Singer: Lee Ann Womack. Songwriters: Sanders Mark Daniel / Sillers Tia M
[The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. But in the meanwhile ……..]
I hope you never lose your sense of wonder, Get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger, May you never take one single breath for granted, God forbid love ever leave you empty handed. I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean. Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens. Promise me that you’ll give faith a fighting chance, And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance. I hope you dance… I hope you dance…
I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance, Never settle for the path of least resistance. Livin’ might mean takin’ chances, but they’re worth takin’. Lovin’ might be a mistake, but it’s worth makin’. Don’t let some hell bent heart leave you bitter. When you come close to sellin’ out reconsider. Give the heavens above more than just a passing glance. And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance… I hope you dance. I hope you dance… I hope you dance.
I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean. Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens. Promise me that you’ll give faith a fighting chance. And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance, Dance… I hope you dance. I hope you dance… I hope you dance. I hope you dance… I hope you dance.
“You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words” – Greta Thunberg addresses United Nations Climate Action Summit.
According to MSN Lifestyle News, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex’s changed into a cornflower blue shirt dress, latter designed by Veronica Beard, with black Castañer espadrilles wedges (Latter, for the benefit of you great unwashed, are I understand a kind of woven wedge heeled sandal), while visiting in Cape Town, South Africa, this week.
On the same day, I exchanged my dirty blue jeans for a coal black trousers displaying razor sharp creases on both legs, same also showing distinctive Dunnes Stores, Thurles, labels. An unimpressed MSN Lifestyle News for some reason failed to notice my clothing change.
Not to worry, they also failed to notice that the simple, pink-red, cotton dress, worn so elegantly by the 16-year-old, Viking, teenager Ms Greta Thunberg, latter who opened the 2019 United Nations Climate Action Summit, convened by UN Secretary-General Mr Antonio Guterres.
“Nature is angry. And we fool ourselves if we think we can fool nature, because nature always strikes back, and around the world nature is striking back with fury,” Mr Guterres stated, having already warned governments ahead of this Summit that they would have to offer action plans, in order to qualify to speak at the 2019 Summit; latter aimed at boosting the already agreed 2015 Paris Global Warming Agreement.
“Out of the mouth of babes and suckling’s hast thou ordained strength” – Psalm 8 : Verse 2.
“We will be watching you”, was Ms Thunberg’s main message to the Climate Action Summit attendees. Some of our, so called, world leaders in attendance and to their inordinate shame, sniggered.
Undeterred, the Swedish environmental activist Ms Thunberg, with clear diction, continued to chastise world leaders in attendance; “This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean, yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you?” she retorted with emotional anger, “You are failing us” – “We will not forgive you”.
“How dare you?” she chastised, “You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words”
Hopefully, the world has not heard the last of Ms Greta Thunberg, whom here on Thurles.Info we salute and fully support.
Firstly, remember that despite the constant, daily bungling by the current Fine Gael minority Irish Government, the next Irish general election will be held no later than on or before Monday, April 12th 2021.
There should be 159 of the current 160 Dáil seats being contested, with the outgoing Ceann Comhairle being re-elected automatically, unless of course he should opt to take retirement.
Yesterday FG Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection Ms Regina Doherty, attended a “Jobs Expo” in Tipperary Town, Co. Tipperary.
A Vanishing Rural Tipperary
Minister Doherty, despite her party being in government for a second term since 2011, (laughably propped up presently by a party who claims to be in full opposition), insisted that her visit yesterday and her personal number one priority, is to create a thriving Tipperary town. However, having stated same, said she wasn’t going to make any promises that same could be orchestrated any day in the near future. This is what happens when rural towns and villages get passed over and are allowed to rot for decades; excluded, even ostracised financially, in favour of job creation in overcrowded capital cities.
For this very reason, our readers will well remember that Tipperary rid itself of Fine Gael representation on February 26th 2016. It is highly unlikely that new, unknown FG election hopefuls; poised waiting and ready, with their tongues hanging out in the hope of collecting large salaries and pensions, and who personally have achieved nothing to date in their careers, are going to be elected in 2021.
With the supposed aim of getting unemployed people, in the region, back to work; over nine hundred job-seekers from the Tipperary area had been instructed to attend the Excel Arts & Cultural Centre, situated in Mitchell Street, in the town. The attendance by Minister Regina Doherty was seen as a marketing ploy by these local political hopefuls, in their attempt to indication how seriously this same minority Fine Gael government and a Taoiseach, latter seen only as representing Dublin’s interests, was tackling the dire neglect of a rural forgotten Tipperary town.
Minister Doherty was quick to deny that yesterday’s ‘Job’s Expo’; same hurriedly orchestrated in conjunction with Tipperary Enterprise Board, was simply a publicity stunt for the rural unwashed residents of a South / West county town; to promote these afore mentioned new FG election candidates. However, many known hardcore disillusioned Fine Gael voters, were privately admitting that indeed this was truly the case.
A Show for the TV Cameras
However, a number of local resident activists were far from pleased with this orchestrated event. Protesters from the March 4 Tipp(#march4tipp) group, congregated outside the meeting venue yesterday morning, understandably venting their anger at what they called “coercive means used to force unemployed people to attend the event). To this group past memories of a similar Co. Council and FG government event, was seen as yet another reflection of that costly now failed Tipperary-The Place-The Time stunt; with yesterday’s exercise viewed as yet one other “Show for the selfie phone still & the personal video”.
