A book, entitled “The Oldest Of Old Kriegies”, has now been published by Moycarkey-Borris, Littleton Men’s Shed History Group, under the guidence of Dr Pat McMahon.
The word “Kriegie”[pronounced kree-gee] is the German military slang for an Allied prisoner of war held in a German internment camp during World War II.
Local history researcher and member of Moycarkey-Borris Littleton History Group, Mr Michael Dempsey, now reports.
The new publication “The Oldest Of Old Kriegies”, is a well sourced publication which has researched, for the very first time and in greatest detail, the life of former Littleton, Thurles, Co. Tipperary resident Mr Lawerence (Larry) Slattery. Before coming to Littleton, Mr Slattery was born on February 28th 1913, some 35km away in Rossacrow, Donohill, Co. Tipperary, of parents Mary Ann (nee Moran) and Michael Slattery, both primary school teachers.
On September 4th 1939, Mr Slattery’s aircraft was shot down over the sea at Wilhemshaven, west of Hamburg, latter a coastal town in Lower Saxony, Germany, while attempting to bomb 4 warships.
Picked up from the sea Mr Slattery would go on to become the longest detained British P.O.W of the entire War; not being finally freed until Allied troops reached his prisoner-of-war camp (stalag) in April of 1945.
Moycarkey-Borris History Group Littleton (MBL) would like to thank the National Archives of Ireland, Military Archives of Ireland, University College Dublin (UCD) Archives, Rockwell College Archives, Lincoln University Digital Archives, British National Archives, Tipperary Studies (at Thurles Library), and family descendants, from whence this extensive research now featured in this publication was gleaned.
This new publication can be purchased from Book Worm Bookshop & Cafe,Thurles, The Horse & Jokey Hotel, from all retail shops in Littleton and directly from members of the Moycarkey-Borris, Littleton Men’s Shed, History Group. Mobile Phone:086-3648664.
Lyrics: By Edith Temple with music by Reginald Morgan first published in 1946. Vocals: By Welsh singer, radio and television presenter and actor Aled Jones.
“Count Your Blessings”.
Count your blessings one by one, When dawn appears and day has just begun. They will light your heart with happiness, Make each hour bright and bring you gladness.
Count your blessings one by one, When twilight falls and toil of day is done, And in sweet dreams they’ll come again to you, If you will count your blessings each day through.
Count your blessings while you may, For we are here but little time to stay. All around are hearts sincere and true, Lovely things abound just waiting for you.
Count your blessings while you may, The big or small, whichever comes your way. For then you’ll find this world a place of love, If you will count your blessings from above.
Yesterday afternoon, as a heavy downpour swept across Thurles Town, I took shelter beneath the trees on the banks of the River Suir and waited. As predicted at 3:00pm, as the bells from Thurles Cathedral struck the hour, the rain eased just long enough for me to capture a series of photographs and a short video, the evidence of which, now speaks for itself.
Video above shows sewage flowing openly in the River Suir, in Thurles Town centre. The Fountain, once gifted to the Thurles Tidy Town Committee and stolen from the river Suir by council officials, with the knowledge of current serving local councillors, must now be returned.
The reason the rampant weed growth along the riverbank is left uncontrolled is now obvious. These weeds serve as a natural curtain, concealing the 28 outlets discharging their contents directly into the river; a river which LAWPRO (Local Authority Waters Programme) scientists confirm is dying rapidly.
Yes, in response to an EPA memo last week, Council officials, who had deliberately ignored our warnings, made a token gesture. Two pallets, two plastic bollards, a pile of discarded clothing, and six supermarket trolleys were finally removed. But beyond that, little has changed. As my video above shows, bottles dumped into the river during this summer’s Town Park Music Festival still remain. The blame here cannot rest entirely with festival-goers; when public seating is installed by a river, litter bins must also be provided. Yet councillors and their officials continue to ignore this most basic of facts.
I spent over an hour yesterday in that putrid stretch of riverbank, speaking with those passing along the walkway near the Swinging Gates at the junction of Emmett Street and Thomond Road. After the downpour, one covered drain was spewing raw sewage; another carried foul runoff from the southern end of town. Spanish students and Ukrainian refugees were horrified by what they saw. Local residents, on the other hand, merely shrugged, “nothing new,” they said. Even the ducks, same introduced years ago by the late Wilbert Houben, Thurles Gun Club and myself, paddled eagerly in the filth, feeding on its floating debris.
Meanwhile, on 11th September, (a full 13 days after I had contacted the EPA in Wexford), our local newspaper finally ran a piece on the issue. Disappointingly, the image used was a long outdated archive photo, showing a river that looked nothing like its current choked and dying state. The article itself read more like a promotion for a local politician, than an exposé of the environmental crisis being ignored for the past 12 years.
And so, the buck-passing continues. LAWPRO; Uisce Éireann; Inland Fisheries Ireland, etc. none are willing or able to take legal action against Tipperary County Council. Instead, information shuffles endlessly from one desk to another, while the river suffers in silence and our government runs around like a headless chicken, believing, like the two genetically enhanced mice, ‘Pinkey and the Brain’, that their hyper-intelligence is slowly taking over the world.
