with their folks close-by. So brazen, these kids! You knew your place in his day, and you didn’t talk unless you were spoken to. You may not have had a great education, but in his day, you did learn manners and thanks to the school Master you did learn your three basic Rs.

Oh, what the hell was he doing in this town. It was a strange land to him after all these years, especially without his beloved Biddy. It was just a tale of two cities now that he no longer felt acquainted with. He had left New York to find reminders of a previous world; his and Biddy’s young world, and gardens where it seemed roses grew all year round cottage doors; where they kept on meeting at dances and where they had fallen in love and stormed wildly at the world. God-damn it; he felt suddenly embarrassed at the realisation, and he was now weeping, unable to conceal or hold back his tears.

“You all right, sir?” He became aware that the young voice, which carried the sound of true concern, came from that of a young woman of about twenty five years old and she had placed an arm on his shoulder. For some inexplicable reason, she seemed vaguely familiar to him.
“Oh, I was just remembering, thank you,” he sniffled.
“Yes, it is a time for remembering, isn’t it,” the girl said.

She was dark-haired, with eyes to match, a creamy skin, tall and well cut, wearing a black skirt with white blouse, and looking like a movie star, rather than an Irish small town girl. She carried a bright blue anorak on her arm.

“You from around here?” she asked, though, he felt, not in any idly, inquisitive tone.
He was composed now and grateful for the young woman’s interruption of his feelings and thoughts.
He grinned, “Funny, I’ve been figuring that, I just come in from New York”.
“An American?”, she volunteered.
“Yeah, I guess sort of, although I was born here, outside town. My wife, she was born here too. First time home in thirty five years.” He now found it odd that he should use that word ‘home’.
“Have a drink?” he said.
“No, thanks very much”, she replied, adding “I don’t drink. I’m just waiting for my mother to come out from the interdenominational Carol Service in the local church, so I can drive her home.”
“You’re a good girl.” he said and he meant it.
She laughed. “Try to tell that to my mum. She thinks… ”
The girl considered a moment before continuing, “Well, there’s no work around here, you know and I want to go to the States. I’d like to be a model. But mammy thinks it’s so far away. Kevin, my boyfriend, is not happy about it either; I mean it’s only a few hours away by airplane, but sure you must know that.”
“And what does your daddy think?” he queried.
A shadow came across her face. “He died last year. There’s only mum and me now.”
“You and your mother. You get on all right?” he further queried.
The young woman suddenly shook with laughter. “Oh, yes! Like a house on fire. I mean, don’t get me wrong, she’s the greatest mother in the world. I guess she’s sad after dad. She misses him terribly.”
The elderly man took another sip from his pint before declaring, “Loneliness is a terrible thing.”
“I suppose so, but she’s got so many friends: The ICA, the Drama Group, the Sodality, the Chess Club; she simply knows everybody”, she replied
Again, the elderly man thought there was something so familiar about the young woman’s face. He wished he could place it and then, suddenly in a flash, it came to him and he remembered.

A wild teenager who had got up to devilment everywhere together with his love Biddy. What was her name? Gertie, Gertie McDonald. But she had gone to become a nun above in Dublin, at the time when he had left town. Surely …?”
He addressed the young woman; “I don’t think I got your name, Miss?”
“Margie, Margie Dwyer. No, not O’Dwyer, we o nothing to no one”, she laughed. “But they call me Margie McDonald, because I resemble my mother so much”, she continued.
Just then a stout, rather flushed, fur-coated, vivacious woman came into the bar, entering from the foyer. The years had not so changed her that he didn’t immediately recognise that swaggering, bold stride.
“Why if it isn’t Jack Ryan,” the girl’s mother whooped, after staring briefly at the elderly man in her daughter’s company.
“Gertie, I thought you were a nun in Dublin, a Mother Superior at least by now,” he quipped, as he rose to warmly shake her hand.
“Oh, after two years I discovered I had no vocationI suppose. But, Jack Ryan-after all these years. How are you at all?” she queried. Then, in a lower tone, “I am so sorry, Jack. I heard about poor Biddy.”
“I know,” he acknowledged the sympathy “and you had your own troubles too I’ve just learned”.
She nodded. “And what in God’s name brings you home after all these years. The auld sod must now be strange to you.”
“Oh, not really. I have found a kind, young friend here,” he smiled, patting the young woman’s arm.
“So, you have met Margie. What a coincidence, so where are you staying, Jack?”
“Here in the hotel, Gertie, up in Room 89″ he replied.
“Ah, now, Jack”, Gertie replied. “Not in a hotel room at Christmas. You’ll come out to the farm with Margie and me. At our age there will be no auld talk of scandal. You know me, Jack. Gertie knows her own kind and goes her own way, which or whether. Them that mind don’t matter and them that matter don’t mind.”

