Kate Thorhill was driving across the bridge at Shannonbridge on Sat 11th Sept when suddenly a group of small birds landed on the road in front of the car.Then a hawk swooped down,chose one of the birds and flew away.Bit like a live Lotto Draw.
On Monday while fishing on the backriver near the bridge observed a Sparrow Hawk chasing a Kingfisher bird.The Kingfisher dove into the water several times and happy ending it escaped free.

On Saturday Brid from Donegal visited Shannonbridge.Brid is a native Irish speaker and also a singer.She has her own webpage and has a number of songs in Irish for you to listen to.
Log on to www.brid.at for a listen.

It seems that what was probably the first post-office in Shannonbridge was located in what is now known as Prices House.The family that owned the house and operated the post office were named Charters.This family originally came from France and had connections in Portarlington.John Price bought the house from the Charters and the post office was then in Christy Cook's,which is the building now owned by Nugents Butcher-shop.After Mr and Mrs Cook died the post office moved to Fitzpatricks shop,now Shannonbidge Pottery shop.
After Fitzpatricks Richie Brown operated the post office for a time in the Fitzpatrick building.
The present post office is located in Morans Gala Store,
Over sixty years ago the post was delivered on bicycle to Shannonbridge from Ballinasloe.The man on the bike was Oliver O Grady.The post office authority erected a simple shelter near The Grand Gate for the use of post deliverer O Grady.He waited around for the day and collected the post in the evening to take it to Ballinasloe.

During this years Heritage Week Declan Ryan prepared a walkaround that started on the riverside.The walk and talk covered many aspects including the village bridge and the swivel bridge now a showpiece on the jetty,the Shannon Navigation and early work on the Shannon,the early fields works over 200 years ago and The Magazine and Fortifications.The site of Rachra Castle at Shannonbridge was visited and the site of the old Police Barracks and the Lockkeepers House beside the bridge.The event was most enjoyable and hopefully the notes used will be available for others to read.
Only this week I heard that Patrick Belton and his wife Kate were the Lockhouse Keepers.They had four children - Frank to California,Tim to Boston,Kate to USA and Annie who died in Ireland.
Frank Belton wrote a poem titled 'Memories of Shannonbridge'which was used on his memorial card.
Paddy had a son and niece - Jimmy and Sissy Belton who came from County Louth and Jimmy took charge of the Lockhouse and the Grand Canal Stores.Their sister Delia married John Price.

Many people call The Long Island upstream from Shannonbridge by the name Potts Island.The portion of the island nearer the village bridge is called Lamb Island and as was pointed out on the walkabout there lived Michael McCann who wrote O Donnell Abu.