That song 'It Was A Very Good Year'. that I thought Lilian Smith on her Late Date radio show credited Bono and The Edge with the writing was not true. Rose Ryan used a search engine that credited Ervin Drake an American songwriter as having composed the song in 1961. Frank Sinatra recorded the song and Lou Rawls did a cover version in 1968 and the Simpson’s version in 1993 was “It was a very good beer” recalling Homer purchasing his first beer with a fake I.D. So there.

Ken and Betty Smith are holidaying in Shannonbridge at present and on Wednesday night Ken pointed out Jupiter which is very plain to be seen in the south east. The reason it is so clear, Ken says, is that Jupiter is turned fully towards the sun at present and is not in its more common half moon position. Have a look for yourselves.

On Tuesday about 27 people from the Shannonbridge Active Retirement group went on a day outing to visit The Japanese Gardens and The National Stud which are alongside each other in County Kildare. We spent about three hours looking around and the weather was kind enough to us, with a little light rain. A notice inside the Japanese Gardens read “Beauty dies, where litter lies” and it seemed to be very effective as dam the bit of rubbish was to be seen. I met two Australian visitors who both lived near Melbourne and both were interested in horses. One told me that many stallions from Ireland are taken to Australia for about three months every year. Both of them had an interest in trotters and one gave a tip to the other for a trotter named Angel that is running next week in Australia. Afterwards we went to the Newbridge Shopping Center for a couple of hours and then on to The Montague Hotel for a dinner. Joe from D’Boys and his wife and guitar came along for the day so that after the meal there was a good sing song and a bit of dancing for a few hours before heading home. All in all it was a very good day.

The river has continued to rise but appears to have levelled off hopefully. On Tuesday 23^rd May the level at the bridge was 3.72M, on Wednesday and Thursday it was 3.8 Metres. Water is covering the old jetty in front of the toilets and the stile down near The Cut is flooded, in case you were going down to see The Kingfishers or hear The Corncrake on Moran’s Island. The temperature is about 14 / 15 C. at present.

Banagher telephone numbers have a new code. The prefix is 05791 instead of 0509.

Brendan Mc Williams in his Weather Eye column in the Irish Times on Monday reminds us that in May 1993 we had 250 per cent of normal rainfall which was the wettest since records began in 1837. He wondered if we are going to have a record breaking May. Then about two days later I heard that in Kerry over 200 per cent of normal May rain had fallen.

During the week a Tommy Fahey from Menlough called in to enquire if an Aunt of his named Julie Lyons had every worked in Killeens. It turns out that she worked in Killeen’s of Togher. Tommy told us that later Julie had a shop in Castlefrench and she died in 1991. May she rest in peace.

An article in this month’s Irish Messenger is titled ‘Rhododendrons’. It begs the question why more rhododendrons are not to be seen in this area.

This week Ron and Tina Linder and Russ and Gloria Peckers from Phoenix Arizona Stopped in to Shannonbridge while on a cruising holiday on the River Shannon. When I asked why they chose to cruise in Ireland Ron told that he had used the internet to search for ‘canal boats’ and he was impressed by what Emerald Starline and Blue Crown had to offer. Both of them were using the same agent so he got further details. His party are cruising from Portumna to Carrick-on-Shannon. They will leave their boat there and be transported back to Shannon Airport where they will collect a self drive car and they intend driving around Ireland for a week.

The people in the Corncrake office in Banagher Tel 05791-51676 told us this week that 14 male corncrakes have been identified on the meadows between Athlone and Banagher. At Banagher bridge – 3, at Bishop’s Island and Clonfert – 2, at Moran’s Island -1, at Clonburren – 3, at Clonmacnois and Drumlosh – 3, one on The Meadows at Athlone and one at Clonown.

Finally a big welcome home to Kate Thornhill.