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Local Lady was Family Legend:-

Mullinahone and the surrounding area was saddened when news broke of the death on Christmas Day in Woodside Nursing Home, Killusty of May Dorney of Mylestown, Cloneen who was formerly May Tobin of Ballydavid, Mullinahone. May was born in Ballydavid in 1919 the eldest daughter of Paddy and Elizabeth Tobin. She was married to Thomas Dorney in St Michaels Church in 1936 at the young age of seventeen. Tommy was from the Lismolin area. He and May went on to have one of the largest families in the area. May and Tommy eventually settled in Mylestown and celebrated their Diamond Jubilee in 1996. Tommy passed away four years ago and May's health declined in the intervening years. She spent the last three years in the loving care of the staff of Woodside Nursing Home in Killusty. One of the guests at her diamond jubilee celebrations was her childhood friend Johanna Sheehan who had also been her bridesmaid in 1936. Johanna was also one of the many mourners at Mays funeral mass in Cloneen Church on Wednesday of last week. May loved life and had a particular interest in music. A tape recorder and a tape of the Wolfe Tones was one of the items displayed before mass to remind mourners of May's life which certainly had its highs and lows, its good times and bad. Nearly all of the important events of her life were involved with May's large family, a number of whom predeceased their mother. Among these was her eldest son Tony who emigrated to Australia and died there at a young age. After her death May's remains reposed in McCarthys Funeral Home, Fethard. From here they were removed to Cloneen Church where they were received by Fr Lambe P.P. Drangan/Cloneen. requiem mass was offered on the following day in Cloneen. Mass was concelebrated by Fr Lambe, Fr McGrath P.P. Mullinahone and Canon Ryan P.P. Killenaule. The lessons were read by two of May's granddaughters and the prayers of the faithful were recited by other members of May's extended family. The local church choir also took part in the funeral service with Michael O'Brien MCC as soloist. After mass May was interred with her husband of 64 years Tommy in the adjoining cemetery. To the members of May's large family and to her extended family we tender our sympathy. We also extend our sympathy to the three youngest members of the Tobin family who are still with us and who reside in Mullinahone, namely Cissy Gayson, Kickham Place; Nelly Bolger, The Square and Michael Tobin who still resides in the family home in Ballydavid. May May's soul rest in peace. She was a representative of an era and a way of life that is fast fading from our memories.

Credit Union:-

Many have admired the 2005 Mullinahone Credit Union Calendar. This years calendar shows a splendid view of the new Credit Union office in Killaghy Street. It is as the calendar says truly a building for the next generation. The photograph used was taken by local photographer Donal O'Brien. The Credit Union itself is now back to normal openings on Thursday and Friday nights from 7.30pm to 9pm. Calendars may be obtained by calling to the credit union office or asking one of the directors.

Quiz Call:-

For almost the last 20 years table quizes have been a feature of the social life of Mullinahone. Prior to that in the 1970's Macra na Feirme and a number of other organisations ran team quizes in Mullinahone and Killamery. One of the top teams of this era was the unlikely trio of Jimmy Brennan (Fethard Street), Nicholas Purcell (do) and the late Jack Sheehan RIP of Ballydavid. Unlike todays quizes where one has at least the comfort of at least ones own team, these quizers had to face the question master on thier own or at best had to avail of a "pass" option. However even this was not the beginning of quizes in Mullinahone. My own memory goes back to March 1959 and a Lourdes Benefit Concert in Mullinahone in "CAhills Hall" which stretched over two nights. I recently came across a programme of this talent marathon and was very interested in the names of the many performers. Part of the concert was a schools quiz between the then five primary schools of the parish; Mullinahone Boys; Mullinahone Girls; Kilvemnon; Poulacapple and Ballydonnell. Each school was represented by three pupils. The question master was the late Cathal McGettigan. I don't remember who was on the bell but I know that the late Dinny Kelly and also Sean Cotter NT were involved. The quiz went off well and there was both a team and an individual competition. In those days "quizes" were question times. The team competition was won by Ballydonnell NS. Their team of all the talents was Noel Cahill (now in Donegal), Pat O'Connor (now in Naas) and John O'Connell (Shangarry). Mullinahone Boys lined out Kevin Keating (Fethard Street), Christy Scott (Killaghy Street) and Jimmy Madden (Fethard Street). I am unable to remember a single member of the Mullinahone Girls team and would love to do so. My thirteen year old mind must have been totally focussed on the quiz. Poulacapple NS was represented by two of the Gardiner girls Ann and Mary I think but again No. 3 escapes me. The Kilvemnon team was Roger Curran, Ricky Sheehan and Mary Williams now to be found around Martins Fruit and Vedge in Clonmel. Perhaps some kind soul might fill in even one of the blanks. The individual quiz went to a play off which went ahead the second night of the concert. Jimmy Madden and Christy Scott provided sterling opposition but in the end the winner had to name six of the seven colours of the rainbow to get all six marks. The colours are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. A cocky Kilvemnon youngster still remembers the gasp this answer brought from Cathal McGettigan. It was to begin a lifelong affair with quizes.

Weather Report:-

In our report of the 2004 weather in the Mullinahone area there were thankfully no tsunami mentioned. In fact floods of any kind were rare. Rainfall fell on 181 of the 366 days as 2004 was a leap year. Heavier rainfall took place on 125 of those days. Overall 850.8mm / 34" of rain fell during the year. This was somewhat less than average though less than the figures for 2003 when 794.1mm / 32" fell on 174 days. December contributed 55.4mm of rain though it rained on 20 days. In comparison rain fell on 21 days in October but this time the total was 158.6mm making October the wettest month of the year. The second wettest month was August when 143mm of rain fell on only 15 days. These two months in 2004 were the only months that rainfall was in excess of 100mm. The driest month was July when only 32.5mm of rain fell on 15 days. The second wettest month was May with 39.2mm of rainfall on 7 days. During May we even had an official drought (a period of 15 consecutive days without rainfall) from May 9th to 26th. This was of course the longest completely dry spell of the year. Of course it also put strain on the validity of the old weather saying which states "a wet and windy May fills the haggards with corn and hay". the second longest dry spell lasted only 8 days and took place from September 2nd to 9th. At the other end of the scale October 28th was the wettest day of the year when 43.1mm of rain fell. The previous day 29.6mm of rain fell making a total of 72.7mm over two days. Earlier in the year we had two other days of heavy rainfall August 11th (35.3mm) and March 11th (34.4mm). One could say that these two dates took the silver and bronze medals for wet days. October 28th was the single wettest day locally since August 3rd 1997 when 82.2mm of rain fell. To put matters in perspective when "HurricaneCharlie" arrived on August 25th 1986 49.2mm of rainfall bucketed down locally.

Local Lotto:-

The last local lotto draw took place on the Monday before Christmas December 20th. The winning numbers were 7, 12, 16 and 24. There were no jackpot winners (happily for the organisers who took a pre-Christmas battering) but we had plenty of match 3 winners. Congratulations to all. A draw also took place for Christmas turkey and ham vouchers. The lotto draw resumed on Tuesday January 3rd and the jackpot on January 10th is expected to be EU1300. Once again if you are not in you cannot win.

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