23 December 2015
Christmas Ceremonies
Christmas Eve (Thursday)
7pm Vigil Mass Borrisoleigh
Christmas Day
9.30 am Ileigh
11am Borrisoleigh
Confessions on Tuesday from 7pm
St. Stephen’s Day Fun Run
Borrisoleigh Track-Attack Notes
13 of the 16 Planet Track-Attack Series winners:
Back row ( L-R ) Denis O’Connell, Luke Mockler, Eamon McGrath, Noel Kennedy, Kevin Murphy, Joey O’Dwyer and Leo Collins.
Front row ( L-R ) Christine Rabbitte, Elaine Ryan, Noreen Ryan, Siobhan Carey, Andy Quinlan and Nicky Cooney
Planet Track-Attack Series Champions
After 10 weeks of superbly entertaining and competitive action, the Planet Track-Attack Series have come to its conclusion and we now know the identity of the champions of the 16 different groups. Few if any would have anticipated the overall success of the event but this success can be attributed to the quality of participants that Track-Attack are blessed to have in their midst.
This quality is measured not by the finishing times but by their willingness to compete, cooperate, promote the group and event and to help and encourage all their participating colleagues. Track-Attack have attracted the young and experienced and all have bonded brilliantly to create a fantastic sporting atmosphere every week. Every effort was made to ensure that all participants were grouped with athletes of equal or similar standard and when looking at the array of winners at the recent presentation night, it would be fair to say that aim was achieved.
The air around Mountkinane Cross could well be bottled as near neighbours Noel Kennedy and Kevin Murphy were the big winners on the final night after producing some highly impressive performances that in turn resulted in them capturing their respective titles.
Competing over the 6km distance, Noel had a single second advantage over JJ Kinane heading into the last round so the pressure was on both to produce the goods on the final night. Despite competing in the Templemore 5km the previous day, Noel had sufficient fuel left in the tank to outlast JJ’s best effort and the Earth named title was heading home with one of the most improved and impressive Track-Attackers in recent weeks.
Kevin came into the final encounter sitting quietly in the shadow of the groups leading contenders. He knew what he had to do to have a chance of coming to the fore and following the completion of his 4km, that aforementioned shadow was truly cast aside and the Series PB that he recorded resulted in him leap-frogging the leading young-guns to claim the Uranus title.
Andy Quinlan wasn’t to be denied the Mercury title and it was a victory well deserved as he was hugely consistent throughout the 10 weeks. The Venus group went right to the wire with a straight shoot-out between Denis O’Connell and Martin Maher. Denis held a 90 second lead so Martin needed to gain 31 seconds and get the one minute time bonus by recording a PB to claim the title. When the figures were accumulated, Martin clocked in 32 seconds ahead but it wasn’t enough to gain the bonus so the title laid firmly in Denis’ grasp.
Following a string of impressive performances, Planet Mars was won by Mick O’Meara while Eamon McGrath had to survive a late scare to take the Jupiter group. In the end only 28 seconds separated him from Trish Ryan. The final 6km group resulted in the only female winner over that distance. Siobhan Carey’s name is etched on the Series role of honour after impressively recording victory in the Saturn group.
Over the 4km distance, Nicky Cooney proved untouchable in the Pluto group when proceedings hit the business end of Series. One of Track-Attacks finest young-guns Eamon Groome came up trumps in the Neptune group after a string of never say die performances saw him claim the title with three minutes to spare. Christine Rabbitte ruled supreme in the Comets group, Betty Slattery headed up the Space group while Noreen Ryan proved to be one of the most improved athletes of the entire Series en route to claiming the Apollo group.
Competing over the distance of 2.7km, Luke Mockler was the stand out performer and was the impressive winner of the Galaxy group. In the Sun named group, Joey O’Dwyer deserves tremendous credit for the improvement he showed over the duration of the Series and he was the run-a-way winner of the group. As predicted in previous weeks, the name to keep an eye on in the Stars group was Leo Collins and true to form, he emerged from the chasing pack in the later weeks and was a worthy winner of the title. Finally in the Moon group, we had a very competitive battle in the final weeks and it was Elaine Ryan that held off the best efforts of her closest challenger Karen Nash to claim the title.
