Finches at a feeder in Kanturk

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People at a Book Launch

Five of my six grandchildren

Robert and Eileen Bunyan with Paddy MacElligott and Helen Moylan

Clíona with Margo Spillane. Margo came all the way from Castlelyons in Co. Cork to support me on the big night. Such loyalty is much appreciated.

Anne Brosnan, Mary O’Connor, Marie Lucid and Pam Browne

John Kinsella shares a laugh with Mary McGrath and Mary Sobieralski

Cliona Cogan, Breeda Ahern, Carine Schweitzer, Bobby and Sean Cogan, Catherine Moylan and Dulce Lopez

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The Trials of the Golf Lesson

Talk about 100 things going through your head… I love John McAuliffe’s description of all the things he has to remember and all the things he is trying to ignore in this marvellous poem about a golf lesson on the links course in Ballybunion.

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Roly Chute, Legendary Coach and Painter

I met Roly out for the second of his daily walks. He is always willing to stop and chat.

Roly taught all of my children to play badminton and tennis. He gave selfless years and years to training the youngsters in the badminton club the skills of the game. Listowel owes him a lot.

A little known fact about Roly is that he is quite a skilled artist.

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Tupperware

Once upon a time every house had stacks of these plastic containers. We once learned that Queen Elizabeth kept her Corn Flakes in a Tupperware box.

Now the brand has fallen victim to its own success. Since its product is practically indestructible, sales have fallen off and the company is in trouble.

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Knockanure (from the Schools’ Folklore Collection)

Knockanure Church

The old cloisters at Knockanure Church were built in 1649. The chief man at the building of it was Father Moriarty of Castleisland.

There were five friars in it for years, the head brother was Brother James Keane.

There are two beautiful violin players buried in the old Abbey. They were drowned in the Gale on Saturday 11th June 1752. The place where they were drowned is called the Fiddlers’ Hole at a place called Tubber.

The friars lived about three quarters of a mile west of the Church at a place called Carrueragh. Father Mortimer OConner is also buried in this Church. He was born in the field that the church is built on. He died in Arda in 1781. The meaning of Knockanure is the hill of the Yew-Tree. Knockanure chapel was built in Father Sheehy’s time in 1865. The youngest Friar in Ireland at that time was Friar Toban.

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A Fact

A schnozzle is an event in a game of football or hurling. It falls somewhere on the spectrum between a few friendly thumps between friends and second degree assault.

A schnozzle can arise for a number of reasons that range from being 3 goals and 12 points down and 5 minutes left on the clock to someone enquiring into the marital status of your mother at the time of your birth.

A schmozzle must never be allowed to develop into an almighty schmozzle. This would include the subs bench, managing staff, an Maor Uisce, several members of the crowd and, if it is a Junior B hurling match, a collie cross barking.

(information for this fact from Ronan Moore’s book of Irishology.)

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