There was a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. An older Gertie had not changed a bit, he thought. Always, like his Biddy, pure independent. “Sure, we’ll go down memory lane and do some great tracing together. Maybe kill a few whiskies into the bargain.” She winked at him cheekily.
“You’re an awful woman,” he grinned.
“Now, Jack, you’ll be a guest in our home and welcome. Sure, you’re auld stock, an auld townie, one of our own and a neighbour.” She winked again: “And a little more, if you remember rightly, maybe.” He smiled at the recalling of a pleasant night he and Gertie had spent at a cross-roads platform dance one warm summer’s night, before he had first become acquainted with Biddy.

Throughout all this, young Margie Dwyer had remained dutifully silent, but visibly pleased to see her mother come alive again, like she had not been for some long, long time. Her modelling work in New York did not now have that same great urgency for her and she realised possibly for the first time an amazing fact; that work, though paramount, was not the only important thing in life, not when hearts were one, warm, kind and caring.
Right now the girl felt suddenly at home; yes, really at home again, and it was Christmas, and she would think of modelling and New York city at another time. Now where would she find boyfriend Kevin on a Christmas Eve? She wanted to tell him all about this.
Jack looked around him in the bar, as a hundred hands offered to help him with his suitcase.
“I’ll take you up on that offer, Gertie Dwyer, and grateful to you I am for it.” he said
The young woman, cheeks now glowing with great warmth, said: “Merry Christmas, Mr Ryan”.
Jack Ryan put one arm around the young woman’s shoulders and another around her mother’s waist, and, with great joy and a feeling that life was truly wonderful after all, he replied: “Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas.”

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Death Of Peggy Treacy, Thurles, Co. Tipperary.

It was with a great personal sadness that I learned of the death, yesterday Tuesday 5th December 2023, of Mrs Margaret (Peggy) Treacy (née Molloy), The Heath, Cormackstown, Thurles, Co. Tipperary and formerly of Ballybeg, Littleton, Thurles, Co. Tipperary.

Pre-deceased by her loving husband Michael, infant son Martin, sisters May and Anne and sister-in-law Ann; Mrs Treacy passed away peacefully surrounded by her loving family, while in the care of staff at Med 2 Ward, Nenagh Hospital, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary.

Her passing is most deeply regretted and sadly missed by her heartbroken family, daughters Catherine, Mary and Bríd, sons Philip and Michael, grandchildren Sophie, Leah, Fionn, Hannah and Alice, great-grand daughter Lylah, sons-in-law Russell, Michael and Bernard, daughters-in-law Laura and Kate, sisters Bridget, Norah and Statia, brothers John, Pat and Tom, nephews, nieces, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, extended relatives, neighbours and many friends.

Requiescat in Pace.

Funeral Arrangements.

The earthly remains of Mrs Treacy will repose at Hugh Ryan’s Funeral Home, Slievenamon Road, Thurles on Thursday afternoon, December 7th, from 5:00pm to 7:00pm same evening.
Her remains will be received into the Church of St, Joseph & St. Brigid, Bothar na Naomh, Thurles on Friday morning, December 8th, at 9:30am to further repose for Requiem Mass at 10:00am, followed by interment, immediately afterwards in Upperchurch cemetery, Thurles, Co. Tipperary.

For those persons who are unable to attend the funeral service for Mrs Treacy, same can be viewed streamed live online, HERE.

The extended Treacy family wish to express their appreciation for your understanding at this difficult time, and have made arrangements for those persons wishing to send messages of condolence, to use the link shown HERE.


Ar dheis Dé go raibh a h-anam dílis.

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