Ballybay Monaghan Ireland

The Monaghan Ladies minor team lost their All Ireland A final to Cork on Monday last. The scoreline certainly did not reflect how close the game was. Monaghan trailed by 3 points ten minutes into the second half when St. Brigid’s Jane Drury was taken down however no penalty was awarded and Cork went up the other end and scored a goal. The seven locals involved Jayne Drury, Michaela Linden, Caoimhe Brennan, Megan Millar (St. Brigid’s), Jane Duffy, Clare Duffy and Emile Culleton (Latton) can all be very proud of the fine year that they have had winning Ulster and reaching the All Ireland A final.

This Saturday 10th August will see the qualifying game of the champion of champions rinks team. This will take place on the bowling green starting at 10-30am and will be played to a finish. Afterwards there will be a presentation of prizes to the singles, pairs and rinks winners. We are very thankful to Gabriel Traynor for sponsoring the prizes for this competition this year. The winner of the singles is Seamus Smyth with Jockey Gibson and Brendan Mc Gahey winning the pairs. They will all go forward to the final in Enniskillen on Saturday 7th September. The final of the local league is due to take place next week with Derryvalley playing Corcaghan for the Jackie Rutledge cup. Tonight (Thursday) will see Corcaghan play St. Michael’s of Cootehill in the outdoor cup quarter final. The Town Tournament got underway during the week with a few qualifying games between Paul Carragher and Darren Smyth and Murnanes taking on last year’s winners the Soda Barrell.

To facilitate priests covering Sunday messes between parishes during the summer holiday time it is necessary to make adjustment to the Sunday Mass schedule on two upcoming Sundays. It will mean the cancellation of the 9-30am Sunday Mass in Tullycorbet on Sunday 25th August and the cancelation of the 11am Sunday Mass in Ballintra on Sunday 8th September.

Gerry Finlay is hosting the annual Kieran Finlay Golf Tournament on 9th September at Wind Watch Golf and country Club, Hauppage, Long Island, New York. Since the annual tournament started the organisers have donated over €15, 000 to Ballybay Pearse Brothers and Ballybay Cancer Society. If you know anyone from the Ballybay area who is living in New York or if you have golfing friends in the Big Apple why not let them know that this tournament is on. As well as the golf there will be a lavish buffet afterwards in the Shandon Court, East Islip, Long Island.

A workshop by Robert Thompson on the identification of damsel and dragonflies will take place in the Wetlands Centre on Thursday 15th August starting at 10am. During this workshop we will look at the features used to identify Ireland’s Dragonfly and Damselfly species, where to find them, and helpful suggestions on identification resources. The morning will consist of a short introduction to the Dragonfly Ireland 2019 – 2024 project, followed by an illustrated talk with particular emphasis on key identification features. In the afternoon we will explore Ballybay Wetlands to practice field skills. This workshop is suitable for beginners and those wishing to refresh their identification skills. The event is being organised by The National Biodiversity Data Centre and Monaghan County Council. If you would like more information on this event check out the County Monaghan Heritage Office facebook page.

A coffee morning in aid of St. Luke’s Hospital Dublin will take place at the home of Clodagh Mc Entee, Knocknamaddy on Saturday 31st August. Tea, coffee and refreshments will be served from 10am until 3pm. Everybody welcome.

Good luck to the local ladies who will be part of the Monaghan minor squad this weekend as they take on Cork in the final. This is the first minor final Monaghan have reached in twenty years. Those involved are Jayne Drury, Michaela Linden, Caoimhe Brennan, Megan Millar (St. Brigid’s), Jane Duffy, Clare Duffy and Emile Culleton (Latton). In the Ulster final they beat Donegal and then Meath in the All Ireland semi-final.

The annual Culture Night will take place on Friday 20th September. Plans for the evening will be available shortly so you may want to keep it free for what should be a lovely evening.

The opening of the Muckno/Ballybay Triathlon club in the park was a huge success and was attended by several hundred people. The committee of the Bowling Club had the green open and we had lots of visitors during the evening so we hope to reap some rewards with some new members. This week sees us play Letterkenny in the Border League of which we are leading by 4 points at the moment.
The Town Tournament is starting this week with Murnanes v Soda Barrell and Darren Smyth’s meeting Paul Carragher. Other games will be arranged in the coming weeks and all games to be played on the bowling green in the Town park.
Tonight Thursday will see the semi final of the local league when St. Michael’s of Cootehill play Derryvalley and Ballybay Maroon take on Corcaghan. These should be two good games and would be well worth a visit.