local News 26th Jan 2010

' THE FIELD '
GRANAGH PLAYERS

Our first week-end over, the Hall was full and everything went extremely well, with fantastic support from the audiences. Thanks to the brilliant work of all the
volunteers, the actors do not have to worry about parking, setting out seats, organising a raffle, refreshments, cleaning up and the numerous other jobs
that have to be done to ensure everything runs smoothly.
The Field has been auctioned and re-auctioned and the poor widow isn't getting any higher offers unfortunately !!
As usual our producer has made an excellent job of this production and demands a high standard from all concerned, either on or off stage.
Each member of the cast has given one hundred per cent of their time, full attention to all Mary's comments and have tried to improve
at each rehearsal. As a result the finished product is always top class.
We are especially proud of the newer members of the cast, who have excelled themselves, for their first time on stage with us - Alan Chawke ( Leamy),
Seamus Murphy ( The Bird ), Patsy Power ( Maimie), James O'Gorman (Tadhg), and Richard O'Donoghue ( Sergeant ).
This year, we have three family groupings on stage, which is a rare occurance for a rural parish :- Father & Sons - Jimmy & Alan Chawke, T
Tom & Denis Noonan and the one and only Mother & Son - Brid & James O'Gorman. Definately a photo for the Family Album.
The Field is a deep and intricate play and requires that each of the thirteen cast members be tuned in to each other and the story.
Normally, drama is not dangerous - but this year we have had to take out the extra special FBD cover, as a result of the fight scene !!!
It sometimes does not go as planned and between fists and sticks flying, anything could happen. Our first casualty was William Dee who normally
gets a bit of a beating every night but got an added black eye the first night. The Bird has numerous pin pricks ( all over) as his safety pins keep popping !!
They cannot pin anything on him and have no video evidence, but they both blame Tadhg.! They think he has been studying too many action movies !
Maimie ( in her condition) was limping after night two, we have yet to question Mick as to what he was up to ?? The Bull is going through a quantity of
Shillelaghs trying to get his technique right. Eamon Mac's waterworks were giving him terrible trouble the first night but he feels he has it under control now.!
The McCabe duet were threatening to release a charity single but they were politely told that Haiti had enough troubles of its own. Eileen Simcox came back
to help out with the prompting, she now has two or three jobs and as the tension mounts backstage, she can be seen losing clothing, layer by layer.
Final Weekend of Performances :- Friday 29th, Saturday 30th and Sunday 31st, at 8.00pm. Don't miss it.!!
We do not have tickets on sale as it is - first come, first served basis, all we can say is come early.

Family and friends abroad can keep up to date with the latest news and photos on the web site www.ballingarrynews.blogspot.com

YOUTH CHOIR:

Best of luck to Susie, Noelle and choir members as they are singing for the community games competition in Caherconlish on Friday 29th.
They appeared at the opening of the talent show in Ballingarry, last Friday night and sang their three songs in preparation for the competition.
They performed very well, although I'm sure there will be more rehearsing before the big night.


GRANAGH UTD. F.C.
Lotto results:
There was no winner in the lotto draw this week.
Numbers drawn were 1.3.18.20
Lucky dip winners of €20 each went to Noel & Mary Lynch Granagh, Joe Burke Croom, Alice O` Dwyer Croom.
Next weeks draw takes place in Bennis Bar Ballyagran for a Jackpot of €6,350.
Tickets available at O` Gorman,'s Foodstore Granagh, Hickeys Bar Croom, The Rock Bar Granagh, & Bennis Bar Ballyagran.

Results:
U14 Granagh Utd 1- Ballingarry 1, scorer for Granagh James Dillon.


Junior
Granagh Utd 4 - Pallaskenry B 1.
Scorers for Granagh Kevin Fitzgibbon 1, Kieran Maloney 1, Mikie McElligott 1, & Denis O` Connor 1.

Limerick Desmond:
Well done to all club members who were on duty for Limerick Desmond last weekend. By all accounts James Dillon was said
to have been super in the Kennedy Cup Squads victory over Kilkenny. Also Edward Sheehy, Jack O Donoghue &
Kyle Cotter played a big part in Limerick Desmonds U12 victory over Kerry.

U10 Training:
Our U10s started back training last Fri night and with fourteen players on the training ground it high lights the interest that
this group of players have. We will continue training every Fri night 7pm to 8pm.


COMHBHRÓN:

We extend our sympathy to Pat Gubbins,(Creamery) on the death of his mother. Solas na bhFlaitheas ar a hanam dhílís.

GET WELL:

We wish a speedy recovery to Pauline O'Connor, Bruff Line, and hope to see her out and about again shortly.

