Maggie Brien met Loretta Birch, nee Moran this week. They were school chums but have not met for 62 years. Aint that something.

The Wolf Family from Long Island are on holiday on a cruiser on the River Shannon at present. They travelled down the river from Carrick –on-Shannon and enjoyed the trip across Lough Ree and the town of Athlone. They had an enjoyable visit to Clonmacnois and we hope Shannonbridge. They had hired bicycles and used them to get to the Bog Rail Tour about three and a bit miles from Shannonbridge.

On Saturday the Cassidy Clan had a re-union with about 180 members of the family coming together to meet and chat and visit graveyards and old homesteads. That evening they attended a special Mass in High Street Church with many of the family taking active parts in the celebration. Afterwards they had a banquet in The Fort Restaurant in Shannonbridge. Some Trojan work had been put into the re-union by Mary and Tony Cassidy. No doubt this will be an annual event and so it should be.

Seven cruisers from Portumna arrived in Shannonbridge on Sunday carrying some 41 people from Australia. They were mostly from Adelaide and Sydney and are on a two week cruise on the River Shannon. They picked up their Emerald Star Line hire boats at Portumna and plan to journey upstream and onto the River Erne where they will leave their boats at Belturbet.

They told us that for the two weeks previous they had been in South Africa holidaying at Makutsi Springs.

After their stay in Ireland they are off for two weeks to Croatia.

The two people I met were Richard Dix and Chris Edwards and they were interested in trying out the wonderful shower units cared so well by Des Finnerty.

The whole trip is being organised by Derek and Anne Crichton from Sydney.

I got a surprise when I met Derek and Anne later on Sunday night as their faces were very familiar. And so they should as a couple of years ago they had called in and they remembered a drink associated with the pub – Hot Chocolate and Rum. They enquired about Louise whom they had met and maybe had some e-mail contact. Anyhow they are gone off with a copy of her CD recording so look out Australia not to mention the upper Shannon. Great to meet Derek and Anne again, and thank you for including Shannonbridge as one of your stop off points.

The brother John has been home for a time but one of his parishioners died on Friday so he is flying back to New Jersey in the morning for the funeral. We lost out on four days for a good reason.

Some GAA news. First Roscommon Minor Footballers had a great semi-final victory over Meath on Sunday. Then Mayo Seniors took on mighty Dublin in Croke Park and looked badly beaten when falling seven points behind early in the second half. But they earned a place in the Senior All Ireland with a great recovery and winning by a single point.