I am standing in for Ann tonight, as all her family have gone down to Kinsale to see Orla, Ann has Joseph and his Australian girl friend Jemma with her, they both will be going back to Australia at the end on this month, so it’s the only opportunity for Joseph to meet up with his sister Orla for a few days.

Pastoral Council Members:
The Sunday Mass yesterday was conducted by the Pastoral Council Members, the only role that Father McCarthy played was the Homily, and the blessing of the Eucharist, the rest of the service was conducted by us lay ministers, as you know for the last two years we have held a prayer service every Wednesday, with very few attending from the Community for one reason or another, you could say in preparation for the not so distant future of having a priest within our community, as vocations are becoming very scarce, and also should that our priest be ill or for one reason or another, this exercise in its humblest form has never been done before, it was to show people, that there are ways through the lay people within the community to protect our church in the event of not having a priest. We have had no feed back as to how the congregation reacted to yesterday’s service, I hope favourably. We are all responsible in one way or another to protect our faith and Church. This service was a one off for the moment, but we hope for the year 2010, perhaps under Father John’s guidance we could perhaps do this once a month, which could encourage more readers, or the present ministers of the Eucharist to join the pastoral group. Father McCarthy retires in June next year, we are fortunate to have a priest to replace him, for how long I do not know, therefore its imperative for us lay people to do as much work as possible to safe guard our faith and the church

Christening:
After mass yesterday there was the Christening of Little Annie Martina Mahon, daughter to Michael & Yvonne Mahon, sister to Liam and Eoghan, so congratulations to the Mahon’s, and for sure little Annie will have a great and healthy life. Oh by the way, Father Mc McCarthy officiated the baptismal service, we lay people have not got that far yet.

Polish Chris and Isabella:
I just want to wish good luck to two of our polish people that have been here in Roundstone for the last three years, Chris who worked for Sean Burke and his wife Isabella, who has been working in O’Dowd’s, they are leaving for Poland at the end of the week with their two children Olige and Eva, Isabella is retuning to complete her teaching Masters, I must they certainly interacted very well within the community, so bon voyage and good luck for the future.

This week there have and to come a lot of birthdays coming up, Neil McKay has his birthday tomorrow, Deidre and Brid King have their birthdays today, yesterday master Kelan McDonagh reached his 3rd birthday, Kelan to his glee had a visit from Bob the Builder, then there is Agnes de Courcey reaching her 90th on Saturday, which will be celebrated in the Roundstone house Hotel. so it just remains for me to say Happy birthday to all the mentioned troops. There will be quite a lot of entertainment this week. I also have to mention that also next Saturday is the 28th wedding anniversary of Carol & John Sheridan’s, congratulations to you both. Talking about entertainment

The Shamrock Bar:
The shamrock Bar held a Halloween party last night, I have to say some of the costumes were wonderful and very imaginative, the one that was really well thought of was Geraldine Coyness, she dressed up as a mummified Mummy, so clever and scary, her dancing was rangy with all the mummified rags, in fact Geraldine won the prize for the best costume, so clever, a great night all round, so typical of the McDonaghs to arrange for a good night gathering. There are a few photos for you to have a look at on the Roundstone website, should you want too.

Protestant Church:
The work on the Protestant Tower of the church is just about Completed with blue Banger slates, and really well leaded, with a heritage designed sky light window which gives great light, but what’s interesting the heritage powers that be have allowed to have nesting box’s placed at the top of the tower for the chough’s, because for many years now, these birds have been nesting there. I have just found out that the church was built in 1820, so it’s great that there is some restoration going on to this important land mark for Roundstone, and to protect the wild life.

Roundstone Parents Association:
There will be a cake sale in the Shamrock Bar on Sunday 1st November after mass.   All proceeds go towards funding different activities for the kids during the school year, this is a worthy cause.

Well that’s all from me for this week, have a great Halloween next weekend. Anne will be back next Monday with all the news of the various goings on that will happen this coming week