Mornington

REFERENDUM: Only women should vote. Men will only muddy the waters.

BLESSING OF GRAVES

Colpe Sat June 2nd at 7 pm. Mornington; Sun 3rd June at 7 pm. Reilig Mhuire Piltown; Sun 17th June 7 pm. Calvary Sunday, June 17th at 3 pm. Stagreenan? God knows when.

MEATH PILGRIMAGE TO LOURDES

This pilgrimage will take place from Sept 12th to Sept 17th and will be led by Bishop Michael Smith. The fare is seven hundred and forty-nine euros (€749) for full board and travel taxes (single supplement one hundred and eighty euros. To book a place contact the presbytery at 0419827384. Sick and infirm pilgrims are able to travel with volunteer helpers as has been the case since 1948. This is also a special year in Lourdes as the apparitions of our lady to St Bernadette began on 11th of February 1848.

WORLD MEETING OF FAMILIES

Application forms are available, in the star of the sea church Mornington, tofill in if one would like to attend the world meeting of families. One needsto fill in a registration form to get a ticket(s). Tickets are €40 each. This excludes the bus fare. Families can attend the Meath diocesan day on August 22nd (2018); also, the festival of families in Croke Park on August 25th and final Mass in the Phoenix Park on August 26th. Forms are available in the church. Tickets are subject to availability.

THE PINNACLE OF EUPHEMISM

On reading an advert recently in the local press I found that the more that

it was perused the more tired the reader became. The salient points were that its “only” forty miles to Dublin airport and “only” three miles from the M-50 and a stone’s throw from the Blackrock beach, (Dundalk) a “hens race” to the local creche. It went on that shopping was a “doddle” as there are two big towns at arm’s length namely Drogheda and Dundalk.

Now I don’t want fancy driving to the airport where one has to run the gauntlet of a sea of humanity. As regards the M-50 with tailbacks the order of the day, forget it. As regards creches, if a working couple have two or three children or even only one. Creches eat up a huge percentage of a couple’s income. There are many people who have no choice. Some of these people can take two to three hours traveling to and from work. It can be seven or eight o’clock in the evening when the offspring are picked up. Exhaustion must be a factor. They would need to recharge their batteries over the weekend to enable them to be ready for next weeks slog, consequently, their beach visits would be rare enough.

As regards shopping being a “doddle”. As far as shopping is concerned it is now a bigger problem. Whilst parking places for shoppers are being taken up by business people since the parking charges were put into abeyance until legalities are put in place. Now this can be a bit short-sighted as the business people are taking up spaces that should be available to shoppers. Now it is appreciated that some shoppers have already gone out of town shops, but now more will give their custom to these retail parks.