February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Pastors Mark Mandarano and Mike Tardive presided over the event and a large congregation attended as well as friends, well wishers and curious onlookers.
The church, like many evangelical Protestant faiths, believes that baptism should be an individual experience with full immersion of the person in water. This they base on their interpretations of the Gospels.
The church membership stands about 60 people from around Laois. The Believers Baptism, as it is called, symboliszes by immersion in water the death and, upon surfacing, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Pastor Mandarano pointed out.
“The purpose of the Baptism is to celebrate the persons prior acceptance of Jesus Christ as personal savior, and through this acceptance the forgiveness of sins,” he said.
MEATH: RUDE T-SHIRTS
A Dublin-based clothing company has come under fire for marketing a series of blue T-shirts on which are the words “F**K Meath.”
Spokespersons for the company, Nutmeg Clothing, said that the shirts were intended to be “an unequivocal message to that team you love to hate. Available in 31 counties in Ireland.”
“That last-minute free in the semifinal is still replaying in our minds, but congrats to Armagh, they won in amazing fashion against Kerry in the final. Face it, lads, the future’s blue! It’s all over for this season but you can still express your love for the Jacks with a Nutmeg shirt,” says the sales patter on Nutmeg’s web site.
Dubliner Joe Collins and Luke McManus, from Bray, Co. Wicklow, are the founders of Nutmeg.
“We’ve done a couple of GAA T-shirts and they’re popular with people who want to wear their county colors going clubbing or to dressy bars, but don’t want to wear the team jersey,” McManus said.
GALWAY/DUBLIN: JUICY BUSINESS
Another “graduate” of New York is smoothing the road for customers in his Dublin smoothie and fruit juice bar, Smooth Brothers.
Brendan McHugh and partner Tydal Canon worked for many years “in the abysmal dungeons of corporate America” and now run what the say is an ethically sound business: their range of fruit smoothies contain 100 percent fresh fruit juice — that means no added water, sugar, colors, preservatives, concentrates or GMOs (genetically modified organisms). They are made from the finest ingredients, using Irish fruit and the company supports local businesses wherever possible.
In New York, McHugh ran his own web design company before he was head hunted by a large Internet company, where he worked as a new business developer.
“It got to the point where I was earning lots of money and it was all very tempting,” he said. “But the type of clients I was dealing with were not the nicest. I witnessed many strange things, saw a lot of inhumanity to man and began to feel that my soul was decaying. I needed to get out of there.”
He returned to Ireland and now lives in Rush, Co. Dublin, where, he says, he is adapting to the slower pace of life very well. “It’s just what the doctor ordered,” he said.
For more information check out www.smoothbrothers.com
DONEGAL: 76 YEARS SOBER
A senior in the small Donegal village of Muff has celebrated 76 years of sobriety and accepted an award from the local Pioneer Total Abstinence Association last week.
Joe McClelland, who’s 88, was presented with the medal bearing the association’s founder, Fr. James Cullen, at a special ceremonial mass celebrated by Fr. John Farren in the Sacred Heart Church on Monday.
McClelland told the Derry Journal that he greatly enjoyed his association with the pioneer’s over the years but remembered fondly the “strong taste” of poit