Met a group of eight people spending the weekend on a cruiser and wearing blue jumpers with Crew 2004 Ireland stamped on. They told that two years ago they took part in a scenic trip in Australia as individuals - 2 Swiss, 1 Canadian and 5 Irish. Last weekend they had come together and hired a Silverline cruiser in Banagher and came upstream to Shannonbridge for Saturday night and went to visit Clonmacnois and almost Athlone on Sunday before returning to Shannonbridge on Sunday night. And Sean, Yvonne, Steve, Vicky, Ritchie, Adrian, Niall and Georgina, who nearly crashed the boat, are honest as they came back on Sunday night to pay for sandwiches that they had eaten the night before.
Book Launch of the late John Joe Grenham's work on Moore took place on Sunday evening and a good crowd turned up to enjoy the speeches food music and readings. Copies are available at 20Euro and it tells the customs and traditions of a rural community over many years.
The Goldcrest last week arrived safely home to Joe Burke's house in Ardnagug and Joe introduced it to his feeders which it was glad to use.
Two more gifts of books presented to the Library. One by Mary Duffy of Aughnacabe and Dublin has some lovely hardbacks such as Gone With The Wind. The other books belonged to the late Father Paddy Malone from Clare and were given in by his sister Theresa Breslin. Saw in one of this collection a book on the Famine and an account of a man that had the flesh eaten from his legs and by the expression on his face the people that found him knew that he was alive while the pigs ate his flesh. Read it for yourself. Thursday evening 7 to 9 pm.
This week the Irish Catholic has a review on Listowel and its Vicinity since 1973 by Father Tony Gaughan. The photo featured in the review shows the Pope presenting a gift to Colm O Brien who was Director of the Listowel Singers in Rome in 1989.
Weekend papers told of the death in Listowel of Philomena Beary, nee English from Tullamore, who at one time lived in The Bungalow which later became Grennan's Guesthouse. May she rest in peace.
Donal Kenny from Clonboniff and Rachel Keenaghan from Moate were married in Tubber on Friday and with a group of their friends visited Shannonbridge on Saturday. Rachel should make a great wife as she did a bit of shopping picking up a pan , saucepan, a rat-trap, a plunger for the toilet, washing powder and a packet of currants as a surprize for Donal.
Many natives home for the weekend including Niall Price from Wales who promised he will keep us updated on life in Wales.
River has swollen with a foot rise in 24 Hours over the weekend. The old jetty is flooded and there is a broad band of water out on Darcy's Callow upstream. Brian who lives on the canal barge tells us that each day he records the river level, temperature, wind direction.