This #March4Tipp action group have already announced their plans for further action, which is scheduled for Friday February 22nd next, same aimed at disrupting traffic on the N24, latter in support of what the group claim are a number of negative developments foisted on the town in recent years.
It is doubtful, however, that would-be Fine Gael election candidates, reminded FG’s Minister Doherty, that more than half of all new jobs in the last 12 months were generated in Dublin city and county, with the number of people working in the capital expanding to a colossal 34,000 people.
With limited employment here in Tipperary; local workers earning €28,000 to €35,000 per annum are obliged to commute the average four hour, 300km daily return journey between Thurles and Dublin. With motoring fuel costs exceeding over €140 per week; same employees are unable to afford the limited rental accommodation on offer in the city, latter costing on average €18,000 per annum, so in order to work, they are left with no alternative.
According to Central Statistics Office (CSO), the rate of employment growth in Dublin is now 66% higher than the figure for the Irish State as a whole.
Dublin’s existing infrastructure, of course is now, also, no longer sufficiently adequate to meet present demographic requirements. Because of rural Ireland’s abandonment and neglect by this government, over the past 8 years in office; through lack of broadband; rural transport; funding & development etc. Brexit should now offer further growth opportunities to Dublin. To this end, be assured that weighty funding for projects such as MetroLink and DART expansion, not to mention Water Supply Projects are, if you pardon the pun, ‘in the Dublin pipeline’, as rural Ireland continues to be ignored and totally rejected.
Tipperary Youth Dance Company organiser Kathryn Wallace reports:
Tipperary’s first Dance Company based at The Source Arts Centre, in Thurles has now been set up. The organisers plan to provide opportunities for children and young people from across Tipperary to learn different dance styles including:- Contemporary, Lyrical, Ballet, Hip Hop, Jazz and more.
Tipperary Youth Dance Company, (TYDC) is a non-profit company and the membership are not required to pay fees; instead the company will be solely operated on public donations and other generated funding from performances.
Choreographers and well known professional dance teachers will train members of TYDC in a variety of contexts and styles. Organisers hope to put Tipperary on the map, by introducing new dance opportunities for local children and young people, that would not normally be available.
This Company will be shortly open to children and young adults, aged from 7 years up to 21 years, with two separate company schedules for Juniors (Ages 7-12) and Senior Principles (Ages 13-21) and with male and female applicants both welcome.
The organisers will be holding Auditions on Saturday 2nd September next in The Source Arts Centre.
More about this welcome opportunity for young people later.
“And, as an hare whom hounds and horns pursue, Pants to the place from whence at first she flew, I still had hopes, my long vexations past, Here to return – and die at home at last.”
Lines taken from “The Deserted Village,” by Oliver Goldsmith
Reading the inscriptions on headstones is now fast becoming a great contributor to our Irish tourism sector, both domestic and foreign, as more and more people have begun to trace their family’s history and now seek out the burial places of their long, often lost ancestors.
Most old headstone markers are difficult to read as they have become, through neglect, covered in decades of grime and various other surface lichens. Examine your grave marker therefore carefully at first to ascertain if it is indeed cleanable or if best left alone. If the stone shows signs of chipping, scaling, flaking or any other forms of obvious deterioration, do not clean. Your actions will do more harm than good and in most cases you will only further accelerate its future demise.
How Best To Read That Old Neglected Family Headstone
Before cleaning the discovered headstone, best to confirm that you have uncovered a marker that genuinely belongs to your family tree. Many grave markers turn out to be the long lost property of another family, so do try to decipher names and recorded death dates shown on the surface, before interfering.
To help clarify ownership to your satisfaction, for reading and later cleaning you will need in your possession a stiff bristled brush, (Either natural or nylon but never a wire brush), a supply of water, a spray can of well shaken shaving foam, (Gillette Regular shaving foam is best) and a stiff straight edged piece of cardboard or rubber edged window cleaning wiper. Spray the foam over the words inscribed on the headstones, making sure to press into the counter-relief or sunken script, before removing the excess shaving foam from the headstone with the edge of the stiff cardboard or rubber wiper. Some of the foam should now sit into the carved script, enabling you to read most of the written epitaph. [See picture above.]
In past times a product known as ‘Heelball,’ latter a wax, coloured with lampblack, latter once used to stain and polish the edges of the soles and heels of repaired shoes, was most often used to take rubbings of stone inscriptions successfully, but alas like many such products it has now become difficult to locate. A rub from green grass or dock leaves can also assist to highlight some worn lettering less successfully.
Cleaning Your Family Headstone
First remember that old headstones can never be made to appear totally brand new.
Up to the early 1970 all Roman Catholic graveyards throughout Ireland, usually before the end of July, held “Pattern Days.” These were days when people come together to perform a kind of pilgrimage, to the burial place of their dead relatives or simply to honour their local saint, latter who had often founded their local church. This is now somewhat of a fading tradition in many graveyards, but perhaps should again be resurrected. Relatives of deceased persons worked well to spruce up their cemetery for weeks beforehand, decorating many graves with fresh flowers and wreaths, scrubbing headstones and weeding burial plots.
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Tipperary’s first Dance Company based at The Source Arts Centre, in Thurles has now been set up. The organisers plan to provide opportunities for children and young people from across Tipperary to learn different dance styles including:- Contemporary, Lyrical, Ballet, Hip Hop, Jazz and more.
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