On Easter Sunday morning after Mass in Shannonbridge Church a man was going around with his camera taking photographs of the wonderful flower displays and church fittings such as the statues, the Stations of the Cross and the baptismal etc.He told me that he was Sean Corcoran from Leamonaghan, Lea or Liath is the Welsh name for grey.So he is from the Grey Land of Saint Monaghan. I mentioned this website and he promised to forward a few of the photographs to share with you.

On Easter Monday my brother John came home from America.In the afternoon Ann Johnson,a daughter of the late Tom Johnson and Barbara Johnson,a daughter of the late Berty 'Cyril' Johnson stopped by.Both their parents once lived in Woodbank on the farm now owned by Joe Egan.
They had never seen the old homestead so John and I took them on a trip to Woodbank.Unfortunately we did not find any trace of the old home and that area is now devoted to barns ans feeding sheds.We noticed a few fruit trees which may be part of the original orchard.John reckons that the house was a single story building with the V facing the orchard.Does anybody out there have a picture of the old Johnson home? Barbara Johnson is living in Knock House, Ballinagore,County Westmeath.John was telling her how her father accidently shot himself in the car back in Second World War era.
Apparently he was driving along when he saw a pigeon,which were an expensive bird for meat at that time.He had a shotgun lying on the back seat.So he stopped the car and reached back for the gun which was loaded.The gun fired and hit Berty Johnson.The two girls were looking for their family graves and searched Moystown graveyard without luck.
Ann's mother often told her about going to service in Moystown Church on their horse and cart and she is assuming that their graves are there. Ann is married to a Moore and lives in Kildare.
The girls brought along a large bound ledger that belonged to the late Willie Price who owned Killeens pub and shop some 80 years ago.There is a very interesting account of his customers and the goods they bought on credit.Later I will mention some of the items and their cost.

Michael Kemp,son of Dave and Paulien Kemp from Bradford has now been working in Poland for a number of years. Recently he went to visit a friend who lives in Ghent in Belgium.On their last day his friend took him along to hear and meet a musician friend. This friend turned out to be Shannonbridge's own Daithi Rua.Michael of course as a youngster heard Daithi's parents playing music in Shannonbridge while on holiday here many many times.I see that Daithi is at www.daithirua.com and also
at www.myspace.com/offaly which should be worth a visit.


Good to see that The Irish Times five day forecast shows sunshine for each day.We had one hell of a rain cum hailstones early in the week and the river has risen further.Callows are now covered with water and this morning two swans were swimming behind what may be the goose from Cappaleitra.The swan feather were standing up as they do but the leader was smooth.

Met a German photographer and family yesterday who were invited to come to Ireland by Bord Failte and are using a cruiser on the Shannon as transport.He wanted to get pictures of the peat trains and Louise took him to the train yard near the power plant.This morning he wanted to visit the Boora Parklands where Pat Dooley had arranged peat cutting using a slane and barrow.We booked a taxi from Ballinasloe and Chris Price turned out to be the taxi driver.