Rudolph’s Run
Rudolph 4km Run Top 3 women – Marie O’Doherty (2nd) Aoife Delargy (1st) Kathleen O’Meara (3rd)
Rudolph 4km Run Top 3 men – Peter Madden (3rd) John Fitzgibbon (1st) Stephen Flanagan (2nd)
Rudolph 4km Run Participants – John Vahey and Kevin Delargy
Rudolph 4km Run Participants (mother and daughter) Kathleen and Aoife O’Meara
To view more photographs from Rudolph’s Run please click here
Borrisoleigh Annual
Borrisoleigh Lights Up for Christmas
Santa arrives in Borrisoleigh
A great evening was had on December 6th as Borrisoleigh lit up again this year. The evening commenced with some great tunes from Matthew Ryan DJ followed by pupils & staff of Scoil Naomh Cualán and the local choir. following this Joseph Boyle, All Ireland fleadh winner playing the flute, assisted by our lady mayoress Patrice Cooney turned on the lights of our beautiful Christmas tree. Patrice then launched the Borrisoleigh annual and the “Shop Local” flier. Then the squad car sirens could be heard as Santa Claus arrived to greet all the children and give them a few sweets. A great evening was had by all. School calenders and the annual were on sale on the evening and are still available if anyone would like them.
The school choir from Scoil Naomh Cualán
A special word of thanks to those who assisted in getting, preparing, delivering, erecting and decorating the tree and to those who fed the workers. And thanks to everyone who helped in any way to make it such an enjoyable evening.
Santa meets the Max family
Borrisoleigh festival committee in conjunction with Borrisoleigh Development association were lucky enough this year to receive funding from the County Council under the Christmas Retail support programme 2015. This funding enabled us to put up our tree again this year and to produce a flier promoting the businesses in Borrisoleigh. Most businesses participated by informing us of what special offers they would have coming up to Christmas. We were hoping it would encourage people to “Shop Local” this Christmas. On the back of a flier we ran a free raffle. The prizes for this were €20 vouchers designed to be used in participating businesses in Borrisoleigh. The draw was held on Saturday Dec 19th in The Bothy.
The winners of the vouchers are as follows: Eva Cleary Nenagh, Mary Walsh Borrisoleigh, Biddy Shanahan Fantane, Rose Marie Ryan Drombane and Maurice Chadwick Borrisoleigh. Congratulations to all our winners. May we wish everyone a very happy Christmas and best wishes for 2016.
The organising committee members
To view more photographs from Borrisoleigh Lights Up for Christmas please click here
Christmas Time in Borrisoleigh
Christmas Food Fair
Lighting Up for Christmas
Christmas Party
To view photographs from the Christmas Party, Lighting Up for Christmas and the Christmas Food Fair please click here
Hello and Christmas Greetings from the North East of Brasil !
Just wanted to wish all the Borrisoleigh website readers a very Happy Christmas. I hope all of you can have both a peaceful and joyful family reunion over the next few days. I am here in Brasil remembering all the friends and Benefactors who have been a constant support to me out here. I am deeply grateful for all your kind support for my work .
Over the next few days I will in the name of many people offer a gesture of support to those in greater need here in the interior of Milagres do Maranhao, Brasil.
The bike I am using was purchased with the support of the Templederry Branch of the Apostolic Workers and with the support of many others also. Its good to be here and to have a good Honda 150, even if the temperatura is in the mid thirties. We are hoping that the rains will begin any day now, that will be a great relief to us, human beings and to the animals.
So Happy Christmas to you all and dont forget to say a little prayer of thanksgiving as you sit into the table for your Christmas dinner. Happiness and Prosperity to all of you !
Abracos Fr. Matt in Brasil.
Christmas in Fifi’s Tots
We had a surprise visitor this morning in preschool. The children had great fun reminding santa what he is to bring them in a few days time.
Preschool Nativity
Borris-Ileigh GAA Club
U21 Hurling: Our U21 team take to the field on St Stephen’s Day in their North Semi Final against Moneygall/Clonakenny. The game will take place in Toomevara at 1pm.
Pic of the Past …………down memory lane
O’Neill Family, Lower Street Marie, Shane, Tara, Tom, Joan with Hugh (on her lap) Tom, a native of Armagh served as a vet here for many years
Your Website Needs You!
Committee: Enda Ryan, Noreen Fahy, Margaret Cowan, Marie McGrath, Aileen Óg Groome and Derry O’Donnell
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