Today 15th August was a Church Holyday and Youth 2000 based in Clonmacnois had some 800 youths in attendance.
Bishop Colm O Reilly celebrated Mass and the popular Brookly Bishop Frank Caggiano has returned to speak.
Today I met Fiona Murphy and Felicity Mc Kee from Armagh who are attending the weekend. They travelled by bus
with about 50 youths
from Dungannon,Newry,Belfast, Donegal and Armagh. They arrived Thursday and the weekend finishes on Sunday.
They told us that there are about 20 priests attending even some from Argentina and Africa and nuns from everywhere
of different varieties.
They have camp-beds and sleep in one of the special tents that have been erected. They have visited the Clonmacnois
monastic site and had breakfast in the coffee shop. Fiona was surprised that there was no toast on the campsite
and both agreed that the food was not great. They had made use of the local minibus service to come to Shannonbridge.
They promised to e-mail their impressions of the weekend and if they do they will be posted here.
Father Christy O Connor is on cover duty in the parish for the weekend. He knows about Youth 2000 and had seen
the erected tents. There is a full programme for the weekend. Visit youth2000.

Yesterday I met James Madden from Whitstable Kent who is a son of James Madden, Birchgrove.Ballinasloe.
His Grand-parents were Tom Madden and Mary Ellen Boylan. Mary Ellen was a daughter of Michael and Agnes Boylan
from Rapemills,Birr. Tom Madden was a policeman and went off to America.
James is now trying to trace cousins. If anyone has information for him contact him at maddenjimmy@aol.com

Today 15th August a Kathleen Kelly from Ahascragh and now married in Manchester stopped by with her daughter
who is a teacher in Guernsey ?. Kathleen told us that she attended Newtown School and her best friend there
was Mary Killeen our cousin from Togher. They have not met since they left school many years ago.
Kathleen was visiting her cousin Kieran Kelly, Leharrow who is celebrating his 80th birthday in a few weeks.
She gave me her phone number and hopefully Mary Killeen now Fahy will give her a call this week.

Yesterday 14th August a group of 28 people from Boston stopped by.There were parents and friends and a
ladies basketball team called The Wild Cats in the party. One of the parents was Ray Martin, son of Val Martin
from Ballinasloe and ex Bord na Mona. They had visited Clonmacnois and promised to look at the Shannonbridge bridge
from the quayside. The Wild Cats have played two games so far,winning one and losing one.

Thanks to Karina Hynes for the Cyprus currency note which has now been added to the collection in Killeens Bar.

Enquiry. What kind of fish do you catch in the River Shannon ?
Mostly pike and perch and whales.
What type of whales do you catch ?
Mostly bicycle whales.

The village of Lorrha have their own website under www.lorrhadorrha.ie

Good to hear that Jack Conway and friends are returning to Shannonbridge next June as Jack is a piano player
as well as an angler.

During the week Philip and Dale Brown from New Zealand stopped by. John is interested in his family tree
and would appreciate some help or information with it.
Philip's grandfather was Philip Malone and his grandmother was Molly.
Philip's parents were John Brown and his mother was Theresa Malone.
John Brown he went to New Zealand when he was aged 16. Later he returned to Scotland and married Theresa Malone
and went back to New Zealand.John never returned for 37 years.
If you have any information on that family tree contact Philip by e-mail at panddbrown@clear.net.nz