On next Monday evening at 7.30 pm Shannonbridge Tidy Towns will have a Walkabout. Declan Manley from Ballycumber will be along to give ideas on wildlife.

Hopefully many people from Shannonbridge and area will join in the stroll and make suggestions on what might be done.

There has been a lot of rain during the past week but Brian says that the river level is holding at 2.5 metres.

Offaly and Laois play in football in Croke Park tomorrow.

Wishing Marieanne Kelly the best of luck in the Women’s Mini Marathon. Marieanne is running in aid of Breast Care at Saint James’s and contact Marieanne if you would like to sponsor her or look out for sponsor cards in the shops.

Steve Nell heard a Corncrake while fishing at Devenish Island on May 22^nd.Steve was telling us about it on Wednesday night when Liz was celebrating her birthday. Liz is delighted with the two dogs they adopted and says that the sheepdog from Dolans is getting on fine with the dog that was left off in Shannonbridge about ten days ago.

Met a couple from Hamburg in Germany who have been cycling around Ireland for the past few weeks visiting Wicklow, Kilkenny, Cork, Birr and Shannonbridge.

Gabi and Helmut Jung used buses and trains for parts of their journey. They are visiting Clonmacnois at present and are staying overnight in Shannonbridge. They will then catch a train in Athlone tomorrow for Dublin and fly home. They promised to write an account of their travels and send it to Bord Failte.

An unusual group passed through Shannonbridge yesterday. Members of Cork Fishermen’s Rowing Club and Rushbrooke Rowing Club are doing what they call “The Shannon Challenge” rowing from the top end of Lough Allen to Limerick using one boat and two crews to complete the challenge in the fastest possible time. The boat allows four people to row together and there is a Cox on board. They stayed in Athlone on Thursday night and were planning on reaching Terryglass last night. What’s it all about ?

They are hoping to collect money by rowing the River Shannon for Children’s Cancer Charity with the donated money going to Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Dublin and to the Children’s Leukaemia Association at The Mercy University Hospital in Cork. For further information e-mail info@cla.ie

A Kennedy man from Knock in County Clare with a good sense of humour revisited this area this week. Many years ago he worked in Cappaleitra and Moore carrying out building for The Land Commission. He remembered Mikeen Kenny from The Motte and thinks that he has a photograph of Mikeen. He met Martin Kenny in Cappaleitra and had his own comment on jeep drivers. Mr. Kennedy told Martin Burke about two men down in Clare who met after Mass one Sunday morning. One man remarked to the other that he had seen the fine wooden turf barrow that the other man had made and complemented him on his work .His friend was delighted and said that he made it out of his head.

The other looked at him closely and said “ And to me it looks like you have the makings of another one left.