Recently Joe Molloy telephoned to say he was working on a project based on the Parish of Clontuskert. He was enquiring about a Lynch family that had some 400 acres in the Rachra area. This family dated back to about 1700 and also had land in Clontuskert. They had a flat bottomed ferry boat based at Correen Ford that was used to transport stock and fodder across the River Suck.

A map from about 1803 showing a proposed layout for the Martello Fortifications at Shannonbridge shows the rivers and fields west of the village. The name of the landowner is written in three places as Alex Lynch. The land concerned was later owned by the Reddy Family and presently is owned by the Darcy Family.

Making enquiries I was told that the Reddy Family came from Streete in County Westmeath and that John Reddy was an M.P. They originally lived in the house beside the last location for the Post Office when Fitzpatricks and Ritchie Brown were postmasters. Later the Reddy Family lived across the street in the house with the three stone steps since demolished. That house was originally an R.I.C. police barracks.

If you have any information on the Lynch Family Joe Molloy would like to know.

Last Sunday the evening Mass in Clonfad was celebrated as a memorial for the late Father Tom Ryan. Father Tom died on 30^th January 2007. Members of his family travelled up from Tipperary to attend the Mass. May he rest in peace.

During the week a story in The Philadelphia Enquirer on Tracing Your Roots had a local interest for Offaly. A mother and daughter had visited Ireland last summer hoping to find some information on their Offaly forefathers. A Condron man immigrated to Hartford, Connecticut in 1890 and they were hoping to find where he came from. The mother is pictured on the Bog Train trip at the turf cutting stop. They also visited Clonmacnois and took a trip on the River Shannon.

The holiday relief priest in Shannonbridge last weekend and for the next couple of weekends is a Father Balfe. When Mick showed him a picture of a school class photograph taken in Garbally with his class mate Sean Balfe in the line up, Father Balfe said that he was a cousin of Sean Balfe but had never met him. Sean Balfe is working overseas at present and we have tried to e-mail him to tell him of his cousin.

Weather has been sunny this past few days with frost at night. The river level has risen again to a good flood level. Birds are hungry but they are singing away merrily.

The newspapers tell us that some 300,000 people in Ireland are now signing for unemployment.