Wednesday Ag Craven was laid to rest in Moore cemetery after 11 o c Mass in Moore. It must have brought some comfort to hear the homily from Bishop Joseph Cassidy who started off by saying ‘I first met Agnes or Ag Craven with her late husband Martin in Hayden’s Hotel in the early sixties’. Martin will be 40 years dead in a couple of months from now.

In the evening I met a niece of Ag Craven who told me that in her early years she was more or less reared with Ag in Drumalga as her father was in the army and based in the Curragh. She said that the translation of Drumalga was ‘Back of the Church’. Drumalga is becoming more popular with church congregations.

The death has taken place of Stephen Lantry, Clonmacnois and his funeral will take place today Thursday after 12.00 Mass in Clonfinlough.

The death occurred on Wednesday morning of Monica Garvey Banagher who was the wife of retired Garda Sergeant Bill Garvey. A good friend and card player has left us.

May they all rest in peace.

It was great to meet an old classmate Sean Tully whose family were having a get together with the family of Noel and Kathleen Higgins from Liberty. Niall Tully and Laura Higgins will be married in Moore on Friday the 8^th September and best wishes to them both.

Greetings to regular readers Sean and Jodie O Rourke, Clonulty and Sydney, who are moving from Sydney to Brisbane at the end of the month.

First results of the 2006 Tidy Town competition was announced on Tuesday and Shannonbridge was awarded 240 marks. The judge’s report will be available next week.

I hear that a son of Nora Mara from Oughterard has been awarded a Nobel Prize in science for discovering a cure for a tree disease. Nora is a close friend of my sister Doc in Oughterard. It is a marvellous achievement and congratulations to him.

John Egan who once lived in Shannonbridge and worked in the power plant is back working there for a few days this week. He looks right well and tells us that he now lives in Ashbourne, County Meath and is still taking part in motor cross racing.

The river level was 2’16 metres on Tuesday morning when I went searching for a group from Dundalk who were on a cruiser holiday and one of them left his wallet behind. Lucky enough I was not able to find them.

The couple from the Netherlands who called in on Sunday on their way to The Glebe Caravan Park, Marke and Peter, called in on Tuesday evening to show where they had been. On their digital camera they had a picture of Saint Brendan’s Cathedral Clonfert and The Clonfinlough Stone. They were very interested in what appears to be a footprint on the stone. Have a look at it yourself. It is located behind Clonfinlough Church.

Two Dutchmen who are staying in Kilkenny visited Shannonbridge on Tuesday. They told us that twenty years ago they had taken a holiday on the River Shannon and called to Shannonbridge. One of them reminded me that I had asked him to write out a notice in Dutch saying ‘Holiday home to rent’. He did and it hung on display for a few years with no mad Dutch rush.

Now they have a house near Kilkenny City. For the hurling final they told us that they were in Langtons Pub in Kilkenny and that there were two bouncers employed outside

the pub. Their job was to prevent anyone from smoking immediately outside Langtons.

Glad to hear from Dave Houghton, Leisure Angling who told me that he is writing a regular angling feature for a publication in England and he is hoping to use some of the recent catches from our area as part of his article.