February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Stephen McKinley
Carmelite priest Fr. Fintan Burke celebrated a Mass last week in Donaghmore, Co. Laois, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Donaghmore Co-op Creamery. Burke was an appropriate choice of celebrant as he was once an employee of the Creamery.
He was assisted by Fr. Donal Walsh, Fr. Seamus McEvoy and Archdeacon John Murray.
Past and present employees traveled from Tipperary, Limerick, Louth and Meath, and enjoyed the refreshments afterward.
Joe Nolan marked the occasion by retiring on his 40th anniversary at the Creamery, noted the Laois Live online newspaper.
NEW STATION
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In Waterford, a consortium has won the first commercial regional radio license in Ireland, reports the Munster Express.
The group, which includes U2 manager Paul McGuinness, heard recently that its station, Beat 101, can go ahead, and will be on air by July 2003. The station will have 21 full-time DJs and 10 part-time DJs at Farranshooneen on the Dunmore Road.
“It was a great project to be involved with and we will deliver a great station for 15-to-24-year-olds,” said managing director Des Whelan.
“While current affairs and news will not be a major element of this new station’s output, it will act as a unifying force among the region’s 15-to-24-year-olds in particular,” said Strategy South East Chairperson Nicky Fewer.
GOOD IN EVEN THE WORST
Sr. Carmel Fennessy, a Sister of Mercy who was born in Limerick and raised in Cork, has published a memoir about her life as a chaplain working with disturbed prisoners in the UK.
She worked at Wakefield Prison in England, which, she said, “houses some of the most disturbed and disruptive people in the system” in these islands.
She said that “A Time to Serve: Loitering with Intent,” emphasized that she had found good in even the worst prisoners.
SMELLS FISHY?
The fresh air in Arranmore, the island off the coast of Donegal, may have gone to its fishermen’s heads.
In a highly unusual protest, the Arranmore fishermen voted unanimously recently to express their displeasure with the Irish government’s fisheries policy, by boycotting the general election on May 17.
The fishermen had met with Minister for the Marine Frank Fahy regarding the requirement to purchase tonnage by inshore fishermen.
“If introduced, these changes will wipe out the inshore fishery overnight and with it the income of the families that depend on it to stay on the island,” said Hugh Rodgers, the Arranmore Fishermen’s spokesperson.
“It is our intention to ask islanders not to vote for any political party on election day in protest at these measures.”
DERRY FAMILY FEARS
The Bloody Sunday families of Derry City have expressed fears that when they travel to the relocated Saville Inquiry in London in September they could be attacked by the neo-Nazi group Combat 18, which has indistinct links to various loyalist paramilitary groups.