But let it be clear: as the video shows, this is ‘Not The End’.
Lyrics: American singer, songwriter, actress, philanthropist, and businesswoman Dolly Parton. Vocals: The late American country singer Charley Pride(1934-2020) and the aforementioned Dolly Parton.
God’s Coloring Book.
Today as I was walking, In the fields just down the way. I sat down on a fallen log, To pass the time away, And as I looked around me, The more that I did look, The more I realize that I was viewing, God’s coloring book. I saw a golden ray of sunlight, A silver drop of dew, A soft, white floating cloud, Sailing cross the sky of blue, A yellow dandelion, A pretty evergreen, And some red and orange flowers, Growing wild along the stream, And the more I look around me, And the more that I do look, The more I realize that I was viewing, God’s coloring book. The greyness in an old man’s hair, The pink in baby’s cheeks, The blackness in a stormy sky, The brown in fallen leaves, And the multicolored rainbow, Stretched across the sky, And the purple haze at sunset, Just before the night. And the more I look around me, The more that I do look, The more I realize that I am viewing, God’s coloring book. Then I turn my face toward the sky, And say a silent prayer. And though God doesn’t speak to me, I see him everywhere, He is all around me. He’s everywhere I look, And each new day is but a new page, In God’s coloring book. Yes, each new day is but a new page In God’s coloring book.
Mikey Ryan discusses the new Trolley Tax and the Great Thurles Trolley Crisis.
Cartastrophe: How We Are Wheeling Up Food Prices.
Cart-Flation: How Abandoned Shopping Trolleys Are Undermining Tipperary’s Economy.
Are Abandoned Trolleys Driving Up the Cost of Your Roast Beef?
I swear all I said to Mikey Ryan was that Seamus Hanafin’s Walkway, has once again returned to being an unkempt dump, strewn with Supermarket Trolleys and after all the public money wasted, it is like the River Suir, no longer maintained by Thurles Municipal District. But my statement was enough to get local man Mikey Ryan ‘Riled Up’.
The‘Great Trolley Tax’. Pic G. Willoughby.
“Economists, retailers, and the good people of Thurles may all be missing the obvious culprit behind Ireland’s stubbornly high food prices, the malefactor being those feckin humble shopping trolleys”, declared Mikey Ryan.
We were above in the Arch Bar, Liberty Square, last night, supping a few pints, when Mikey Ryan announced to all and sundry that he really should have applied to local councillors to support him for the position of President of Ireland; the election due to take place on October 24th, 2025.
“Sure I would get through the Presidential election nomination process without any bother, through reinventing the global climate agenda by simply expanding planetary consciousness regarding shopping trolleys”, said Mikey confidently.
“On paper”,inflation is blamed on everything from energy costs to global supply chains. But take a closer look at our rivers, hedgerows, and half-finished Liberty Square, and you’ll spot the real drain on our wallets; it’s supermarket trolleys gone rogue”, stated Mikey, who now had the ear of everyone present.
Mikey paused to wet his whistle, before announcing that the cost of same 12 trolleys came to €4,239.12 in missing hardware.
“That’s not just metal and wheels, folks. That’s the equivalent of: 2,400 loaves of bread (pre-inflation). 1,500 litres of milk (assuming the cows agree to cooperate), or, given the latest CSO figures, perhaps just two bags of shopping if you’re fond of butter, beef, and chocolate.” he continued.
“The CSO yesterday tells us food inflation reached 5.1% in August. Butter is up 18.3%, Beef 22.7%, Milk 12.4%, Chocolate 16.3%, Coffee 12.1%. Coincidence? Is every percentage point tied to a trolley floating belly-up in the Suir and other rivers around our emerald isle?”
Mickey stopped again to gulp down another mouthful.
In a room where you could hear a pin drop, Mikey continued, “For one minute, let’s consider the supermarket boardroom’s conversation:- Manager: “Profits are down this quarter Sir”. Chairperson on the Board: “Why?“. Manager: “Well, six of our €353 Euro trolleys are living in the river Suir and another half-dozen are auditioning as urban sculptureson the Thurles inner relief road“. Chairperson: “Feck it, right so, put 20 cents on the price of milk and double it for butter. The cows won’t complain“.
“And so”, said Mikey, “here we see, for the first time, the introduction of the ‘Great Trolley Tax’, samebeing quietly passed on to every struggling, underprivileged household in the land” said Mikey, now in full verbal flow to his newly acquired audience.
He continued, “Some conspiracy theorists even whisper that these trolleys aren’t stolen at all, but strategically “misplaced” to justify current inflation. After all, nothing distracts the public like a shiny bit of stainless steel glinting in the sun beside the proposed inner relief road”.
“Good Lord”, said I, “So next time we’re standing in the supermarket queue, wincing at the cost of our Sunday roast, we should spare a thought for the twelve brave trolleys dumped in Thurles. They may look abandoned, but in truth, they are hard at work, driving up inflation”.
“True for you”, said Mikey, “and if you or anyone else happen to see a trolley making a slow escape toward the riverbank, don’t just hold your nose and grab it. You might not only be helping in the saving of this polluted River Suir, but end up shaving 2% off the price of your next packet of rashers”.
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