2009-01-01

Fr. Matt Ryan of Cooleen shares his Christmas with some of the children of one of his communities

Greetings from Jatobá in the North East of Brazil! Hello to you all and happy New Year. I look up the Borrisoleigh Website every week when I have access to the Internet. Congrats for the great service you’re offering to us at home and abroad. It’s a great idea.

Here are some photos taken with the children in one of our communities over the Christmas. Due to the generosity of the people at home around, we organised little festas for them in several communities here in the parish. We gave them sandwiches cake and ice cream. It was a great festa for us all.

We avail of the festa to weigh the kids and evaluate their development together with the public health people who come along with us. The families of the children that are obviously well under-nourished get a special visit from our little ¨Pastoral da Criança¨ team to analyze the causes of the poor condition of the child.

After this visit we try to put something in place to ensure the well being of that child and his or her family. In general we try to avoid hand-outs but in some cases they are necessary. For Christmas here we arranged in the communities food baskets for loads of poor families. They were very grateful but we can’t allow people to become dependent on such hand outs. We try to avoid dependency at all costs, because its long term solutions that we need to discover in order to combat poverty.

All the best and keep up the good work on the website.

Abraços Fr. Matt

Weighing in

In the blue corner…

Ring-a-Ring-a-Rosie (Brazilian Style)

Fr. Matt has many dancing partners in his neck of the woods!

Fr. Matt, we wish you and your communities every good wish and blessing for the New Year. 


Mai celebrates 90 years in style!

Mai with members of her family on her 90th Birthday 

Some of the local senior set dancers gave a display of their talents much to Mai’s delight while singers and musicians from within the family circle and beyond proudly played and sang to greet and celebrate Mai’s long life and continued good health.

Breda Ryan, Chairperson of the local Scór Committee made a presentation to Mai in gratitude for her long and much-valued contribution to Borrisoleigh Scór down through the years.

Three Maher Lassies!

Eve, Michelle and Mai enjoying the dancing


Church Choir Caroling in Carrigeen for Christmas

Sumesh Babu (staff member) with his son Austin, Karen Ryan, Maria Ryan and Mary Kennedy (Proprietor)

After the prayers were said and the blessing given a sing song ensued with contributions from various choir members and staff at the Nursing home. The night would not have been complete without Jody Delaney’s rendition of O Holy Night which helped to create the real atmosphere of Christmas for all concerned.

Thanks to the generosity of the local community presents were given out to each of the residents by the younger folk in the choir. Mary Kennedy thanked the choir members on behalf of the residents for their visit and then provided the usual refreshments and hospitality for all who made the journey. A great and festive evening was had by all.
 

Samson and Delila

No Paparazzi Please!

Clue: he could be wearing a woman’s watch, bracelet and ring to put you off the scent! 

The photographer in question was not in the mood to be bested and so took the photos anyway!!! The relevant clauses and sub-sections of the Data Protection Act may be invoked by the injured party against the ever-persistent photographer whose only defence remains that ‘the coat cannot easily be identified to the owner’. The case is on-going!

If you were in the vicinity on the night in question and are in a position to provide details as to the true identity of the shrouded man or woman please keep these details to yourself as the local paparazzi wishes to continue to work for your local website!!! His or her future is in your hands!!!
 

MC for the night the irrepressible and irreplaceable Noel O’Brien and the woman of the night, the one and only, Nuala Ryan

The winners on the night, (after serious voting @ €1 per vote) were The Back Street Boys aka Gerry Treacy, Paul Maher, Conor Walsh, Rory Ryan and David O’Connor. Next weeks Current News will have more photos of this fun-filled fundraising night.
 

Peace Child – The Musical


St. Patrick’s Boys’ N.S. held a very enjoyable Christmas Concert on Thursday night 18 December. Staff, pupils and Board of Management would like to thank all who supported the concert or the school in any way throughout the year. We wish you all every blessing for 2009.’

Swingin’ to the left, swingin’ to the right!

"It’s A Small World" – but these big little guys are rockin ‘n’ rollin’!!!

Whistling in tune together

Making sweet music at the Concert in the Marian Hall

Facing the music!

Standing shoulder to shoulder for the finale

More photos can be viewed by visiting our photo gallery or by clicking on the following link:    

http://www.borrisoleigh.ie/viewGallery.php?gal=55&name=Boys%20School%20Christmas%20Concert%202008

Aidan and Maria get engaged


Congratulations to Aidan Cowan and Maria Kiely, both from Borrisoleigh, who got engaged on Christmas Day. We wish them the very best for the future.