Bridie Carry was telling us last night that two of her godchildren were celebrating their birthdays on this Sunday. So happy birthday to James Carry, son of Charles and Valerie on your fifth birthday. And Aidan Carry son of Aidan and Irene also celebrates his fifth birthday today.

Yesterday Tony Donegan and Joseph Mc Manus both celebrated their birthdays along with the famous Patrick Kenny from America in Moore.

For the record John Cooney the local teacher told us that Michael Mc Evoy was born on 8^th December 1931, information that one of his nephews was looking for.

On a visit to the Gallen retirement home in Ferbane on Thursday with my cousin Father John Killeen we called to see Mrs Mary Egan, Woodbank and found her in great form. John and I were surprised when she told us that her mother and John’s mother, my Aunt Bridget were first cousins. We also called to see Paddy Daly from Rashina, a brother of the late Father Tommie Daly and found him in good form.

Kieran Brien originally from Raghrabeg was on a few days visit from Sheffield and was staying in Quinn’s guesthouse in Ballinasloe.

A program on RTE1 television on Tuesday night at 10.15 pm is devoted to the writer Flann O Brian or Brian Nolan or the Irish Times writer for the column ‘An Cruiskeen Lan’ or the full jug. There is a local link up with this writer as one of his first books was called At Swim Two Birds and was about a fable of two people who got themselves changed into two swans in order to escape from a wicked stepmother. They lived happily at Devenish Island, midway between Shannonbridge and Clonmacnois on the River Shannon, for some time until the stepmother found out and hired a hit man with a bow and arrow to punish the pair. The girl Maoisa was injured and swam downstream and the area known as Moystown is called after her. The boy Luain swam upstream and the Athlone. Or At Luain, the place of Luain is named after him. Have a look.

Today a group that call themselves Rambles in Eireann visited Shannonbridge. The group took their name from William Bulfin’s novel ‘Rambles in Eireann’ and one of the first to arrive was a Mrs Jane Bulfin. She said that William Bulfin lived from 1851 to 1910 and lived in Derrinlough House and in Argentina. Derrinlough is between Cloghan and Birr.

When William was back in Ireland he bought a Pierse bicycle and cycled around Ireland. What he saw he wrote about in a paper in Argentina called The Southern Cross and these articles were printed into a book form.

William’s only son Eamon raised up the flag in the GPO during the Irish Rising at Easter in Dublin 1916.

Eamon’s son Michael is a well known sculptor.Eamon’s eldest son was named Edward or Ned and he married Jane and they settled in Derrinlough House where they raised five boys and five girls. This Jane told that Derrinlough House was built in the 16^th century and the more modern part was added on in 1794.

The remainder of the group arrived and were joined by a number of villagers for a walk around Shannonbridge led by Christy Cunniffe from Eyrecourt. The walk started at Saint Ciaran’s Park where the development of the bogs and the building of the power plant and the Park houses were linked. Sites for the carnival marquee dancing were pointed out. The rebuilt Fallon house at the corner was admired. The church was visited and Christy pointed out an interesting stone archway in the parochial yard with a head in the center stone. The old Protestant Church was next stop and then we crossed the bridge to look at the Fortifications. The group were allowed onto the roof of The Fort Restaurant and it gave a great view of the Rivers Suck and Shannon and the bridge and fieldworks on the island and in the field downstream from the old jetty. We saw the remains of the house on Lamb Island where Michael Mc Cann once lived and he wrote the war song O Donnell Abu. It was a surprise when Jeff Oakley started singing the song in Irish. You can find the English words for this song on this Shannonbridge web site but it would be nice to have the Irish version as well. On the return trip Christy took the group to see the old bridge and the remains of what was the gate on the lock gates below the bridge and to see the old cast metal bridge and the lock keepers house built by the canal engineer John Omer. The Bianconi horse drawn passenger service that passed through Shannonbridge back in the early 1800’s was mentioned and of course our movie star George Brent.

They took a look at Shannonbridge Library which is now in its fourth year and enjoyed a cup of tea before departure. Hopefully they will keep us updated on future trips.