Enjoying some lovely weather after a week in America for a celebration of the brother John's 50th anniversary
of his ordination to the priesthood. At the function there was a very busy photographer.You can have a look at the results
at www.focusp0hotographynj.com when you enter fjk50 recent events has the photos filed under John.
After a great week it is back to reality. Some bits and pieces.
- Yesterday in Dunbeg in Donegal there was a downpour and the Irish Times today have a picture of the coast guard
rescuing a mother and child from the upper window of their two storey home.

Good news for Shannonbridge. Karl Mc Coy and his wife Etna have twin boys Paddy and Harry. Congratulations.

On Monday Dave and Patti Hankins stopped by with their sons Jason and Ryan. The Hankins live very near the nephew
Brendan and Eileen Killeen and their boys Colin and Kevin in New Jersey and the four boys are regular playmates.

Here yesterday on their way to Lahinch were Colm Craven's own Billy Craven, Elaine Craven with Adam Craven, Colm's
grandson. They were accompanied by Grace Rabi. Billy and Grace were in South Korea for the past 30 months teaching.

On Monday 22nd Gunther Hobel from Monsheim Germany and Monika Engemann from Heidelberg paid a visit to Shannonbridge
staying at Ashbrook House. They were interested in having a look at the family home of "At Swim Two Birds" the book
by Flann O Brian. This island is on the Shannon about two miles upstream from Shannonbridge.
Naturally enough I was curious to know how they had heard about At Swim Two Birds.
They told me that they had attended a talk given by Harry Rowald in Germany where Harry had done a translation read
of the book. Harry had directed them to Shannonbridge and they found their way by road to the island. They were going
to visit Birr Castle but ran out of time. So they stayed another night and had a good walkaround the next day.

An interesting photograph in yesterday's Irish Independent www.independent.ie on page 20. It shows Paddy Gorey and
James Ward from Dunderry, County Meath making sugan ropes (ag casadh an tsugain) at the Trim hayming festival on Sunday.

Last week Dan Hogan, who worked for years in the power stations came along with what Dan calls The Real Dan Hogan.
This Dan Hogan lives in California and has been searching for his Irish Roots for years.
His forefathers reached America in 1870.
He had heard that they were from near The Devil's Bit Mountain. A search of records for County Tipperary came up with
nothing. Then somebody suggested that he look at County Offaly records. Bingo he found that the Hogans were living on
the Offaly side. The two Dan's are related and the California Dan was walking on air having just flown from California
that morning. Hopefully he will send more details to this web about his search and find.

At John's celebration in New Jersey I met our cousin John Lawlor from The Bronx and The Four Roads, Roscommon and his wife
Mary who emigrated from Curraghboy. They were telling me that their son Paul Lawlor works in the fire service.
Paul was on on a rescue boat helping people to safety from the airliner that landed on the River Hudson recently.