HAITI CONNECTION:

As we see the devastating results of the earthquake in Haiti nightly, many people would like to give something, however small, but don't know
where to give to. Well Granagh parish has a direct connection in the person of Denise Kelly, Graigacurra, daughter of Maureen and Billy.
Denise is Executive Director of the CRUDEM Foundation which operates The Sacre Coeur Hospital in the town of Milot, seventy miles north of
Port au Prince. The Hospital has been in existence since 1986 and have been recognised by the Haitian government as one of the best in the
country, however, no government support is received. Although tremors were felt at the hospital, there was no major damage. The hospital
remains fully operational but their resources are being greatly stretched. All their cases require major surgery, have heavily infected wounds and
a large percentage of patients require amputations.
Denise lived at the hospital campus from 02-06 and now works full time from Dublin to ensure that the hospital has the medications, supplied,
equipment, medical volunteers and finances it needs on a daily basis to provide the best medical care possible. The hospital have two operating
rooms ( now scaled up to four), a fully equipped lab and can house up to one hundred medical personnel. They have converted the school across
the street into a patient wing and have converted the local soccer field into a helicopter landing site, just two hundred feet from the hospital.
Her brother James, has just volunteered to work out there with GOAL for the next three months, with the added advantage of being a fluent Creole speaker.
If you wish to consider the CRUDEM Foundation, you can check out the website www.crudem.org, or follow them on Facebook at CRUDEM_Haiti.
Contributions of any size can by made by credit card through PayPal on the web or can be sent to the following :-
AIB - Denise Kelly-CRUDEM Foundation. Acc. No. 39096-005. Sort Code 93-25-15 .

Community Games

Talent Competition:-
Last Friday Night we held our local Talent Competition in the Hall Ballingarry. Any stranger to Ballingarry that night would believe that it was auditions
for the X Factor, as we had over 40 acts take part and the talent was outstanding.
At the end of the night two acts were picked from each category to represent Ballingarry/Granagh in the County Finals.

The winners were as follows:

U/10 Solo Singers 1st Jacob Butler
2nd Olivia Bennett
3rd Aislinn Herlihy

U/10 Solo Recitation 1st Grace Purtill
2nd Michael Sheahan
3rd Emily Murphy

U/10 Solo Music 1st Lucy Banks
2nd Mark Sheahan
3rd Lucy Murphy

U/10 Group Dance 1st Molly O’Connor, Eve Higgins, Sophie Alymer, Molly
Cagney, Ciara O Connor and Shauna Hayes.
2nd Olivia Bennett, Aislinn Herlihy, Anna Griffin and Sarah
Condon

U/10 Group Music 1st Eoin & Mark Sheahan

U/10 Group Singing 1st Jacob Butler, Olivia Bennett, MJ Purtill and Aislinn Herlihy
2nd Lucy Banks and Lucy & Emily Murphy

U/14 Solo Singer 1st Patrick Shelton
2nd Lauren Clancy
3rd Eve Butler

U/14 Solo Music 1st Athene Storey-Cosgrave
2nd Sean English
3rd Cailinn Noonan

U/14 Group Singers 1st Brenda & Dylan O’Keeffe
2nd Jack Cagney, Patrick Shelton, Cathal O’Keeffe and Nathan Clancy
U/14 Group Dancers 1st Chloe Tangney, Yvonne Shelton and Shauna Lynch

All eyes were on the stage when the programme started with the U/13 Choir who performed 3 songs, which they intend singing for the
County Competition. This Choir is a credit to their Managers, Noelle Dunworth, Susie Butler and Teresa Noonan. All the rehearsals
have really paid off and they sang beautifully. All acts were very entertaining and as you can imagine the Judges had a very difficult job.
Many thanks to Noelle & Grainne Dunworth and Mary Ahern for their very professional job on the night.
Thanks to the hall committee for having the hall in pristine condition and to all who helped out on the night.
Best of luck to all qualifiers and well done to all who took part on the night.

Draughts
On Sunday evening last we travelled to Rathkeale with 2 teams U10 and U14 to compete in round 2 of the draughts competition.

U14
This team of Brendan Lynch, Bradley Daly, Christine Lynch, Lauren Clancy and PJ Noonan carried with them the hopes of the entire parish. Pitted against Kildimo/Pallaskenry, St Senans and Hospital/Herbertstown A, we were certainly up against it. After some brillant matches we were very unlucky not to qualify for the “Finals” and so ended their interest in the competition. It must be said that these five must be praised for their dedication to the cause over the last two months. They never put a foot wrong and were an excellent bunch of players. They were always on good behaviour and were a credit to their parents. Best of Luck to Hospital/Herbertstown A and Kildimo/Pallaskenry who qualified from our Group.

U/10

This team of Luke Flynn, Eve Higgins, Mark Sheahan, Sophie Aylmer, Gearoid Lynch, Eoin Sheahan and Orla Lenihan surprised all by qualifying for the County Finals. We topped our Group with Croagh/Kilfinny B coming 2nd. We now go forward to the county finals on the 6th Feb with our U/12 Team in Hospital. Best of luck to both teams and everyone hopes that they bring home the medals. Training continues on Thursday at 7.30 pm for our U.10A and U.12A Teams only.

Thanks to Ml O’Brien & Co., for co-ordinating the event and to all in Rathkeale who had the Hall in immaculate condition and for the refreshments provided.










Cross Country Running

We would hope to start training for the Cross Country running within the next few weeks but we need Managers to do this. We had over 50 kids take part last year in this event and were very successful in Rathkeale. It would be a pity to have to pull out of this due to lack of Managers so if like the rest of us your child wants to take part please let it happen and help out with training etc. Contact Anne on
087 9274241 to put your name down and lets get the training started.

Choir U/13 Competition

Best of luck to our U/13 Choir who will be performing on Friday night 29th in Caherconlish. All Choirs must be checked in by 6.30 pm and it starts at 7.00 pm sharp.