Yesterday a great lady from Dromalga House in Moore one Ag Craven passed away. Ag was married to Martin raven who died c 1967 and sympathies to her sons Colm, Martin and Hal and to her daughter Bernadette and her sister Bridie Lennon from Four Roads and her extensive family and friends For years she was a stalwart part of the ladies quiz team from Moore and the other members of the team Mrs Scott, Mrs Kelly and Mrs Blake have lost a great friend and team mate. May she rest in peace..

It was a pleasant surprise yesterday when Mrs Murphy from Ard Mhuire and her daughter Helen and Helen's husband from Kinvara dropped by. Mrs Murphy was married to Surgeon Jack Murphy who was a weekly Friday visitor to his patients in Shannonbridge for many years. They had five daughters – Sheila in London, Mary in Galway, Anna Lise in Dublin, Joan in Paris and Helen in Kinvara.

Helen was surprised to hear that her father was a gifted piano player. Pat told her that at 16 years he had passed the highest grades in the Academy of the London School of Music and that he travelled to the Isle of Man to have lessons from Charlie Coomb’s a famous piano player. Helen had never heard her father play the piano.

Helen was telling us that Senator Toddy Byrne from Kinvara who recently died had just written a book about the GAA in Kinvara which our friend from Galway last week might be interested in.

Dick and Doc and their dog Molly stopped by yesterday on their return from Rosslare where they had a break for a few days. Molly looked very well Moby thought.

See on the weekly bulletin that a group are walking from Ballinahown to Clonmacnois for the Pattern Mass and celebrations on Sunday 10^th. Anybody interested in walking from Shannonbridge?

Met an interesting couple from Holland yesterday who are on a three week camping holiday of Ireland. They have travelled all around the south and west coastlands and are now encamped in Glebe Caravan Park in Clonfinlough. Marke Willebrand and Peter Vrowut are very interested in monastic history and plan to use the new publication ‘Stories from a Sacred Landscape’ – from Croghan Hill to Clonmacnois – as a useful guide.

Looking forward to Barry Crawford’s return visit in mid October.

Kilkenny defeated Cork in the Senior Hurling Final yesterday while Tipperary beat Galway in the Minor Final. Ireland were beaten 1 – 0 by Germany in their first qualifying match for the 2008 European soccer championships.

Nearer home Shannonbridge defeated Edenderry yesterday in Gaelic football. There is a three team round robin competition to find out which team will remain senior next year. Doon is the other team involved and they will play Edenderry next Sunday 10^th September. The following Sunday Doon play Shannonbridge.

For one of the few games Shannonbridge won this year Louie Darcy missed being there as the parish outing to Knock took place yesterday. His prayers were answered Thank God.