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Christmas decorations, in particular the Crib scene, here in the Cathedral of The Assumption, Thurles, are looking particularly splendid this year, thanks in no small way to the creativity of our priests serving in the parish.
Indeed, all year long large plant displays, all presented in large Grecian urn style planters; both in front of the Cathedral and the Parochial House opposite, set a an extremely high standard of floral display, surpassing every other comparison within the town.
Sunday evening next, December 23rd, the Cathedral of The Assumption, Thurles, will host the annual Christmas Carol service, beginning at 7.00pm sharp, at which all Choirs within the parish will perform.
If you happen to be passing the Cathedral in the coming days, do halt for a moment to take a look at the Crib. Remember it was St. Francis of Assisi, (Patron Saint of Italy) who is credited with creating the very first live nativity scene, way back around 1223; his objective to cultivate the worship of Jesus Christ. We are given to understand that he had recently been inspired by a personal visit to the Holy Land, where he had viewed the traditional birthplace of the Christ child.
At this time each year, this manger scene annually reminds me of the actions of my protestant grandmother. She would request her local friendly postman to visit the local Roman Catholic Church crib on her behalf, giving him between a sixpenny piece and a half crown to place in the collection box. The postman would remove a piece of straw from the manger and this would be then placed in my grandmother’s purse, where it would remain all year. This action she assured me would guarantee that regardless of prevailing economic conditions, God would continue to supply all her needs. Strangely, I must admit that despite living in lowly impoverished circumstances all of her 90-year life span, her purse never appeared to empty, and saw her paying all her bills on time. Our own home, today, continues with this Christmas practise.
M/s Miriam Callanan [Denis Kinane Motors (Honda Centre)] Reports:-
For many years here in Thurles town, the youth musical theatre group, better known as and a much loved ‘Phoenix Productions’, have been bringing to the stage, annually, performances par excellence.
As the years have progressed, many of these young performers have continued on in their great love of musical theatre and are regularly invited to join other well known musical theatre groups and societies both around Ireland and abroad, because of their undoubted talent and their knowledge base of professional stage craft.
To ensure and encourage that such talents are continued on by young performers into the future here in Thurles and elsewhere, this Saturday, December 22nd. 2018, the Society supporting Phoenix Productions are holding a “Mulled Wine and Mince Pie morning” (or Coffee for those driving), at the former old School House, on Slievenamon Road, Thurles, (Opposite Ely’s Centra Store & Petrol Station.), latter now home to the Societies Director / Producer Mr Gerard O’Brien.
This event will commence sharp at 10.00am in the morning, and run until 3.00pm in the afternoon, with full proceeds from this event going to support Phoenix Production’s next exciting musical extravaganza.
So please do take a well deserved break from your busy Christmas shopping and pop into the old School House for a relaxing cup of Coffee, a glass of Mulled Wine and Mince Pies.
All support as usual will be greatly appreciated.
Thurles Town to join again this year, with the rural nearby villages of Johnstown, Crosspatrick and Galmoy, for ‘Carols by Candlelight’.
The traditional ecumenical service of Christmas Carols, entitled “Carols by Candlelight”, will be hosted in St. Kieran’s Church, Johnstown, Co. Kilkenny on tomorrow night, Saturday 15th December, beginning at 8.00pm sharp; the venue and programme both being facilitated through the kindness of Fr. Frank Maher P.P. and Johnstown local parishioners.
In the ambience of candlelight only, this ecumenical service is being hosted by the Johnstown, Crosspatrick and Galmoy Community First Responders team.
Community First Responders (CFR) are volunteers who are trained to attend certain types of emergency calls, in the area where they live or work. Their aim is to reach a potential life-threatening emergency in the first vital minutes, before any ambulance crew from outer areas arrives.
This voluntary group are linked to the National Ambulance Service and aside from this, they also provide training on CPR, Defibrillator Use, Stroke Awareness and information on how to combat Choking (Heimlich Manoeuvre), to members of the public. They further ensure that all publicly accessible defibrillators are well maintained.
Performing the vocals at this seasonal seated event will be “Cephas,” (Featuring Noreen Cullinane (Ryan), brothers Edward (Ned) and John J. Cullinane), joined by the band “Sweet Freedom”, together with Meadhbh Ryan, Maria Cullinane (Johnstown) and Rachel and Shane Willoughby (Thurles); all under the superb musical direction of Leanne O’Grady (Violin), Michael O’Grady (Violin), and Killian Cullinane (Keyboards).
Included in the programme will be, “Little Drummer Boy”, “Silent Night”, “O Holy Night”, “Immanuel”, “In a Silent Town” and “Christmas Hallelujah”, all which will be amongst the many other beautiful and much loved Christmas Carols performed on tomorrow night.
Christmas scripture readings and poetry, foretelling the birth of Christ, will feature the voices of Marie Wilson, Breda Campion, Nancy Fogarty, Mary Anne Browne, Jerry Drennan and George Willoughby. Local primary school children, will also be participating in this most joyous of seasonal events.
While the tomorrow evenings event itself is completely free to attend, Ms Cathy Dermody [latter Chairperson Johnstown, Crosspatrick & Galmoy Community First Responders, (CFR)], confirms that any / all voluntary donations, will go in full to assist in the funding and provision of a much needed ‘Defibrillator’, for this local area.
Defibrillation, as most people are aware, is a life saving treatment for life-threatening, non-perfusing cardiac dysrhythmias. Defibrillation consists of delivering a therapeutic dose of electric current (often called a counter shock) to the heart using this device, by trained individuals. This depolarizes a critical mass of the heart muscle and allows normal sinus rhythm to be re-established, thus so often saving life.
