Morning Ireland this morning had a feature on The Artane .... Band.This year some twenty girls will be joining the boys at the All Ireland Hurling and Football finals in September.The band will now be known as The Artane Band.Cahal the presenter asked some of the girls how they felt playing in front of some 80,000 people and they were remarkably calm and confident.I liked Cahal's finish when he wondered how they would feel if they were asked to play at Portmarnock which is a golf club with only full time male membership.
Yesterday was a bright sunny day and travelling to Portlaoise there was a great display of Alder trees in their white bloom.
The old Irish name for Shannonbridge came to mind which is Rachra Cluain na Fearna which translates into English as The Pass Between the Little Wet Meadows of The Alder Trees.The shortened version of Rachra was used on signposts but then some modern geniouses in the Office of Public Works and the ESB did their own translation and used Droicead = bridge and Sionnaine = Shannon and na = of the. So they put Droicead na Sionnaine and Shannonbridge on their signs.Isnt that something.