Happy Christmas
May you live as long as you wish and have all you wish as long as you live.
(old Irish toast)
Junior Griffin’s poem says it all.
MY
CHRISTMAS WISH
Oh Lord, when we give this
Christmas time,
Do teach us how to share
The gifts that you have given
us
With those who need our care,
For the gift of Time is
sacred~
The greatest gift of all,
And to share our time with
others
Is the answer to your call,
For the Sick, the Old and
Lonely
Need a word, a kindly cheer
For every precious minute
Of each day throughout the
Year,
So, in this Special Season
Do share Your Time and Love
And you’re Happy, Holy
Christmas
Will be Blessed by Him above
Junior Griffin
Listowel
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Peace on Earth; Goodwill to all men
One hundred years ago some battle hardened soldiers laid down their arms and did the unthinkable; fraternized with the enemy. It is one of the few bright spots in an otherwise gruesome, dirty war.
Here is the Wikipaedia account
The Christmas truce (German: Weihnachtsfrieden; French: Trêve de Noël) was a series of widespread but unofficial ceasefires along the Western Front around Christmas 1914. In the week leading up to the holiday, German and British soldiers crossed trenches to exchange seasonal greetings and talk. In areas, men from both sides ventured into no man’s land on Christmas Eveand Christmas Day to mingle and exchange food and souvenirs. There were joint burial ceremonies and prisoner swaps, while several meetings ended in carol-singing. Men played games of football with one another, captured in one of the truce’s most enduring images. It was not ubiquitous; fighting continued in some frontal regions. In others the sides settled on little more than arrangements to recover bodies. The following year, a few units arranged ceasefires, but the truces were not nearly as widespread as in 1914; this was, in part, due to strongly worded orders from the high commands of either side prohibiting fraternisation. Soldiers were no longer amenable to truce by 1916. The war had become increasingly bitter after devastating human losses suffered during the battles of the Somme and Verdun, and the incorporation of poison gas.
And here is the link to Mickey MacConnell singing his brother, Cormac’s song commemorating the event.
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William St. Upper; Dec. 2014 by Denis Carroll
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Lego, Lego
The budding engineers and constructors at Scoil Realt na Maidine love Lego. They love it so much they have a Lego club in the school. The senior boys wrote to RTE to ask if there was any Lego left over from The Late Late Toy Show. There was. RTE sent them a big box of Lego for the club.
(Photos and story from Scoil Realt na Maidine on Facebook)
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Nighttime in Listowel Christmas 2014
Scoil Realt na Maidine |
Listowel Garda Station
<<<<<<< Listowel Post Office Billy Keane had the whole town talking with his article in Fridays’ Irish Independent. I’m reproducing it here in its entirety ……….. “Heart of our town has been torn out by a move As bad as the English were back in the days of An Post has relocated our post I had better declare an interest Listowel is a heritage town, a town There’s a sense too that we are There will be some who will Dungarvan, Skibbereen, Carrick-on-Shannon, The attitude of those who occupy For the record, here’s the There’s a large free car park It’s all about the profit and loss The heart pumps the blood. Tear the An Post was so sneaky and arrogant. And you will not believe this. For It should have gone public on this We know these plans were made a So who are all these people who Sheahan’s is the last pub and “It’s a huge blow but they Right next to the post office, is Next door are the Lawlees, who run The Lawlees, like their hardy Back down again to the other side I was in a shop lately and this old “How did you get on at your “Wonderful, wonderful,” Such are the lives, the loves and We’ve been through recession, repression, Irish Independent” |