Carols By Candlelight
As many of our readers will be aware, the original idea of ‘Carols by Candlelight’ first began in south-eastern Australia, sometime in the 19th century and was popularised in Melbourne in 1937. The tradition has since spread around the world and involves people gathering to sing carols by candlelight only, accompanied usually by a band. Indeed, one of the earliest forms of ‘Carols by Candlelight’ began when Cornish Miners in Moonta, South Australia, gathered on Christmas Eve to sing carols, lit by candles which were stuck to the brims of their safety helmets.
All persons, both adults and children, regardless of their religious persuasion, are most welcome to attend this truly most enjoyable of Christmas events, under the Direction of Mr Edward Cullinane.
It will come as no surprise to Tipperary environmentalists that the EPA has found that water quality of Irish waters has deteriorated between 2015 and 2017.
The EPA, on November 30th 2018 last, released details of the Water Quality for 2017: “An Indicators Report for Ireland”. The 16 indicators in the report provide information on the quality of Ireland’s rivers, lakes, canals, estuaries, coastal waters, beaches and ground-waters. The report showed a net overall decline of 3% (72 water bodies) in the water quality in Irish rivers between 2015 and 2017. Some 197 river water bodies have improved in quality, but 269 water bodies have deteriorated; compared with the last full assessment in 2013-2015.
The long-term loss of high-quality river sites is continuing with a further 0.6% decline since 2015.
Most pollution is caused by too much nitrogen and phosphorus entering our waters. Despite a long-term reduction, recent data clearly indicates that levels of nitrogen and phosphorus are beginning to rise again and unless addressed, this is likely to lead to a further decline in water quality into the future.
Significant pressures:
Activities, such as waste-water discharges, industrial discharges or agriculture, that are identified as being significant contributors to surface water or groundwater bodies failing to meet their Water Framework Directive (WFD) objectives. Nutrient losses from agriculture and waste-water discharges from towns and businesses together with physical habitat issues are the primary reasons why the water quality objectives of the Water Framework Directive are not being met. In relation to agriculture, the pressures relate to diffuse nutrient run-off, sediment from land and point sources associated with farmyards. For waste-water, the main pressure is from urban waste-water discharges and diffuse urban discharges, (which include faulty connections leading to sewage effluent being discharged to surface water drainage systems).
Local Authorities Waters Programme: The Local Authorities Waters Programme is a local authority shared service managed by Kilkenny and Tipperary County Councils, on behalf of all local authorities.
It has recently commenced local assessments of the causes of water quality issues within the 190 areas set out in the River Basin Management Programme via the work of its catchment assessment team. Same coordinate with the water quality work of Local Authorities through agreed regional structures, thereby providing a collaborative approach to river catchment management. It also seeks to engage local communities and promote public participation in the management of our water environment via the work of a team of water community officers.
Positive Changes:
Serious pollution continues to decrease. Only two river water bodies were seriously polluted in the latest reporting period compared to five in 2013-2015. Historically there were 91 seriously polluted water bodies in the late 1980s.
Fish kills were at an all-time low with only 14 reported in 2017 compared to 31 in 2016.
Commenting on the report, Dr Matt Crowe, Director of the EPA’s Office of Evidence and Assessment stated: “Clean, healthy water is essential to our health and wellbeing. The signals in this report are not good and tell us that water quality is still getting worse in some areas despite improvements in others. This is simply unacceptable. We must do more to halt deterioration in water quality so that we protect this most precious public resource.
“Substantial additional resources have recently been put in place by the State with the creation of the Local Authority Waters Programme and the Agricultural Sustainability Support and Advice Programme. These programmes will support action at local level to address the issues causing water pollution. We now need to start seeing visible improvements in water quality through the work of these new programmes. The EPA will continue to play its part in this by providing the science and evidence to support action on the ground and will also continue to report regularly on progress.”
Addressing the main findings of the assessment, Andy Fanning, Programme Manager, EPA Office of Evidence and Assessment stated: “The report highlights that the loss of our best quality waters is continuing. It is also clear that there is a general decline in river water quality. Worryingly, this report also shows a rise in nutrient inputs to our seas from our rivers.
“Most pollution is caused by too much nitrogen and phosphorus entering waters. These excess nutrients come from human activities, predominantly our farms and urban areas. The increases are an early warning that we need to address the sources and the pathways by which these nutrients make their way into our rivers and lakes. The success in addressing serious pollution and the reduction in fish kills shows that we can make positive changes when we put our minds to it.”
It is now intended to publish annual indicators reports that will complement and support the EPA’s Water Quality in Ireland reports, produced every three years.
The video, immediately hereunder, features the latest song “Hold On” from the very talented Susan Quirke or “Susie Q” as she is known in music circles. Susan is a native of the village of Oola, situated on the Limerick-Tipperary border and formerly attended school at St. Anne’s Secondary School, Rosanna Rd, Carrownreddy, in Tipperary Town.
Susan’s début track which was launched earlier this year entitled “Home”; latter a song about the global refugee and migrant crisis, received extensive national radio airplay and saw her invited to perform at Electric Picnic.
Susan Quirke is a meditation teacher and has worked in the area of mental health for several years. Her work has given her huge and added insights into many of the major issues faced by individuals, which in turn has inspired her song writing.
All going well we can expect an 11 track début album; latter being presently being worked on, from Susan Quirke in 2019, same entitled “Into the Sea”. Can’t wait.
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